As we read Native Son, we talked a lot about how Bigger's environment and the way he was brought up shaped his actions and beliefs. He was reactive rather than proactive and as the book went on we were supposed to feel sorry for him. I felt bad for him with all the stuff with Jan and Mary, and then when he killed her, but then after that he just grew tiresome. Especially when it came to Bessie.
Throughout the book, we see all different aspects of Bigger's personality and the way he reacts in different situations, but we don't get to see that much of Bessie's. We know that she has to work long grueling hours for little pay and that to get over it, she drinks, but we don't see anything of how she got there. What happened to her family and how was she raised are good questions that would shed light on Bessie, but we never get that.
She is used as an object by multiple people when she is just used as evidence for Mary's murder and even by Bigger himself when he says, "You have to have a girl, so I had Bessie"(352). He didn't love or hate her, but just used her as an object. In order to save himself, he killed her like he was lessening a load he had to carry. He dragged Bessie into his mess because he wanted to have someone with him, but then he wanted her dead because she became a liability and made him vulnerable. Other evidence for him objectifying her is the scene after he kills Mary when he goes to her house we see the unspoken agreement that he had with Bessie where "he would give her liquor and she would give him herself"(139). When she was alive nobody really cared for her and then when she died, nobody mourned her. While in the beginning we can feel sorry for Bigger as the book goes on the person who we should feel sorry for the most is Bessie.
