Native Son (1986)

John Karlen: Max

Quotes 

• Max : [before the trial of Mary Dalton's murder]  Talk to me, Bigger. You've got to help me defend you. Why did you kill her?

  Bigger Thomas : I didn't plan to kill her.

  Max : Tell me what happened.

  Bigger Thomas : It was an accident! But that don't matter now.

  Max : Did you rape her?

  Max : No, Mr. Max! I didn't. They say black men do that. It don't matter if Ii did or I didn't.

  Max : You know, Bigger, I would've thought you liked her.

  Bigger Thomas : Liked her? I hated her!

  Max : What has she done to you?

  Bigger Thomas : It ain't like she did nothing straight-out. I mean... she asked me a lot of questions. She talked and she acted like she knew me all her life and didn't know a damn thing about me - I hated her!

  Max : No, Bigger, I - I knew her. She was - she was an innocent rich girl who knew absolutely nothing - nothing about the world. She was harmless.

  Bigger Thomas : She never knew a damn thing I said. She wanted me to tell her how Negroes lived. She wanted to sit next to me in the car!

  Max : And you killed her for that?

  Bigger Thomas : Yeah - no! I mean... She made me feel like I had a knife in my gut. I didn't know that girl; all I knew is that they kill us for girls like her.

  Max : Bigger, Mary was acting toward you the only way she knew how.

  Bigger Thomas : And I was acting toward her the only way I knew how! She's just like all the rest of them!

  Max : She was trying to help you.

  Bigger Thomas : She didn't act like it!

  Bigger Thomas : How should she have act it?

  Bigger Thomas : Maybe she was trying to kind... but she didn't act like it. White folks live apart. They smile at you and say 'how you doing?', when they feel good about. That's how white folks act.

  Max : She wasn't white folks; she was Mary Dalton.

  Bigger Thomas : She's the same color as the rest of them. I'm gonna die for knowing that girl.

  Max : You wouldn't be worrying about dying. You wouldn't had killed Mary if you'd just told Mrs. Dalton what was wrong as soon as she came to the door in her room. All you had to do was tell the truth.

  Bigger Thomas : It wouldn't have made no difference. She was white, I was black. I was dead once I walked into that room. It would've all turned out bad, no matter what. White folks... They just wanna keep you in that same little spot!

  Max : And you didn't want to stay there?

  Bigger Thomas : No... I didn't.

  [pauses] 

  Max : I'm gonna try and stop them from killing you, Bigger. They're rushing this trial.