"At War: Bigger's Id, Ego, and Superego Compete"

1. "He had his hand on the doorknob, waiting, his muscles taut. He had to be careful with his answers now. And yet he knew he had a certain protection; he knew that a certain element of shame would keep Mrs. Dalton from asking him too much and letting him know that she was worried. He was a boy and she was an old woman. He was the hired and she was the hirer. And there was a certain distance to be kept between them" (p. 121).
2. "But of the whole business there was one angle that bothered him; he should have gotten more money out of it; he should have planned it. He had acted too hastily and accidentally. Next time things would be much different; he would plan and arrange so that he would have money enough to keep him a long time" (p. 123).

    Based on the two quotes, Bigger's id is clearly not at work here. He said to himself that he had to be careful and be logical when answering Mrs. Dalton's questions. He admitted in the second quote that he had acted too recklessly when he just killed Mary and did nothing to get money out of it. He is using his head here; his ego is dominating. He could profit from the crime that he committed and the crimes that he will commit later. As for superego, Bigger has no conscience on his shoulder. He now agree that it is okay to lie, to kill, to commit crimes, get away with it, and even benefit from it.

My reaction to the killing of Mary Dalton

I can understand why Bigger killed Mary. He did not have the intention to kill her but the intention to not take responsibility for killing her. When Mrs. Dalton walked into Mary's room, Bigger was panicking--his blood boiled, he did not want to be accused of raping a white woman. Then there is the planning part, he planned on how to hide the facts that he killed Mary by saying that a Communist did it. Jan is a Communist but he's still white; Bigger should reconsider blaming Jan.  Overall, I see a pattern in Bigger's actions from when he smothered Mary to when he came home to sleep it off. Bigger was thinking about how they will electrified him to death with an electric chair if he doesn't do everything he did to protect himself. The whole time, it was fear that made him do the killing, the planning, the burning and the beheading.