rotagonist of The Chosen is Bigger Thomas. He is from the lowest rung of the American social ladder of Depression-era Chicago: he is black, and he is poor. He has been trapped his whole life by the white society, and he has a burning, eternal hate for them. White people made him live the life he lived. By not letting him become anything but a servant, they led him to a life of crime and hate. For so long, too long, the whites saw every black the same. They were all bad and dirty and awful people. In turn, Bigger saw all whites as being bad. To him, every white man is out to hurt him. He returns the racist attitude presented to him by all of the white folk. He does not know how else to act. He only does what he knows how to do. He follows the white man’s example. Bigger proves, though, that he can change. He is willing to learn and to change. He proves that he can be taught, that he is not just an ignorant Negro. Jan Erlone and Boris Max helped him to see this. They encouraged Bigger to fight and to believe in himself as a human. Bigger begins to see that “whiteness” is really individual people, and racial conflicts aren’t simply “whiteness” vs. “blackness.” He gives Max more of a chance than a whole society gave him. Everyone automatically assumed that Bigger raped and murdered Mary; their minds never were really open to anything else. Bigger opened his mind. He gave white folk a chance. Max treated him like a man, a person, and Bigger was grateful for that and he let Max know that by talking to him. If only the white folk could have realized that they needed to give him a chance. Had they treated him like a human being then maybe he would have told them all they wanted to know. Bigger let Max see that the mind of a killer isn’t always the bad one. The mind of the society that wouldn’t give him the chance he gave them was the real killer.4. (B) Bigg...
