In Conflict With Self
...nsequences if they were caught robbing a white man. Instead of Bigger backing down and being in agreement with his friends. He teases his friends about being scared, even though he is scared himself. Bigger saw the world in black and white. He thought of the white people as the oppressor. White people were the oppressors of his life, future and destiny. Bigger believed that white people had control over his freedom. The only jobs open for Bigger is working for white people. His conflict with himself and believing that he could not achieve anything had an effect on the way that Bigger progressed in his work. Bigger was hired as a chauffer for a white couple, the Daltons. Mrs. Dalton also plays a key part in Bigger’s “conflict with self.” During the first meeting with Mrs. Dalton, Bigger feels that she wants him to be someone that he isn’t. Mrs. Dalton asks Bigger several questions about his education. Bigger sees a resemblance in her and his mother in the way that the two women treat him. These two women impose their desires on Bigger’s life. Bigger did not want to go to school. He has other plans but he is not able to articulate them because he is not sure what they are himself. Bigger felt like very uncomfortable. Bigger’s fear caused him to murder the Dalton’s daughter, Mary. Mary tried to be extremely nice and understanding of Bigger and his background. Mary defied her parents by having Bigger take her to a restaurant in his neighborhood. Mary asked him many questions about his life, and seemed to be too nice. Bigger felt that Mary and her boyfriend, Jan, were treating him wrong. After having long conversations with both, Jan and Mary, Bigger feels extremely uncomfortable because racial boundaries were crossed. He reacts very rude to Mary, but he assumes the role he has always seen blacks assume when around wealthy and powerful whites. Bigger takes Mary back home. Mary is drunk and Bigger begins to touch her and kiss her as he lays her in the bed. Mrs. Dalton walks in and Bigger panics in fear and accidentally smothers Mary to death out of fear that she might reveal what had just occurred. Bigger lets fear and hatred overcome. Bigger demonstrates clearly that he was suffering from self-deception and was in deep conflict with “self.” Bigger starts to identify himself as a murderer, which is again used to hide from the flaws that he sees in himself. Bigger contemplates his crime and becomes filled with a sense of invincibility. After these murders, he feels that he has created a new life for himself. He convinces himself that Mary’s death was not accidental, but was something that he had done deliberately. This attitude causes him to murder his girlfriend and feel no remorse. In response to early childhood experiences we develop various inner emotional responses in an effort to maintain our feelings of security, self-worth, power and freedom. These then grow in their own separate ways, manifesting as parts of our personality that have their own personal beliefs, logic and identity and power. We might call these roles "personas," or "sub-personalities." Wright shows that racism has destroyed Bigger and his innocence. In most cases, however, these personas are created by our needs to establish our safety and self-worth, usually through other persons or possessions. This is the cause of Bigger becoming a murderer. As the novel progresses, Bigger identifies himself as a murderer. That is his “self”. Bigger has no problem with this because all his life he was determined to find his “self.” Bigger’s society created this person filled with hatred and rage. Bigger was so preoccupied with what the “white person would let him be” that he became just that and was content. As readers, we cannot be too critical on what Bigger’s “self” was whether it he became a strong compassionate person or in this case a hateful murderer. Readers have to be empathetic to the fact that Bigger was in...