Bigger hates Gus, who is holding out on Bigger’s plan to commit a robbery, because Gus’s fear reflects his own. He fears Gus because if Gus agrees to commit the robbery, Bigger “would be compelled to go through with” it.
Native Son – 2
Native Son – 6
When he’s in his apartment with his family, after visiting the Dalton’s home, Wright writes about Bigger, “He hated this room and all the people in it, including himself.” This may help to explain why he hated Gus, whose fear reminded him of himself. Bigger also thinks to himself that he and his family might be forced to live this way because they’d never “done anything, right or wrong, that mattered much.” Conservatives might agree with this opinion. Liberals might believe the inverse of Bigger’s thought, that his family had never done anything that matteredĀ becauseĀ they lived in stultifying conditions.