Compare Bigger Thomas, the protagonist of Native Son, to the unnamed protagonist and narrator of Invisible Man
             It was observed by Socrates that 'an unexamined life is not worth living.' If that is true, then Bigger Thomas' tragedy of Richard Wright's novel of the African-American 20th century experience is that of a tragedy of an unexamined life. Thomas begins the novel as a chauffeur, working in an occupation where he can see the lives of rich white people, but cannot dream of living such a lifestyle. He lives in fear of whites, and accidentally smothers Mary, the daughter of his employer, and conceals his crime, when he is trying to prevent the drunken girl from awakening anyone, and cause him to be accused of rape.
             Only at the end of the novel, when talking to a white communist defense lawyer, does Bigger gain a sense of how poorly he has been treated as an African-American throughout his existence. Bigger is a largely passive character, and the moral center of his family is clearly his mother, not Bigger. Even the young girl he accidentally killed, Mary, exploited him in a well-meaning fashion, as she asked Bigger to take her boyfriend and herself to Harlem to listen to jazz and eat soul food, an action that both disgusted and terrified Bigger.
             In contrast, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man lives an all too examined life. His narrator is painfully aware of how racism limits his circumstances. He too has been treated in a patronizing fashion by whites-but not by people who want to 'act black,' but by whites that are supposedly are trying to improve his race through education. At one point, in the presence of a white man, a trustee of the all-black university he attends, he accidentally stumbles into a nightclub, but the disgust, fear, and shame he feels during the event is not simply because of the actions of the trustee, but also because of the behavior of his fellow African-Americans. The...