Blog 12 (two responses) Final Blog!!! Make it good!!!

Comment on the last scene in the novel between Bigger and Max, pp. 388-392. What is Bigger trying to describe to Max?  Does Max understand?  If not, will he ever understand?  Will anyone understand? Do you, as a reader, understand?

Blog 11 (one response)

What is the significance of the two contrary images of the cross described on pp. 312-313?  How does Bigger's throwing away of the cross given to him by the preacher represent rebellion?  What is Bigger rebelling against?

Blog 10 (2 responses)

What is the significance of Buckley trying to pin other crimes on Bigger?  What other ironies (see methods of drama) begin to surface throughout Bigger's conversation with Buckley pp. 279-288.

Blog 9 (1 response)

"Passively, he hungered for another orbit between two poles that would catch him up with the tension of hate and love" (256). 

Explain what you believe this line means?  What is the space the Bigger longs to be taken to?  What situations, characters, symbols, and/or actions also represent this space--in the middle--between love and hate? 

Think about your Love and Hate I-Chart section that asks you to think about love and hate as unstable emotions.

Blog 8 (2 responses) pp. 217-247

How is Bigger's "treatment" of Bessie in this section of the novel similar to his treatment of Gus in the poolhall?  What parallels do you see between this willful act with Bessie and the accidental act with Mary?

Blog 7 (1 response) pp.187-216

Analyze one of the following symbols in this section of the novel. Look deeply into who interacts with this symbol and what its larger meaning represents.

The stairs (see ladders on symbol sheet)
The furnace room 
The snow (see symbol sheet)
The bones (see symbol sheet)
The cat (see symbol sheet) think about its connection to the rat at the beginning of the story.
The camera flashes referred to as "lightning" (see symbol sheet for lightning)