Society is culpable for what happened at the end of Book One.

I believe that society is culpable for what happened at the end of Book One: Fear. In the up and coming American society that this plot takes place blacks are considered the minority whilst whites are dominate. Society has revolved around the idea that blacks need to obey whites. Communists such as Jan and members of wealthy families such as Mary hold responsibility for the death of Mary. Mary and Jan have a concrete mindset that by asking Bigger to keep their secrets, take them to a black restaurant, and address them by their first name defines the idea of “friendship”. However, in reality these “majorities” are trying to be the idealistic human; to not differentiate one based on their race… this is where the downfall occurs. These “majorities” refer to blacks as “your people” this shows no individuality, Jan and Mary are showing no recognition for what Bigger wants. They put him in dangerous situations: they have him sitting in between two white people, they go against Mr.Dalton, and eventually they leave him to deal with the daughter of his employer, Mary in a drunken state. The way Jan and Mary act however is not by choice, but how they were taught. Bigger feels that he cannot defy what the whites lead him in to doing. If society had not built up the idea that blacks were a minority and had to obey to the whites wishes then Bigger would not have been afraid to go against Mary’s wishes. He would have gone with his conscience and done what he believed was right. All along Bigger’s instincts knew what was happening was bad, if he was considered equal in society and did not fear the consequences of telling a white person no, evidently what had happened at the end of Book One would have been avoided.