Chicago's Jim Crow laws in the 1930s created a system of segregation that barred African Americans from restaurants, water fountains, and even to the toilets that “belonged” to white people. In this context, Richard Wright places his novel, Native Son, with one of the most monstrous characters ever to emerge from the oppressive Jim Crow system, Bigger Thomas. Whites used the Jim Crow system to force African Americans, like Bigger Thomas, into socioeconomic positions of inferiority. The socio-economic conditions of Jim Crow also blunted the opportunities of African Americans compared to white citizens, showing how an environment of oppression and inferiority controls and oppresses the violent desires of individuals like Bigger Thomas, with threats of violence. The critic Foucault describes the panopticons as follows: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay “Those in authority rule by surveillance, by watching, by evasive cultural observation that causes us to internalize the discipline of surveillance and regulate the police. , ourselves. » Critic Michael Foucault's sense of the panopticon as a system of surveillance can be extended to an analysis of how Jim Crow was used as a form of surveillance to control Chicago's black population in the 1930s. It's here that we are beginning to recognize. Not only does Jim Crow operate in a surveillance society, but it also forces victims, like Bigger Thomas, to control themselves by internalizing feelings of alienation, shame, and inferiority, thus pushing the victim into a state of of dangerous mind. awareness of Jim Crow as a system of internalized surveillance occurs through Bigger's discussion of his recognition of how this very system is used to maintain his position of poverty and inferiority in society, while he looks metaphorically through the knothole in the fence. At the beginning of the novel, Bigger talks to his friend Gus about how he is socially handicapped in society because of his black skin. Oppression and awareness of his inferiority are manifested when he says: “Every time I think about it, I feel like someone is shoving a hot iron down my throat. Damn, look! We live here and they live there. We are black and they are white. They have things and we don't. They do things and we can't. It's like living in prison. Half the time I feel like I'm on the outside of the world, looking through a hole in the fence. (20). His use of the phrase "shove a hot iron down his throat]" signals his internalization of the panopticon, resulting in his constant fear of being watched by white society and forcing him to constantly fear violating the social crows . of Jim Crow. Thus, Bigger's sense of alienation only intensifies when he says that "the white people live in his belly", revealing a deep sense of inferiority and feelings of fear that literally inhabit him. Interestingly, Bigger and his friends internalized not only the fear of offending white society. but also the fear of the consequences of a crime committed against a white individual like Mr. Blum. Not only does Jim Crow, Bigger acknowledges, operate externally as a system, but Wright reveals that it is something that has been internalized in African Americans such as Bigger and Gus, which programs them to be afraid to steal from someone like Mr. Blum because of their fear. racial retribution. A great example of this knowledgeof white society and self-policing one's own actions is when Bigger says, "They had always robbed the blacks." They thought it was easier and safer to rob their own people, because they knew that white police officers never diligently seek out black people who commit crimes against other black people, [and yet they publicly terrorize and shame black people who commit crimes against white people] for months, they had been talking about it. to steal from Blum, but couldn't bring themselves to do it. They felt that Blum's theft would be a violation of the ultimate taboo; to enter a territory where the anger of a foreign white world reigns” (15). Wright reveals the internalization of the panopticon in Bigger self-surveillance through his fear of Mr. Blum. Furthermore, it is important to demonstrate that the man, Blum, they are talking about does not represent an individual but a white society that will want racial retaliation for defying the panopticon or the "white world" (14). The power imbalance between white communities and African Americans reveals that such oppression is necessary to deny any possibility of socio-economic freedom as well as to maintain power over the black community. Another example is when Bigger enters the Dalton house and as he sits in this "white house" (45), Bigger connects this world to what he said earlier about going through the "white house" (45). hole in the barrier” to enter white society. While sitting in the Dalton house, Bigger harbors feelings of distrust that are illustrated when he recounts how “strange objects challenged him” (46) inside this white house. Bigger then feels the realization that this “world would be so completely different from his own that it intimidates him” (45). Now Bigger is no longer looking through the knot hole in the fence, he is metaphorically in the white world. Bigger's fear of this world is used against him when Mr. Dalton reads Bigger's thoughts and reads this fear as a sign of respect. Mr. Dalton is now watching, reading Bigger's body language, and believes Bigger is showing appropriate deference. Bigger then notices how his fear has overwhelmed him and says, "Why was he acting and feeling this way?" He wanted to wave his hand and erase the white man who made him feel this way. Otherwise, he wanted to fade away. He hadn't looked up at Mr. Dalton's face since he got home. There was in him an organic conviction that this was how the whites wanted him to be in their presence” (47-48). Bigger's internalized fear and belief in submitting to the presence of white people further reveals that Mr. Dalton's surveillance of Bigger and self-policing of his own actions further proves the panopticon system under Jim Crow. Finally, the burning of the cross is a representation of the panopticon at the highest level. The Christian cross traditionally symbolizes compassion and sacrifice for a greater good, and this is Reverend Hammond's intention when he gives Bigger a cross while he is in prison. Bigger even begins to see himself as Christ-like, imagining that he sacrifices himself to erase the shame of being black, just as Christ died to erase the sins of the world. Later, however, after Bigger sees the image of a burning cross, he can only associate crosses with the hatred and racism that have paralyzed him throughout his life. He begins to feel betrayed, which is shown when he says, “He felt betrayed. He wanted to tear the cross from his throat and throw it away. [….] he felt the cross touching his chest, like a knife pointed at his heart. His fingers arched to tear it away: it was an evil, black charm that.