A line from the trial speech by Bigger Thomas' lawyer, Boris Max, is woven into the plot of Lemony Snicket's book, "The Penultimate Peril" (2005): "Richard Wright, an American novelist of the realist school, asks a famous unfathomable question... 'Who knows when some slight shock,' he asks, 'disturbing the delicate balance between social order and thirsty aspiration, shall send the skyscrapers in our cities toppling?' .. So when Mr. Wright asks his question, he might be wondering if a small event, such as a stone dropping into a pond, can cause ripples in the system of the world, and tremble the things that people want, until all this rippling and trembling brings down something enormous..."