Observation

Candidates generally avoided this question. Most of them gave mere and general narration of events leading to Mary’s death.

The following points should be well developed by the candidates:

• Relation to the theme of racial inequality.
• Identification of characters: Mr Dalton (father of Mary), Mary (a university student and daughter of Mr Dalton), Bigger (Daltons’ driver).
• Mr Dalton’s influence on Bigger: he Bigger’s landlord, Bigger harbours hatred for him and other whites.
• Bigger’s expectation and unattained hopes for the blacks: his aspirations are higher than being a chauffeur.
• Mr Dalton’s relationship with Mary: aloof and permissive which make Mary lie a lot, insecurity in Dalton’s home contributes to Bigger’s accidental killing of Mary out of fear.

Candidates’ performance was fair.