 Eventually his resolve breaks and Big Mat enters into a relationship with the prostitute Anna.Mat continues to use his physical strength as a weapon against others until his death during the raid of the Union Headquarters.According to Phillip H. Vaughan's article "From Pastoralism to Industrial Antipathy in William Attaway's "Blood on the Forge"" Attaway uses Big Mat's character to represents "the plodding strength and endurance of all Southern Negroes under their particular color-caste system".