David Bradley wrote in The New York Times that, in his first reading of the novel, while he strongly disliked the work, "It wasn't that Bigger failed as a character, exactly" as Bradley knew of the author's intentions to make Bigger unlikeable, but Bradley felt the author did not succeed in making Bigger symbolize ordinary black men.[35] Upon reading an edition of the book with an introduction, Bradley stated "Suddenly I realized that many readers of Native Son had seen Bigger Thomas as a symbol".[35] Upon researching other writings from the author Bradley interpreted Bigger as Wright's autobiographical view of himself, and Bradley changed his own view to see the work as a tragedy despite Wright initially not meaning for this.[35]
Clyde Taylor, an associate professor of English at Tufts University, criticized Bradley's view, claiming that the analysis failed to perceive how the work "disrupted the accommodation to racism through polite conventions in American social discourse".[36]
