From driving Mary to meet Jan through Mary’s death
and the end of Book One
Summary
He saw a hatchet. Yes! That would do
it.
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Stepping into the car, Mary informs Bigger that she is
not going to the university, but instead has other plans that she
does not want to reveal to her parents. Bigger agrees to keep Mary’s
activities a secret and guesses correctly that she plans to meet
with some communists. Bigger grows increasingly anxious. He senses
that Mary speaks to him as a human, an attitude he has never before
encountered from a white person. Despite the freedom he feels with
her, Bigger cannot forget that she is part of the world of people
who tell him what he can and cannot do.
Mary introduces Bigger to her friend and lover, Jan Erlone, whom
Bigger also recognizes from the newsreel. Jan confounds Bigger by
shaking his hand and insisting that Bigger call him by his first name.
Bigger thinks Mary and Jan are secretly making fun of him. He becomes
infuriated because Mary and Jan make him intensely aware of his
black skin—something he feels is a “badge of shame.” Their attention
makes him feel naked and ashamed, and he feels a “dumb, cold, and
inarticulate hate” for them.
Jan insists on driving. Mary squeezes into the front
seat beside Bigger, who feels surrounded by “two vast white looming
walls.” Bigger also intensely feels his physical proximity to a
rich white girl, the smell of her hair, and the pressure of her
thigh against his. Jan looks out at the city skyline and declares
that “we” will own everything one day and that eventually there
will be no black or white. Mary and Jan insist on eating at a black
restaurant on the South Side. When pressed for a suggestion, Bigger
offers Ernie’s Kitchen Shack. As they drive to the restaurant, Mary
looks at the apartment buildings in the black district and wistfully
tells Bigger that she wants to know how black people live. She has
never been inside a black household, but thinks their lives must
not be so different—after all, “[t]hey’re human.
. . . They live in our country . . . [i]n the same city with us.
. . .”
Mary and Jan insist that Bigger eat with them—a gesture
that horrifies Bigger. They persist, however, so he angrily agrees.
Mary begins to cry, sensing that she and Jan have made Bigger feel
bad. Bigger feels trapped. He tries to think of what he would say
to Mr. Dalton or the welfare agency if he were to walk off the job,
but knows he cannot explain it. Jan comforts Mary and her tears
are quickly forgotten as they go into the restaurant. Inside, Bigger encounters
his girlfriend, Bessie, and his friend, Jack. When Bessie tries
to talk to him, Bigger responds gruffly.
Jan, Mary, and Bigger eat dinner and then drink rum together. After
a few drinks, Jan and Mary question Bigger about his history. He
tells them that he grew up in Mississippi and that his father died in
a riot. When Jan asks how he feels about his father’s death, Bigger tells
him that he does not know. Jan tells Bigger that the communists are
fighting against this kind of injustice. Mary insists that she and Jan
want to be Bigger’s friends, and that he will get used to them. Bigger
does not reply. Before they leave the restaurant, Mary tells Bigger
she is going to Detroit at nine o’clock the next morning and that
he should bring her small trunk to the station at eight-thirty.
Bigger drives Jan and Mary around the park while
they make out in the back seat. The two have become thoroughly drunk
by the time Bigger drops Jan off. Before he leaves, Jan gives Bigger
some communist pamphlets to read. Mary, riding in the front seat
next to Bigger, tries to engage in a conversation with him. She
leans her head on his shoulder and asks him if he does not mind.
She laughs, and again Bigger feels she is making fun of him. He
again feels overcome by fear and hatred.
