Question 5
RICHARD WRIGHT: Native Son
Examine Mrs. Dalton’s blindness as a metaphor for race relations in the novel.
Observation
A good number of candidates attempted this question. However, many of them gave mere narrations of Mrs. Dalton’s encounter with Bigger and the incidence leading to Mary Dalton’s death rather than focusing on the question asked
The following points should be well developed by the candidates:
• The literal and metaphorical blindness of Mrs. Dalton.
• Metaphorical blindness of other characters.
• The Daltons’ ‘generosity to the blacks’.
• Jan and the communists’ attitudes to the blacks.
Candidates' performance in this question was poor.