ed by his family, who loves him but is equally
powerless, his friend Jan (who is also incapable of providing any
realistic help), by white members of the community that seek to help him
out of a sense of social justice (or guilt), and by the criminal justice
system. He becomes defined as a man who is outside the bounds of society,
and Wright insists that we see that this was always a possibility. As a
black in a racist society, he was always somewhat less than fully human.
By the end of the novel he has become wholly other, as we see in his
description of the murder that he has committed:
"I didn't want to kill," Bigger shouted. "But what I killed
for, I am! It must've been pretty deep in me to make me kill! I
must have felt it awful hard to murder.... What I killed for
must've been good!" Bigger's voice was full of frenzied anguish.
"It must have been good! When a man kills, it's for something...
I didn't know I was really alive in this world until I felt
things hard enough to kill for 'em. It's the truth.
For Bigger, the only possible way for him to fulfill his potential is to
become what his enemies (and in large measure the entirety of white
society is his enemy) fears that he already is. The opening scene of the
novel presages the course of his life. As he traps and kills a rat so in
turn he will be hunted, trapped, condemned:
A huge black rat squealed and leaped at Bigger's trouser-
leg and snagged it with his teeth, hanging on.
"Goddamn!" Bigger whispered fiercely, whirling and kicking
our his leg with al the strength of his body. The force of his
movement shook the rat loose and it sailed through the air and
struck a wall. Instantly it rolled over and leaped again. Bigger
...