Bigger's Guilt In A Few Good Men

Confined. Bigger was confined by four white walls of oppression with no possibility of escape. Bigger, taught to fear the white man and avoid the white woman, knows nothing else. However, when confronted by his number one adversary, Mary, she treats him with kindness. Mary represents white society, the same society whose sole desire is to destroy Bigger. For the first time in his life, a white person acted as if Bigger was human, and ultimately Mary’s simple act of kindness killed her. Bigger was so unaccustomed to kindness, that he reacted like an animal. When put into a stressful situation the human body resorts to animalistic behavior and has two options: to fight the stressor, or to flee from it. But, since Bigger’s white box of oppression
Specifically, both include guilt within their arguments. Max attempts to show the guilt of society-- that it is not solely Bigger’s crime, but society’s crime. Bigger was “excluded from, and unassimilated in [the white man’s] society” (367). He was created by a fractured society. Society deserves as much blame for the death of the two women as Bigger does. Buckley also applies guilt but in a different manner. Using guilt to display how Bigger is entirely responsible for his crime he portrays Bigger as a “cunning beast” (372), showing that his actions were thought out. Buckley bases his arguments on the idea that Bigger knew what he was doing. Thus he suggests that Bigger deserves full blame for his crime, as he was aware of his actions. Both Max and Buckley also play on the humanity of the audience to try and sway their opinions. Max attempts to highlight that Bigger has been stripped of all humanity and had been robbed of life before he even had the chance to live. However, Buckley, plays on the sympathies for the Dalton family and explains why a murder cannot go unpunished. This allows him to win the court case, but he did not have the superior argument. Max’s speech contained stronger support systems as well as a stronger appeal to