I do understand, or at least I think I do understand, that so many aspects of this book and of the characterization of Bigger Thomas are problematic.
Baldwin considered the main character as stereotypical, and that's sadly an undisputable fact. He also wrote about him being unsympathetic. Again, I agree, but could he have been otherwise?
He also wrote about Bigger Thomas as being unrealistic. And here I disagree. I know nothing about the lives of a black youth in Chicago at the time, but I did not doubt the verisimilitude of Bigger's living conditions with his family, his uneasiness being transported into the reality of a wealthy white family, his dubiousness of their intentions, a crime committed out of panic, and the selfish fight to save his own life, arguably the only thing he was ever in possession of. And if someone like me still finds an account like this realistic, there's probably still a lot of work to do.
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