In a one-room tenement apartment in the South Side of Chicago, an alarm clock wakes the Thomas family in the dark hours of the morning. Bigger Thomas, a twenty-year-old Black man, rises reluctantly as his mother urges him and his two siblings, Buddy and Vera, to get out of bed. The two brothers look away so Vera and their mother can dress, and Vera and Mrs. Thomas do the same for Bigger and Buddy. Suddenly, amid this process, the two women scream and leap onto the bed to escape a rat. They cling to each other and yell for Bigger to catch it. The terrified rat fights back and after a brief but intense chase, Bigger kills it with a frying pan. The family marvels at the size of the animal. He teases his frightened sister with the rat’s body before taking it outside. When Bigger returns, his mother chastises him for causing Vera to faint. Furious, she says, “Bigger, sometimes I wonder why I birthed you” (6). Turning away, Bigger replies, “Maybe you oughtn’t’ve. Maybe you ought to left me where I was” (6).

Mrs. Thomas accuses, “We wouldn’t have to live in this garbage dump if you had any manhood in you” (7), complaining that Bigger refuses to take a job.