for Bigger’s death. They painfully take on Bigger’s
fear, guilt and hatred with anger and resentment.
Even after Bigger is jailed for Mary’s murder, The
Daltons still fail to see him as human. “’Bigger,
you’re a foolish boy if you don’t tell who was in
this thing with you,’” Mr. Dalton said” (Native
Son 339). Their blindness of negroes is their inferiority. Their being physically threatened by the
“Big Bad Niggers” of the world is their disconnect
with this part of humanity.
“Being Bigger” is realizing that racism
undercuts the common theme of all humanity—
that we are all, regardless of ethnicity, seeking the
same happiness out of our lives. James Baldwin
argues, “. . . most of them (the underprivileged of
all races) care nothing whatever about race. They
want only their proper place in the sun and the
right to be left alone, like any other citizen of the
republic. We may all breathe more easily” (27).
My own inner Bigger was nurtured
through example. I saw and admired those great
men who were hated, feared and professionally
reprimanded to the point that it became useless
to their 7WW&