39 pages • 1 hour read
Big Black Good Man
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Literary Devices
Point of View
Wright tells the story from a limited third-person point of view. Third-person narration uses “he” and “she” pronouns, while third-person limited narration gives the reader complete access to the thoughts and feeling of just one character. In “Big, Black, Good Man,” the reader is confined to the mind of Olaf Jensen and is able to see, hear, and understand only what Olaf sees.
Wright’s choice to use this point of view means that the reader can readily believe that Jim is threatening Olaf in some way and prevents the reader from having any knowledge that counters Olaf’s over-the-top reactions to Jim’s actions. Like Olaf, the reader is forced to draw conclusions about Jim based on Jim’s actions and words.
Situational Irony
Situational irony is an unexpected outcome that defies expectations based on previous events. The end of the story—Olaf receiving a generous gift rather than being murdered by Jim—is an example of situational irony. The irony in this situation emerges from the limited third-person narration, which causes the reader to be able to read events only from Olaf's perspective until the end.
Olaf interprets Jim's every gesture in both his first and second encounter as threatening violence, so the reader, caught up in the ambiguity of these moments, is led to believe that Jim means to harm Olaf. Because of Olaf's fearfulness, the overall mood of the story is tense, and violence always seems on the verge of breaking out up until the moment Jim reveals the shirts. Instead of violent confrontation in which Olaf defends himself by shooting Jim, the story ends with a love match between Jim and Lena and an act of generosity from Jim to Olaf.
Psychological Realism
Psychological realism is in evidence when a writer tells a story through the lens of the thoughts, feelings, and interior states of a character or characters instead of engaging in narration that assumes an objective reality to which one or more characters have access.
In the story, the reader is given deep access to Olaf's fear, anger, humiliation, shame, and relief. Few actions actually happen in the story, so most of the text consists of these descriptions of what Olaf is thinking and feeling. This way of telling a story is realistic if one believes that there is no escaping the way people's individual perspectives shape what we perceive as reality.
The reader can surmise that Jim apprehends an entirely different reality based on his actions. Jim sees Olaf as a good man and, even after a year, brings the shirts as a gesture of thanks to Olaf because of Olaf's treatment of him. All the while, Olaf thinks of Jim as an evil man and sees him through the lens of deeply racist stereotypes.
Wright’s use of psychological realism can be read as either deeply pessimistic or optimistic in terms of hopes for racial reconciliation. The pessimistic interpretation is that whites and African Americans can experience the same events in very different ways, so there is little hope for understanding and great potential for violence. The optimistic interpretation arises from the fact that Olaf is at the end able to recognize Jim as a compassionate and generous man; such acts may be the salvation of relations between the races.
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By Richard Wright
