Previous Next

The head hung limply on the newspapers, the curly black hair dragging about in blood. He whacked harder, but the head would not come off. . . . He saw a hatchet. Yes! That would do it. . . .

This extremely disturbing passage from the end of Book One describes Bigger’s brutal disposal of Mary’s body after he accidentally smothers her to death. He tries to stuff the body in the furnace, but the head will not fit, so he is forced to decapitate Mary in order to fit her corpse into the fire. The grisliness of this passage is intentional, and important to the novel: Wright does not want to portray Bigger as a passive victim of a situation beyond his control. He spares no gruesome detail, depicting Bigger’s excited, racing mind and the gory work of dismembering Mary. Though there are extenuating social and personal circumstances surrounding Mary’s death, Wright does not want to portray Bigger as heroic for having killed her. Furthermore, he wants to emphasize that Bigger’s mindset is one of such pain and rage that he is more than capable of committing such brutality. Bigger is a victim of racism, and the worst part of his victimization is not that he is forced to kill Mary but that he has been transformed into a person capable of furious violence, one who even craves such violence. Showing Bigger hacking apart Mary’s corpse, Wright indelibly reminds us that Bigger is not morally pure. Rather, racism has destroyed Bigger’s innocence by awakening terrible capabilities within him—capabilities that later enable him to kill Bessie as well.

Previous section Important Quotes Explained Page 1 Next section Important Quotes Explained Page 3

Popular pages: Native Son

Take a Study Break