LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Notes of a Native Son, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. Baldwin’s father died in 1943, a few hours before his last child was born. After his father’s funeral, which took place on Baldwin’s birthday, a race riot broke out in Harlem.
In the essay Notes of a Native Son, Baldwin talks about his father and about his death which took place in 1943. Baldwin talks about his father, a man who was born while his parents were still slaves. Baldwin also notes that his father had troubles connecting with his children who were scared of the man.
I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am, also, much more than that. So are we all. Better known for works such as Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son (published 2 years later in 1955) is an important collection of essays which highlights issues Baldwin would continue to address.
As the protagonist and main character of Native Son, Bigger is the focus of the novel and the embodiment of its main theme—the effect of racism on the psychological state of its black victims. As a twenty-year-old black man cramped in a South Side apartment with his family, Bigger has lived a life defined by the fear and anger he feels toward whites for as long as he can remember.