Bigger's character is nearly impossible to judge, from whether or not I even like him, to whether he deserved his punishment. He does many actions that are neither inherently good or bad, such as holding the rat in front of his sister's face, and it seems his reaction sets the tone for how "bad" it is. The entire book I feel like I'm on the jury determining Bigger's fate. In a sense he deserves his punishment, he did rape and intentionally kill someone, but not the person he's on trial for.
Wright does a great job of creating a character that is hard to decide how to feel for one way or another. I can't help but think that the courtroom scene works as a metaphor for the book as a whole, with the statements by Buckley and Max arguing for their polarized views about Bigger and civil rights as a whole. The way he creates Bigger's character inherently created polarized reactions to him, from empathy, to being called "a small-time negro Hitler." While he disagreed with many of the reactions to his book, the fact that his character was so controversial opened up the opportunity for discussion about Bigger and the greater civil rights movement as a whole.
