Baby's first Essay

1930’s America is a society greatly divided. White opposed Blacks, Rich opposed Poor, Democratic Capitalists opposed Liberal Communists; all in turmoil of thought, action and direction for the native land of Wright’s novel. America is the picture of chaos, and such chaos often begets a confused culture. Ones color, wealth, and political beliefs determine the amount of opportunity afforded a person.
Bigger’s bold choice to murder Mary is made in a snap and is wrought with fear, blindness, and ignorance. Bigger is motivated by underlying social pressures. He feels as though his situation is devoid of choice. These negative influences of society affect all of the characters in Bigger’s life. Gus and Bigger “reckon [they] are the only things in [the] city that can’t go where [they] want to go or do what [they] want to do.” (p. 21) Jan and his comrades are thrown in jail for their attempt to break the cast system. Even his mother carried “in her heart … a heavy and delicately balanced burden whose weight she did not want to assume by disturbing in on whit.” (p.108) .
In Bigger’s case, he is in a decidedly unfortunate position: He has neither white skin, nor wealth, nor any definitive political views (p.52) to save him. The societal pressures of a world shouting to the blacks “YOU CAN’T WIN” (p. 13) consumes Bigger. Bigger is given no choice when confronted with the blind and groping Mrs. Dalton, intruding on his space with her “attitude of intense listening.” (p. 60) Bigger “had to stop [Mary] from mumbling, or he would be caught.”
The murder is a murder of fate. Society has grown a hate in Bigger so powerful that it spills out of him. Bigger develops a hatred for the whites that lives in the pit of his stomach. (p. 21) A hatred that leads Bigger to feel as though he will “do something [he] can’t help.” (p. 22)
Bigger shows the reader no intention of the heinous events, showing no premeditation leading to the murder. The narrator shows us Bigger’s desire for premeditation, “… the whole of the business there was one angle that bothered him; he should have gotten more money out of it; he should have planned it” (p. 129) The murder is not perfect planning, meticulous execution, or even preconceived desire, it is a killing of circumstance.
Mary does no justice to herself by exciting within Bigger his hatred for her free spirit. When she is open and friendly with him, he is most on his guard and hates her acutely. Mary made Bigger feel as though “he was riding a seesaw; never were they on a common level.” (p. 72) When Mary and Bigger are riding towards the diner, he has an urge to blot out the car and everyone in it because “these people made him feel things he did not want to feel” (p. 68) Mary, “the little bitch,” may ruin Bigger’s chances of avoiding a life of “stillness, an isolation, meaninglessness” (p. 108)
Bigger murders Mary out of fear and fate, two strong forces brought on by an encumbrance of a world so confused and full of hate. The murder leads Bigger to a true understanding of the meaning of life, “a meaning which others did not see and which he always tried to hide.” (p. 106)
Bigger may not have premeditated an attack on Mary, Mary may not have caused him to take her life, but the American people constructed such a social dichotomy, putting miles between the ill-fated characters and causing their ultimate ruin.