From Fear to Strength pgs. 83-87

Bigger dropped Jan off at the train station and takes Mary home by then she s already drunk. He carries her up the back stairs so she wouldn't make any noise. He finds her room and starts touching on her as he puts her on the bed. In walks Mary's mother. Bigger in shock could only think about not getting caught in the room. He holds his hand over her face so she could make no sound or respond to her mother calling her name. Meanwhile Mary is suffocating under Bigger's tight grip. She gasps and motions for air and Bigger place a pillow over her face, as he mother gets closer. Mary claws at at Bigger's hand wanting release. A few seconds later she finally loosens her hands "dead". Bigger tip toes around her mother and out of the dark room escaping and leaving the scene only to return later for a horrible cover up. The mother smells a whiff of rum on her dead daughter and begins to pray next to her bed.


ANALYSIS...
Richard Wright wrote this section in book one to show the dangers and fears of racial empowerment. Also to show how a man gains strength from committing a crime. He thinks of himself as inferior to his equals because they rob only people of their own kind and he killed a woman of another race.