Sight and blindness are pervading symbols in Richard Wright's NATIVE SON (1940): many people are portrayed as figuratively blind, but it is Mrs. Dalton's literal blindness that most clearly represents the failure of white people to see beyond stereotypes of black people. Her blindness also allows Bigger to murder her daughter, Mary, undetected: in a vicious circle that carries metaphorical implications, her inability to see Bigger leads him to enact the very stereotypes that enrage him.