Although Native Son is a book of imagination and intrigue, symbolism gives the reader a striking reflection of segregated America. There are three main colors seen in the book that symbolize a point. The color yellow, as in the yellow sun, symbolizes the point of fear. The color red symbolizes Communism and their party. Also the color blue symbolizes the weather and white America in Native Son. Symbolism, a profound aspect of Native Son, gives the reader a cohesive understanding of the social-economic stratification of segregated America. .
As in real life, yellow for example a yield light, gives a sign of fear. During the book, the color symbolism of yellow is used often. For example, at the beginning of Book One: Fear, Richard Wright states, "The rat scuttled across the floor and stopped again at the box and searched quickly for the hole; then it reared once more and bared long yellow fangs, piping shrilly, belly quivering". In this example, the rat is shown as fear towards Bigger Thomas as he tries and succeeds to leap and bite Bigger on his pant-leg tearing the flesh from his leg. If you were to add the symbolism of the fear, it would state, "The rat scuttled across the floor and stopped again at the box and searched quickly for the hole; then it reared once more and bared long fear fangs, piping shrilly, belly quivering".
The color "RED" symbolizes the Communists. For example, while Jan the Communist is being dropped off after going out with Bigger Thomas and Ms. Dalton during the first book of Fear, Jan gives some pamphlets to Bigger Thomas. These pamphlets were concealed with the marking "RED" that was supposes to help Bigger Thomas later in life, though Bigger Thomas does not really pay any attention to the pamphlets. Later though in Book Three Fate, officers that are persecuting Bigger Thomas ask Jan a question, "But you told that Negro to read those Communist pamphlets didn't you?" This statement agrees that Red is a symbol of Communism.
