Reading Native Son (continued)

His plan is to throw blame on Jan and hope that Mary’s parents will be more suspicious of the communist man than the black man, so he takes the trunk to the station like nothing has happened. He also takes Mary’s purse and all the money in her wallet and then returns home. In the morning, he realizes that he has to get rid of the purse before his family wakes up, and after dumping it, he heads off to work.

Useful vocabulary to describe Bigger’s presence in Mary’s room:

• Imprudent- Incautious, unwise
• Trepidation - Fear
• Timorous - Cowardly, fearful
• Precarious - Risky
• Dubious - Doubtful

When Bigger arrives at the Dalton’s, Peggy is staring into the furnace and his heart stops. She sees nothing, however, and he relaxes. Later that morning, Mrs. Dalton asks Bigger about Mary, and he tells her that Jan called Mary the night before. Bigger continues to check the furnace to make sure that nothing is visible and tries to maintain a calm exterior.

Mary never arrives to pick up her trunk in Detroit, and the Daltons call in a private investigator who questions Bigger. He adds a little more of the story for the investigator - that he never took Mary to the university, she went out with Jan, and told him not to tell.

Bigger feels so confident about his story and the way that he has blamed Jan that he decides to try to get more money from the Daltons by writing a ransom note. He signs it “Red” in order to make Jan look guilty. It works, and Jan is brought in for questioning. Jan tells the police the truth and looks to Bigger to confirm it - but Bigger sticks to his own story, Jan is stunned by his betrayal. Mr. Dalton calls the media to make a statement about the ransom note. At the same time that Mr. Dalton is surrounded by reporters, Peggy asks Bigger to clean out the furnace - which is right in front of them!

As Bigger starts to empty the furnace, a huge cloud of smoke draws the attention of the reporters and suddenly - you guessed it- body parts are visible, including an earring that didn’t burn and falls to the floor. Bigger backs out of the room as they all stare, and because he is not a super criminal, he runs.

Bigger flees to Bessie’s to figure out what to do, and she immediately launches into a lecture about how they are all going to believe that he not only killed Mary, but that he burned her body to hide the fact that he raped her as well. Bigger gets angry. Unable to control his emotions, anger, fear and desperation bubbling over, he rapes Bessie, then kills her and throws her body down a shaft.

Bigger hides out in the building on the south side, but the police continue to close in on his location. Finally, he hears sirens outside and is caught on the roof, trying to escape.