Reading Native Son (continued)

Bigger’s first job is to drive Mary to the university that night, but when Mary gets into the car she quickly tells him that this was just a cover story to get out of the house. Mary has been secretly seeing her boyfriend Jan Erlone, a member of the communist party.  She instructs Bigger to pick up Jan and then things get very weird for Bigger. The two young white people, very close to his own age, treat him as an equal and speak to him like he is a human being –and he hates it! This is something he has never experienced, and it makes him feel awkward and tense and that in turn makes him feel angry because he is so out of his element.

Useful vocabulary to describe Bigger’s anger:

• Exacerbate - Make worse
• Ignominy - Shame
• Livid - Very angry
• Odious - Hateful
• Animosity - Hatred

Jan and Mary want Bigger to show them his world - take them to a restaurant that he would go to for dinner. Well, Bigger would rather stick hot needles in his eyes, but he feels powerless to refuse. He takes them to Ernie’s, a place that normally only serves black customers, and there is the inevitable needle skip on the record when they walk in.

Bigger’s humiliation rolls off him in waves as he tries to avoid the eyes of anyone he knows. It is only made worse when Jan and Mary force him to sit and eat with them. (Let’s see, what could make this worse? His girlfriend could arrive. Cue Bessie!) Bigger’s girlfriend comes over to the table, and Bigger is unable to do anything but stare at his plate. The only thing that helps is the rum, and eventually all three of them are quite drunk.

Bigger drives Jan and Mary around for awhile as they make out in the backseat and then drops Jan off, but not before Jan presses some communist reading material into his hand. Back at the Dalton’s home, Mary can’t get up the stairs without help. Bigger must carry her to her bedroom. (Danger! Danger Bigger Thomas!) In Mary’s room, Bigger lays her on her bed and is so drawn to her he kisses her.

He is then startled by Mrs. Dalton’ s sudden entrance. He knows that she can’t see him, but he is afraid that Mary might say something that will reveal his presence in the room. He panics, looking around for any way to prevent Mary from speaking. Just being in her room means not just losing the job, but possible incarceration as well. So how to keep Mary quiet? He unthinkingly grabs a pillow and places it over her face. She struggles at first, but eventually she quiets down – when she runs out of oxygen.

This does solve one problem for Bigger. Mrs. Dalton leaves the room unaware that Bigger was in her daughter’s bedroom and that he has just killed her daughter in front of her. That just leaves the dead body to deal with. Luckily, Mary was scheduled to leave on a trip the following day, and her trunk looks very convenient to Bigger. He slides Mary’s body in and carries the trunk downstairs with the idea of putting it in the car; on the way, he passes the furnace. He stuffs her body in the furnace, but her head won’t fit, and he must cut it off.