Blog#4

1. Find a news story from last 2 years that exemplifies a situation

that Bigger faced.

2. Include the link.

3. Explain the connection in a thorough paragraph.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2011/12/10/INC81LA6B5.DTL
Mumia Abu-Jamal was convicted for shooting a white cop on duty. He was tried and put on death row. After several appeals, the court change the sentence to life imprisonment without parole. The article said four eyewitnesses testified against Abu-Jamal because he is black. Therefore, Abu-Jamal also face racism like Bigger. Bigger was accused of being a rapist because he killed a white girl. Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death because of the idea that a black man killed a white cop and there was no witness to testify for him. The cop's wife approved of the death sentence of Abu-Jamal because he is black. If the murderer of her husband is white, she might not even campaign insisting on the death sentence. She might just wept.

Blog#3

What is your reaction to Book 2 ending? 
It's quite sad to imagine that Bigger is caught. It's obvious  that Bigger would be treated like an animal if he was caught. It does not surprise me to see "Lynch 'him!" and "That black sonofabitch!" 


Most poignant quote and why? 
They had him by his legs again and were dragging him down a hall...then they started down the stairs with him, his head bumping along the steps. He folded his wet arms about his head to save himself, but soon the steps had pounded his elbows and arms so hard that all of his strength left...He shut his eyes and tried to lose consciousness. But he still felt it, drumming like a hammer in his brain." (p. 253)
The sight of someone being dragged down the stairs by his feet is a painful sight. He's too powerless to resist and they took advantage of this to treat him horribly.


Why are the 3 books title this way? They are the stages that Bigger went through. The reason for Bigger to committed murder, fear. Then he had to run away, flight. After he got caught, he had to accept his fate as a black murderer--death.