I feel sympathy and very little else for the unfortunate Bigger. When you are tossed head first into a hostile world, the natural fight-or-flight instinct kicks in. For most of the Blacks (including Bigger in Book 1), it is the flight reaction. Avoid contact with whites, pretty much bow your head and avoid pissing them off. This remains the same for the majority in Book 2, but Bigger kills Mary, and upon his reflection of the events, the “flight” instinct switches to “fight”. You could call this his fatal mistake, but he is lashing out, expressing the anger that has built up in him and in all blacks. For the first time in his life, he feels superior to the white society. It’s hard to blame someone who has been oppressed his entire life for wanting some small piece of revenge. He desperately wants to preserve that feeling of power. Bigger feels that taking advantage of his accidental murder is a justified, even a noble thing to do. His views may be slightly skewed, but overall his mission is good. You could argue that he was being selfish by smothering a woman, burning her body, writing a ransom note, and smashing his girlfriend to death with a brick, and you might be right. But if you read between the lines, it becomes clear that Bigger Thomas is a hero, taking a stand for the black community, and valiantly becoming a martyr for his noble cause.