Previous
Mood
Definition of Motif
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the central themes of a book... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of related symbols, help develop the... read full definition
A motif is an element or idea that recurs throughout a work of literature. Motifs, which are often collections of... read full definition
Motifs
Explanation and Analysis—Brrrrrriiiiiiiinnnnnng!:
Each of the novel's three sections begin with Bigger awakening for a new day. The first sentence of each of the three books show Bigger's deteriorating mental and physical state as he moves closer to his demise over time, forming a motif over the course of the entire novel.
Motifs
Explanation and Analysis—Slanting Across His Chin:
Bigger, as well as other characters, smoke cigarettes regularly in the novel. It is usually not a major plot element, except perhaps for when Bigger reveals to his friends in the soda fountain in Book 1 that he has come into a lot of money and buys them all packs of cigarettes. He does not tell them, of course, that he has stolen the money from Mary's purse after killing her. Cigarettes, as a whole, seem to be grounding for Bigger: no matter what happens to him or where he finds himself, a cigarette is always the same. Wright shows the depths of Bigger's depression and despondence when he refuses cigarettes from Max in his prison cell in Book 3. Wright has a particular way to describe the act of smoking on multiple occasions, every time using the phrase "cigarette slanting across his chin." The repetition is so complete and intentional that it becomes a motif.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Book 2
Explanation and Analysis—The Head:
Bigger, through much of Book 2, obsesses over Mary's death and the scene of her murder. But the particular object of that obsession is, more often than not, her head and face. This is the most gruesome part of the murder, and of all of Bigger's terrible crimes in the book, this act is the one that horrifies him most as he does it: "Could he do it? He had to. Would there be blood? Oh lord!" Eventually, he brings himself to do it, and becomes resigned; the moment becomes morbidly beautiful: "Wistfully, he gazed at the edge of the blade resting on white skin; the gleaming metal reflected the tremulous fury of the coals." After the murder, with its climax in the decapitation, the object of Mary's head becomes a crucial center of imagination, especially for Bigger, in the remainder of the book.
Unlock with LitCharts A+
Related Themes:
