At the beginning of book one I had some sympathy for Bigger. You can't control where you come from or what situation you are born into. However, after learning more about him I lost most of that sympathy. It was clear that he was not trying to get out of where he was in by choosing crime over finding a job. Then in book two, he he tried to blame Mary's murder on Jan. This made me lose all sympathy for him. I understand why he acted the way he did after he killed Mary, but later he chose to try and pass him problems on to someone else.