Irony of Bigger's Freedom
Per Dan R.
Bigger has lived in a world of fear and hate of white people for all his life. He knows first hand the opression that the black people of chicago and the nation go through everyday, which turns him into a hateful man, and a scared man. After he gets caught and is sitting in jail, his mother's preacher comes in and tells him the story of Creation. While Bigger doesn't listen intently, he still takes some in and it reminds him of his childhood. He realizes that killing Mary was him killing all the hate and fear in him, and on page 264 (I have an older book) "To live, he had created a new world for himself, and for that he was to die." Do you think that killing Mary was Biggers only choice to start a new life for himself? Why?
7 comments:
When Bigger killed Mary, he was not doing it for any particular reason except for that he was again overridden with fear. He did hate Mary and he was never sorry that he killed her, but he did kill her by accident in his fear of the moment. In turn, he did start a new life for himself, but it was not his choice. We're there other ways for him to have made such a change in his life with out killing Mary? I would have to say probably. I'm pretty sure several black men, during their time of oppression, started new lives for themselves without commiting murder.
Bigger killed Mary because he had a pre-formed prejudice toward whites which told him being in Mary's room (even if just to return her since she couldn't walk) would be considered a crime. He may have smothered her accidentally, although it seems difficult to argue that he didn't notice her struggling (even if he was afraid).
But was that his only way to a new life? No. He had dozens of options. He could have worked loyally at the job the Daltons had given him. Had he not been so lazy he could have taken up the offer of higher education. Although Bigger would logically have to consider his family in his decisions, the murder showed he obviously didn't. Thus Bigger could have joined the military--as a cook, or if anyone has heard, as a pilot of the Tuskegee Angels (how ironic that would be). He could have jumped on a Tramp Steamer and seen the world. He could have even held up Blum's and taken off with Bessie. In sort, murder was far from Bigger's best or only option, he just was too blind to see it.
Bigger's fear drove his life. He killed Mary out of fear but the fear had existed long before that. I think because the fear is what drove his life, it was his only choice to start a new life, which I believe was Wright's intention.
I think that, like the other posters mentioned, alot of it was Bigger's fear that made him kill Mary. However, I think that subconsciously, Bigger was trying to rise against white society and start his own revolition, similar to Jan.
In killing Mary, Bigger is able to perform the ultimate form of retaliation towards the white culture that has oppressed him his entire life. Only through her death is he able to feel any sense of power or worth. Because of his ingrained fear of “whiteness” and naturally aggressive nature, it seems unlikely that Bigger would be able to reach any sort of understanding through means other than violence.
I feel Bigger didn't intentionally kill Mary, but after debating it a while turned it into this plan. To him, having killed Mary allowed him a freedom he had never felt before. Therefore, this freedom created a new life for him. A new life where he didn't worry about the restrictions from white people and the society. The life he had dreamed of living was full of obstacles, which he would more than likely not of been able to accomplish, so the killing might of been the only way to him. Obviously there would of been other ways, but this is what worked for him.
Bigger realizes that, while his murder of Mary was not exactly an intentional bid at freedom, he feels over and over again that, through the murder of this white woman, he has achieved a new sort of freedom that he did not have while he played by the rules. While Bigger relishes the the power to create a new life for himself, he never really confronts the nature of the new life: one of fear, paranoia, and ultimately death.
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