Critical reception remains mixed given disparities in the perception of Bigger Thomas: "Is he a helpless victim of his environment? A symbol of the proletariat empowered by violence? Is the incompleteness of Bigger's personality a realistic portrayal or an act of bad faith that succumbs to racist caricature?" Audiences were also split along the divide of race and gender: they were forced to choose between sympathizing with a rapist, or condemn him and ignore that he was a victim of systemic racism.[33] Said Ayana Mathis of The New York Times, "I don't imagine many black people would have embraced such a grotesque portrait of themselves. […] What future, what vision is reflected in such a miserable and incompletely realized creature?"[34]
The novel was intended to educate its audience about the black experience in the ghetto. Thus, its intended audience was (and remains) white people. Baldwin called it a "pamphlet in literary disguise," exaggerating characters with the sole purpose of carrying his message. He went on to say that Wright failed because of his "insistence that it is … categorization alone which is real and which cannot be transcended." Wright exaggerated his characters with the intention of gaining the sympathies of white people, but many of his audiences felt that it perpetuated stereotypes of African Americans with little to no benefit. One of the few successes noted was that the controversial, struggling Bigger Thomas was a strong attack on white people who wanted to be comforted by complacent black characters onstage.
