This passage shows how Bigger hides from his fear to keep it from destroying him. He says what affects him is if he let himself “feel to its fulness how they lived, the shame and misery of their lives”. This means there are many aspects causing this fear. One is the white community. He is considered lower than them because of his race. Bigger fears the white authority and the way they have power over him. He also mentions that the fear is caused by “how they lived”. He recognizes that they live in poverty, and they’re unhappy. Regarding his family, he holds “toward them an attitude of iron reserve...And toward himself he was even more exacting.” His only defense against his fear is denial to himself and others. If he fakes confidence, acts tough, and pretends he’s not afraid, it will hold off the emotions that threaten to bite him from his mind.…show more content… Dalton, he can no longer act as himself. These demons control him. He says he would “swept out of himself with fear and despair” if he thought about the way he lived. The word choice shows how his fear overpowers him as he knows and predicted when he says he would “either kill himself or someone else”, they cause him to kill Mary. He did not kill her out of hate, but out of this fear borne from a life under the manipulation of the white community. When these emotions build up, they come out through his fists. Bigger feels that if he doesn’t face his fear, it will not affect him. He mentions “a wall, a curtain”. It is from behind these that he acts. On the other side lies his fear. The wall shows that he actively fights against it; he keeps it from coming near him. A curtain, however, is not strong. It cannot protect him in the same way a wall can. The curtain’s purpose is simply to hide the fear. As this quote predicts, there are many incidents later where Bigger hides from his fear and moments where it takes control of
