As Bigger tries to dispose of Mary's body, he wonders if he should just run away. Bigger knows that “he couldn’t. He must not do it. He must have burned that girl” (Wright 92). Bigger is aware that he must dispose of Mary's body for the same reason he had to kill her. Once Mrs. Dalton entered Mary's room, her white presence caused Bigger to act based on society's reaction. Bigger knew that if he had been found alone in a room with a white girl, he would be killed. From what Bigger knew about white society, he would be killed if he was caught alone in the room with Mary. He was placed in a social position that left him no choice but to kill. Bigger knew that whatever the circumstances, the crime would fall on him because “he was black and had been alone in a room where a white girl had been killed; that’s why he had killed her” (Wright 106). Whether his crime was accidental or not, he knew that because of the image given to black people, especially black men, in the community, the blame would be placed on him. In the room that night, Bigger and Mary were only reacting in the way society expected them to. They were no longer individuals, they represented the most powerful forces in black and white society, acting as they were told to do. Bigger was unable to defend himself because society had already determined that death was his death.