Thoughts about Jan

First.... Jan Erlone is a young man, a communist, and the Mary Dalton's boyfriend. He is idealistic and naïve, but his orthodoxy and reliance upon images and "symbols" get in the way of his well-meaning attempts to produce a real change. Jan's idealism is nearly shattered in the wake of Mary's murder, but he comes to a facile understanding of Bigger's crime, purely in terms of Communism and racist poverty. In the end, Jan commissions his friend, Boris Max, to defend Bigger.