In the beginning of Book I I sympathized for Bigger because he was living a difficult life with his family in a run down building in a place where white people were "far superior" to balck people like him. Then I found out that he wouldn't do anything to help his family, he refused to get a good job, he hung out with a gang that got into all kinds of trouble, and he stole from his neighbors. At the middle of Book I I stopped feeling sorry for him anymore for those reasons. Now that I have read Book II the way I feel about Bigger is the same because I think Bigger is responcible for Mary's death and could have avoided it (as explained in the first post) but I think he is a lot smarter than portrayed in the first book. This is because he is now scheming all of the possibilities of how to handle the situations he is faced with. When he is first asked questions by the Daltons he goes through every version of every story that he can come up with in his head before he choses the one that best suits the events, the Daltons' reactions, and his needs. He gives them someone they dislike that stands for something they hate as the suspect to take attention away from him.