Bigger has been in jail for three days. Since his arrest, he has stopped speaking, eating, or drinking. No one has tried to visit him, and he has managed to bury the horrors of the two murders in the back of his mind. Killing Mary had been an accident, but it had thrust him into a situation in which he had felt like his life and choices were meaningful, “having accepted the moral guilt and responsibility for that murder because it had made him feel free for the first time in his life” (316). Now that this freedom is over, he just wants to rest. He is afraid of dying, wishing in vain for a new life in which he could “live so intensely that the dread of being black and unequal would be forgotten” (317). He wonders if those who hated him for his skin had been correct—if he were always fated for such a terrible end.

One morning, Bigger is hauled out of his cell and taken to the Cook County Morgue. He is overwhelmed by the crowd of people, the harsh lights, and the continuous flash bulbs of cameras. He feels the stares from the white faces around him.