SECTION F: NON - AFRICAN PROSE RICHARD WRIGHT: Native Son How does the media respond to the disappearance of Mary Dalton in the novel?

Answer Details

The response of the media to the disappearance of Mary Dalton is one of the most powerful episodes in Richard Wright's Native Son, for it shows how the press inflames racial fear and hunts Bigger Thomas down as much as the police do.

Sensational and racist coverage. Once Mary Dalton, the wealthy white daughter of Bigger's employer, vanishes, the newspapers seize on the story with enormous, lurid attention. When it becomes clear that a black chauffeur is involved, the coverage turns openly racist. The press portrays Bigger not as a man but as a savage, a "black ape" and a beast, describing him in dehumanising, animal terms that play on and stoke white readers' deepest fears.

Assumption of the worst. Even before the full facts are known, and even before Mary's body is found, the media assume rape as well as murder. The white newspapers take it for granted that a black man in the presence of a white woman must have assaulted her, and they trumpet this assumption as though it were established fact. This reflects the racist logic of the society Wright is exposing.

Driving the manhunt and mob feeling. The press coverage whips up public hysteria. The papers help to mobilise thousands of police and a furious white mob, turning the search for Bigger into a citywide frenzy. The media thus become an active instrument of persecution, spreading panic and demanding vengeance, so that Bigger is condemned in the newspapers long before any trial.

Exploiting the story. The reporters are shown as intrusive and opportunistic, crowding the Dalton house and later the courtroom, hungry for a sensation that will sell papers regardless of the truth or of Bigger's humanity.

Thematic significance. Through the media's response Wright dramatises how a racist society constructs the black man as a monster. The newspapers do not report reality; they manufacture a terrifying image that justifies Bigger's destruction, illustrating the novel's argument that Bigger is in large part the creation of white fear.

Conclusion. The media respond to Mary's disappearance with sensational, racist and prejudged coverage that dehumanises Bigger, assumes rape and murder, and incites a mob. Far from neutral, the press becomes a force of persecution, exposing the racism at the heart of the society Wright indicts.