The Trouble With Bigger Thomas



Chei, Bigger Thomas
how you died--
roasted on the electric chair!

How I wish you had earned your first salary
before you got into trouble!
Neither you nor your mother
and siblings enjoyed your first pay.

Just the first day at work
and you got entangled in Mary Dalton's web of disaster.

See Mary!
See Bigger!
See Mary !
See trouble!

Mary Dalton and Jan led you as a lamb to the  slaughter
to
your doom.

Your mother
Missed you
Your brother, Buddy and sister, Vera missed you.

Your friends--Gus, Jack and GH
missed you.

Come Bigger,
but, why didn't you announce to the Daltons that Mary was drunk;
at least you could have saved yourself!

But, Bigger, you are a criminal;
why did you murder Bessie?
I was pained by her death.
She gave you warm milk;
you drank her milk
and slept with her
and then murdered her!
Chei!
Ingratitude.

But, Bigger, why did you demand for ransom after killing Mary?

About this poem

Bigger Thomas is the main character in Richard Wright's famous novel, Native Son. Bigger, a black boy, murders Mary Dalton, a white girl, by accident, and is executed. The novel is set in the USA in the 40's

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Written on August 26, 2023

Submitted by Chinonyeisraeluche on August 26, 2023

59 sec read
5

Quick analysis:

Scheme xax bcdx xd BdBc dex dEe fE dxf cbxggddxa b
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 902
Words 195
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 3, 4, 2, 4, 3, 3, 2, 3, 9, 1

Israel Chinonye Uche

 · 1957 · Aba

Date of Birth: 18/9/57 Nigerian; Igbo BA(Hons) 1982,Theatre Arts, University of Calabar; PGDE, 1987,University of Nigeria, Nssuka Secondary School teacher( retired). Author and publisher more…

All Israel Chinonye Uche poems | Israel Chinonye Uche Books

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    Who wrote the poem ״Invictus״?
    A Oscar Wilde
    B Sylvia Plath
    C Thomas Hardy
    D William Ernest Henley