Character Analysis
After Dread dies, Biggie steps up to fill his shoes as the leader of Route 9. The guy is perfect for the job. Let's check his qualifications. Ruthless? Check. Cold-blooded? Check. Smart? Check. Biggie has no trouble settling into his new role of selling drugs and using his gun to settle any conflicts. He even teaches Shorty how to kill people.
It would be easy to dismiss Biggie as your average gangster with a troubled life, but he's not that simple. The guy clearly cares about respect and getting rid of all Bostons, but there's more to him than that. He also cares for Stephanie and his kids. We see a softer side of Biggie whenever his family comes into play. When he's on the phone with his mom, Shorty notes, "I'd never heard him sound so vulnerable. I suddenly realized he was a boy, too—he was maybe five years older than me" (19.84). Whoa.
Even though Biggie leads a gang and deals with life-or-death decisions almost every day, he's still just a young dude. He's only 20 when the story goes down, and even younger when he kills Shorty's dad. It's clear that he's not a bad guy all the time, just a guy in a bad situation. Now we're not condoning him murdering Shorty's family, but we do think we it matters that he was just a kid at the time, and a kid living in a place with very few options.
Shorty realizes that Biggie is just like him. Remember when Shorty tells us he's unaware of what he's doing? We might say the same about Biggie: He pulls the trigger first, and asks questions later.