Bigger's "Toughness"
In the beginning of book one, Bigger presents himself as a tough young man who knows how to handle whatever is thrown at him; howver, we see this as a shell of toughness which is only cover of his true fears. This is proven when he fights Gus to show how strong he is we see that he’s really only fighting to deflect attention away from the truth that he is very fearful and weaker than they think. His fear comes out again when Bigger goes to meet Mr. Dalton. His demeanor changes entirely from being tough but hiding his fear to completely surrendering himself to saying “yessuh” in answer to everything Mr. Dalton asks of him. Why does he all of a sudden change his behavior in the presence of Mr. Dalton? Why in particular is Bigger even more afraid of Mary Dalton?
12 comments:
Bigger is fear of everything which can hurt him. He tried to hide his fear by toughness toward his peer or anyone who is weaker than him. In presence of Mr. Dalton, he knows that he is weaker than him and knows that he has to follow Dalton's order in order to be in life of easiness. He fear of Mary because she is opposite from Bigger who are afraid of anything new or big. Mary does not afraid of new things and is not fear of anything.
Bigger acts differently in the presence of Mr. Dalton, because society has taught him to do so. To survive in a prejudiced America, African Americans needed to change who they were. Bigger's submissiveness is an example of this changing. This is also apparent when he cannot bring himself to call Jan by his first name.
Bigger feels uncomfortable in the presence of white people, as he has been trained to feel less intelligent and important than them. I think he acts strangely with Mary Dalton because she treats him more like an equal, which he is not used to from a white woman. It's hard for him to gage whether she is mocking him, and how he should act in response to her.
I think that it is the cultural standard of the time to see that there is no space between white and black individuals to just be people. People only looked at race and that was the defining characteristic. The opening scene between Mr. Dalton and Bigger when Mary comes in is a perfect example. He has no reason to be that submissive but alas he falls into that trap. Maybe if he was more honest with himself the murder of Mary would have never happened.
Bigger constantly puts on a face that says he isn't scared of anything. But we, as readers know exactly what is actually going on inside his head. From knowing how he actually feels, we can see that he is actually scared of anything that could harm him in anyway. Most of all, he is scared of the white man and anything that has to do with white men. He expresses fear whenever confronted with experiencing white people. Walking through a white neighborhood, robbing a white man, being interviewed by a white man, fired by a white man, etc. Anytime he is placed in a situation with a white man he will be frightened. He is more afraid of Mary Dalton because she isn't afraid of him or intimidated by the fact that he is black like many other white women were in his eyes.
I think he changes his behavior because of the overwhelming influence and fear instilled by white people. Even if he thinks he knows how to handle himself among his own people being in a white person's house is a completely different environment.
I agree with many of the previous comments. Bigger knows his place and isn't going to do anything in front of Mr. Dalton that would undermine his authority. Just like women were accustomed to being inferior to men, as a black man Bigger is accustomed to being inferior to white men. If he were to show that he didn't know his place there would be severe consequences
Bigger acts deferentially toward Mr. Dalton because he thinks that is what is expected of him. However I’m not so sure that’s the attitude the Daltons desire from him. The example of his predecessor, whom they put through night-school, demonstrates to me that they want educated, capable men not regardless or race, but in spite of race. I think it is more of Bigger’s perception of what is expected than what actually is (the Daltons, after all, are a somewhat unusual case for Bigger). I think Mary most drastically demonstrates the attitude of equality that the Daltons are experimenting with. And therefore Mary is a threat to Bigger, because she throws off his stereotype of the white female, and forces him to act differently (perhaps as himself, which would reveal his thug-like nature). The greatest crime to me is how Bigger repays Mary and Jan for their kindness and attitudes; he stabs at the people that are at his side, and for that reason he will never rise to anything bigger than he is…
I agree with Seija is right in that Bigger is trained to feel less intelligent and that Mary treats him equal in comparison to other white people. His toughness is a shell in the sense that his body size, rather his visual appearance, gives him strength and he shows he can fight, but inside Bigger feels he has no power over white people because of the time period. I think this is why Bigger is shy, yet excited, when attempting to make lover to Mary. I also think he kills Mrs. Dalton and feels reborn the next morning because he broke out of the shell of fearing white people.
The underlying reason for Bigger's fear is that as a black man in this time period he has little experience relating to whites. He has been raised to view white people as this superior race and it's this mentality that is the foundation of his fear. Things are only made more uncomfortable once Bigger realizes that Mary is not the typical white woman he expected.
I also believe weakness can be seen in the act of killing Mary. A tough character would have kept thier composure through a dangerous situation, but Bigger panics. Furthermore, he breaks down emotionally after he has killed her, showing that he is definetely not "tough enough" to handle the situation he has created.
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