LIT 326 Native Son Notes Week 6.pdf - Week 6 Notes p. 272 -...

Week 6 Notes p. 272 - 327 (Digital Version)
● Max asks Bigger if he trusts him and Bigger looked away and felt Max was making it
difficult for him to tell him to leave
● Every white man considers it his duty to make a black man keep his distance Max said ;
he doesn’t know why most of the time but he acts that way ; it's the way things are Max
said
● Bigger kept saying that Max can’t help him at all
● Bigger knew Max was trying to make him feel that he accepted the way he looked at
things and made him aka Bigger feel self conscious
● Bigger feared he might walk into another trap
● Max offered Bigger a cig; max lit Biggers and then his own ; they smoked
● Bigger felt sorry for the white man and saw max was afraid that he would not talk at all
and he had no desire to hurt Max
● Bigger said he doesn’t care what he says or does now
● Bigger said maybe he does care but he said the Daltons hate black folks
● Max points out saying doesn’t bigger know the daltons hate others too ; trade unions;
folks who try to organize ; they hate Jan
● Bigger said they hate black folks more than they hate unions and Max says yeah but the
color makes it easy to segregate and exploit but they do it to others to and they hate Max
because he’s trying to help Bigger and they’re writing him letters calling him a dirty jew
● Max questions if Bigger told the truth on his confession and Bigger sighed when asked
why he did it
● Max asked how it happened and Bigger said it just happened and Bigger asked what’s the
use of being sorry as it won’t help none
● Max asked if there’s any reason why he did it and Bigger felt a wave of excitement and
thought he could reach out to solid reasons why he murdered
● Max asked Bigger if he raped Mary and Bigger said no but he was drunk and she was
drunk and people will say otherwise cause he’s black and bigger says black men do that
so it doesn’t matter
● Max asks if Bigger liked her and Bigger leaped to his feet and his eyes widened and
hands lifted midway to his face trembling saying he hated her and he shouted he hated
her ; he hated Mary even though she’s dead
● Max grabbed him and pushed him back into the chair
● Bigger says he’s not sorry she’s dead ; Max questions why as he just met her for a couple
hours ; Bigger said he knows Mary didn’t do anything to him but she acted and talked in
a way that made him hate her ; made him feel like a dog ; Bigger was so mad he wanted
to cry ; Bigger saw an image of his little sister Vera sitting on the edge of a chair crying
because he had shamed her by “looking” at her ; he saw her rise and fling her shoe at him
and Bigger shook his head confused

● Bigger said Mary wanted him to tell her how Negroes lived and got into the front seat of
the car where he was
● Max says Bigger doesn’t hate people for that and that Mary was being kind to him
● Bigger said Mary wasn’t kind to him
● Max said she accepted him as another human being
● Bigger said what Max said isn’t kind at all and he didn’t know anything about Mary but
he knew that they aka the white world kills negroes for women like her and they live
apart and he said how she came and acted like so and so to him
● Max said Bigger should’ve tried to understood how Mary was only acting toward him as
she knew how to
● Bigger said he was only acting as he knew as she was rich and how her kind own the
earth and how Mary and her kind say black folks are dogs not letting them do nothing but