"Bigger understood every word; and he seemed not to react to the words, but to the judge's face. He did not move; he stood looking up into the judge's white face, his eyes not blinking... he lay on the cot and something deep down in him said, It's over now. . . It's all over. . . ." (Bigger's reaction when the judge sentenced him to death, 417)
When the judge sentenced Bigger to his death, aftering hearing both the arguments from Max and Buckley, he and the jury decided upon Bigger's fate in about an hour or so; which in my opinion, a judgement made much too soon. It's Bigger's listless reaction to this that piqued my interest as to why he acted the way he did. Throughout the entire book Bigger was the guy living on the edge with all of the situations he got himself into, including: the fight with Gus, the murder of Mary, the ransom note, the rape and murder of Bessie, and running from the police. Yet when this part of the book appears, Bigger puts up no resistance to the fate that has been cast upon him; as if he already knew how his life would end.
The fate of Bigger, I believe, connects with the identity he has in Chicago and throughout the entire nation of the white America. Why? Bigger has been living in opression his entire life that not only cut off his relationship with the white folks of Chicago, but his own race as well. Bigger did not live in any other sort of lifestyle than the oppressive one; that is, until he met Max that truly changed how Bigger viewed himself and the world around him. Indeed, Bigger's death was a cruel one, but I think that Richard Wright chose the fate he did for Bigger because he wanted the reader to understand Bigger's interior motives for what he has done and how America deals with him, even though the white politicans, policemen, and the rest know they are responsible because of the hate they themselves have toward blacks. Max sums it up best when he describes how much of an impact Bigger really has made.
"My plea is for more than one man one people. Perhaps it is in a manner fortunate that the defendent has committed one of the darkest crimes in our memory; for if we can encompass the life of this man and find out what has happened to him, if we can understand how subtly and yet strongly his life and fate are linked to ours-if we can do this, perhaps we shall find the key to our future, that rare vantage point upon which every man and woman in this nation can stand and view how inextricably our hopes and fears of today create the exultation and doom of tomorrow." (382)
