Bigger gets his mother's skillets and stealthily hunts the rat. The first pan he throws misses, but the second hits home, crushing the rat's head violently. This event foreshadows Bigger's capacity to be violent. Now he proves, to his family and to himself, that he is not afraid: Bigger picked the dead rat up by its tail, and dangled it before his terrified sister. The poor child fainted dead away. .
Later, that same day Bigger meets up with his gang and they discuss old plans for a new kind of heist. In the past, the group had only stolen from their own people. The police tended not to care at all about black on black crime. That Sunday afternoon they plan to rob a white grocer, Mr. Blum. Robbing a white man's store would cross a symbolic line, a line that could get them into deep trouble. All of them, even Bigger, are nervous and afraid, however, he hides his fear by being macho in front of them. When a member of the group, Gus, is late, Bigger uses it as an excuse to abort the plan. Bigger releases all his nervous tension in the form of violence on Gus, who he holds at knifepoint. Later that night, Bigger will unknowingly cross the white boundary forever. .
Bigger storms away from his gang and goes back to the tenement only to be harassed about a job by his mother. The public assistance office found employment for Bigger. If he does not take the job, the family will loose their welfare check. Bigger has no choice in the situation, so he goes. His new employer is Mr. Dalton; a rich white landowner and self-proclaimed philanthropist. Mr. Dalton in his office is explaining to Bigger his new responsibilities when his daughter, Mary, barges in. Mary gets right in Bigger's face and questions him about unions and capitalism, things he is ignorant of. She makes him feel uncomfortable, and he fears that now he will not get the job because of her questioning. He muses to himself that he had never met anyone like her before; she fit none of his stereotypes of a white woman.