of Rats and Bigger

Being chased with a frying pan while you attempt to survive isn’t a life lived by many people, but it is a great metaphor for what life is like for Bigger and the people he lives with. We already discussed how like the rat, Bigger is just trying to survive and is being attacked for doing just that, but who are the others in the room and how do they fit into the metaphor being created? What is the Rat’s setting and actions be related towards what Bigger is experiencing?
    Let us think about what the Rat’s life is like before his appointment with cast iron. The Rat has been living like Bigger for almost his whole life. The Rat is most likely forced to live in a very small area, in addition, Bigger has also been forced to live in a small apartment with his family due to artificial housing shortages, but there is plenty of space for both in Chicago. Also, why would the Rat steal food from a poor family? It’s like how Bigger has only robbed from other blacks.
    We know that Bigger takes out the rodent which we’ve figured out represents Bigger, so who is Bigger and how does his sister fit into the story? Bigger in this situation represents the people who are attacking Bigger, Britten and Buckley. Once Bigger kills the Rat he waves it in front of his sister to scare her. While she doesn’t get angry she does feel threatened and scared even though she knew that there were Rats living with her. Vera is a great metaphor for the public that has been whipped into a mob to kill and get rid of the Rat, Bigger.
    What seemed like a crazy start to a book turned into a pretty simple metaphor which was much deeper than we thought. Almost every character had a part in the metaphor that summarizes the whole story. I wonder how other parts of this opening scene can relate to other parts of the book.


Comments

  1. Tue DoSeptember 4, 2018 at 8:52 AM

    Great post! I never had thought about how Vera fits into the rat metaphor, and I think you're very correct in your classification of them. I only wonder if it's because we want to fit the rat scene with the rest of the novel that we start to warp the way we think about the book. For example, I can't really think of a good role for Buddy or the mother in the novel. I think you'd have to stretch your thinking a little to come up with accurate comparisons, and at that point it's pointless. Only something to think about though.

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    Replies
    1. SJSeptember 7, 2018 at 7:10 AM

      I feel as though our reason for wanting to connect this scene of the rat with the rest of the book is because of its gruesome imagery, as well of that being our first introduction to bigger and the rest of his family. It seems unlikely that this image of a family freaking out over a dead rat, beaten, and bloody was the first scene of this book for no reason. Or maybe we really are just reading to deep into it, who knows?

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  2. Aidan GarrettSeptember 13, 2018 at 9:24 PM

    This is a really interesting post. We talked a little in class about how the rat scene mirrors the rest of the book, including the end of book 2 where Bigger is backed into a corner just like the rat was. However, I like how much farther you go in this, especially when you compare Vera to the mob.

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