tion with respect to Mary and Jan. He could never assume a position of equality with them on his own initiative. He does not have the social power and authority to choose to ignore the racist atmosphere. Mary and Jan, as part of the empowered white majority, can authorize this. It is one thing for them to imagine that they are Bigger's friends, but it is entirely different for Bigger to do so. Without their "permission," Bigger couldn't call them by their first names or shake their hands. Bigger would fear them less if they obeyed social taboos. He cannot understand their unorthodox behavior at all; they are not human individuals for Bigger, but representatives of "whiteness," a terrifying, threatening force. The Social Institutions and the blindness of Jan and Mary are two underlining themes of the novel. Blindness is a word that was used often in the book to describe the characters. The blindness of the white society was their “illiteracy” of the black society. This is why Bigger was able to manipulate and think of a plan to get everything he possibly could out of the situation. Though, we learned later on that he was also blind in a way, and that he would be the one that gets all the blame. ...
