English Blogs

5 Comments

1. Bigger and his friends are fooling around, playing as white people. They’re mocking their properness.
2. They discuss a plan to rob a store clerk because all his friends are broke and Bigger has only 26 cents to spend.
3. The store clerk owner is white. They said they were tired of robbing black people because they never have any money.
4. They know where the store clerk, Mr. Blum, hides the money, showing that they had been in the store before and perhaps the robbery was pre-meditated.
5. They have committed other robberies but none of them have been of a white man.

4 questions

1. If the store clerk has a store in their territory, what makes them believe that he would be any richer than them?
2. Where did their stereotype that white people are rich originate from?
3. Will Bigger get the job?
4. Will they rob Mr. Blum?

3 Vocabulary Words

1.
2.
3.

2 Literary Devices

1.
2.

1 Sentence Overview

1. In this series of pages, Bigger and his friends plan to rob a white store owner; they have been fed up with being broke.











5Comments
- Bigger goes to the movies, this is what he spends his last 26 cents for.
- Bigger and his friend Jack go to the movies to watch it.
- They don’t really watch it; they masturbate, thinking things about their girlfriends.
- Bigger recognizes the last name of a lustrous young girl.
- It is his employee’s daughter, Mary Dalton.

4 Questions
- Why wouldn’t he save that money for food for his family?
- When will the conflict between him and his mother end?
- Why are they so afraid of robbing Mr. Blum?
- Do they think the police will be on their trail?

3 Vocabulary Words
-
-
-

2 Literary Devices
-
-

1 Sentence Overview
- In this series of pages, Bigger and his friend go to the movies, and Bigger is introduced to Mary Dalton.






















5Comments
- Bigger waits for the appointment with Mr. Dalton in the apartment.
- He goes to the Daltons house and is unsure of how to get in.
- He feels hostility from the Daltons white maid.
- Mr. Dalton is tall, and has white hair, implying he may be a little on the older side.
- Bigger acts in a way that makes him feel uncomfortable. It feels like he is verbally bowing down to Mr. Dalton?

4 Questions
- Doesn’t he realize that if he robbed Mr. Blum, his job opportunity would no longer be?
- Was the maid looking down at him?
- Why wasn’t he sure whether to go through the front or back door?
- Why does is tone and overall personality change in the presence of Mr. Dalton.

3 Vocabulary Words
-
-
-

2 Literary Devices
-
-

1 Sentence Overview
- Bigger finally gets the interview with Mr. Dalton, meets his wife, the maid. He is very nervous and continues to feel uncomfortable.






















5Comments
- Mary doesn’t go to the University like her parents think she is.
-She is going to meet with some communists.
- Bigger notices that Mary doesn’t talk down to him like other white people. She treats him like he is a human.
- Bigger’s job is to basically drive Mary around where she wants to go.
- Bigger starts to hate Mary and her boyfriend Jan.

4 Questions
- What are the other plans?
- What is a communist?
-Why wouldn’t she just tell her parents?
-Are her parents strict?

3 Vocabulary Words
-
-
-

2 Literary Devices
-
-

1 Sentence Overview
- Bigger gets the job driving Mary around. Mary disobeys her parents and meets her boyfriend which Bigger thinks they are talking about him.

















5Comments
- Mary gets drunk and Bigger takes her upstairs to her room.
- He gets a little too excited and kisses her.
- Mrs. Dalton walks in on him feeling on Mary, she is blind.
- Bigger becomes terrified and puts a pillow over Mary’s head.
- Mrs. Dalton smells alcohol and prays, and walked out of the room.

4 Questions
- Does he not remember she has a boyfriend?
- Will she resist?
- How would she feel if she new that her daughter was dead and she was right their kneeling by her?
- Why wouldn’t Bigger just leave, Mary probably wouldn’t remember in the morning; she would be too drunk.

3 Vocabulary Words
-
-
-

2 Literary Devices
-
-

1 Sentence Overview
- Bigger gets sexual with Mary, forgetting both of their lovers. He accidently kills Mary in the flight of terror.



















5Comments
- Bigger sleeps in the house with the family.
- He wakes up earlier than everyone else and is panicking.
- He realizes he has to hide her purse and her belongings in order to cover up what he had done.
- Bigger starts to feel pride in what he did to Mary.
- He thinks of Mary’s death as an accomplishment.

4 Questions
- Where did the knife come from?
- Why didn’t he just turn himself in?
- I wonder if it were a black girl, would he have turned himself in.
- Why would he feel proud about murdering a young girl?

3 Vocabulary Words
-
-
-

2 Literary Devices
-
-

1 Sentence Overview
- In his chapter, Bigger looks back on the murder he has committed. He starts to feel proud of what he did.




















5Comments
- Bigger hid the body in the furnace.
-Peggy starts to snoop around the furnace.
-Bigger wonders if he will have to kill Peggy too. She does not suspect anything however.
- The family thinks that Mary has gone missing/
- Jan constantly calls for Mary but the family thinks it is in attempt to cover something up.

4 Questions
- Has Bigger become addicted to killing?
- What would’ve happened if Peggy would have seen the body?
-Why would he hide the body in the house?
-How ill he continue to stay in that house knowing what he has done? Has he no conscience?

3 Vocabulary Words
-
-
-

2 Literary Devices
-
-

1 Sentence Overview
- Bigger feels pride in the killing and is starting to take the killing to whole different levels.


















5Comments
- Bigger breaks up with his girlfriend.
- This gives him a sense of independence in the sense that he is taking his life in his own hands.
- Bigger has gotten overly confident. He feels that he has accomplished a big task.
- Bigger tells on Mary, that she had not gone to the University.
- The family gets worried; the blame is not turned towards him.

4 Questions
- What was the point of him braking up with Bessie?
- Why wasn’t she mentioned in the story?
-What will Bigger do now in terms of relationships?
- How does Bessie feel?

3 Vocabulary Words
-
-
-

2 Literary Devices
-
-

1 Sentence Overview
- Bigger gives a fake alimony to the family in order to stray the blame for her missing away from him.






















5Comments
- The family believed the fake story Bigger made up.
- They bring Jan in the house to interrogate him.
- Jan denies being with Mary but Bigger has already told them the story.
- Bigger makes it look that Mary was kidnapped.
- Bigger slips a fake ransom note under the Dalton’s door.

4 Questions
- Will they ever find the body?
- How did Peggy not see the body when she opened the furnace?
- Will Bigger ever tell what he did?
- What is up with Jan, where did he go in the story?

3 Vocabulary Words
-
-
-

2 Literary Devices
-
-

1 Sentence Overview
- In this series of pages, Bigger elaborates more on the Mary story. Now he makes it look like a kidnapping.

5 Comments
-The Story is introduced to a family who lives in a small room in Chicago.
-There are 4 people sharing one room and they sleep on mats instead of beds.
-The mother insists that the boys turn around while she and the sister Vera dress.
-Then the mother senses a fear, a feeling of sort of Déjà vu, a rat scurries across the room and the mother and Vera hop on the bed while Buddy and Bigger try to kill it with a frying pan.
-Bigger puts the rat in his younger sisters faces and she is so afraid of it that she faints; he gets yelled at by the Mother.

4 solid
-Why did the Mother and Vera make Buddy and Bigger turn their heads while they dressed; were the ashamed?
-Was there any symbolism in the color of the rat being black and not a typical gray?
-How old is Vera or how much younger is she from Bigger?
-Will Bigger get a job like he desires?

3 Vocabulary Words
-
-
-

2 Literary Devices
-
-

1 Sentence Overview
-In this first chapter, it explains that the Family is in deep poverty and explains their living Situations.