mrmangoldsenglish.weebly.com · web view2020-02-14 · he had murdered and had created a new life...

Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 All Use text coding: Main ideas(!), details(*), connections(C), questions(?), circle unknown words

Almost as soon as he falls asleep, Bigger wakes up again. He leaps out of bed, suddenly nervous, remembering what he had done. It’s Sunday morning and he needs to take Mary’s trunk to the station. He sees Mary’s black purse by the bed. He looks around, but he mother and sister are still sleeping and have seen nothing. He searches his pockets and discovers the knife. He looks at it in the light and sees blood crusted on the edges. He needs to throw her purse and the knife away. Oh, and the pamphlets Jan gave him, too. He looks at the titles of the pamphlets: Race Prejudice on Trial. The Negro Question in the United States. Etc. He thinks these don’t seem dangerous, but when he sees the hammer and sickle and a statement saying these were published by the Communist Party, he thinks they do seem dangerous, after all. He thinks about how he will explain all of this when asked.

His family wakes up and his mother prepares breakfast. Bigger snaps at his family as they ask him questions. He looks out the window at the falling snow, wondering if he is speaking any different this morning than other morning. Buddy says he tried to stay awake until Bigger got in but he couldn’t stay awake past 3 a.m. Bigger says he got in before 3 o’clock. Buddy disagrees. Bigger snaps at his little brother and realizes he’s not handling this situation very well. Bigger sits at the table, waiting for his food, and thinking how this might be the last time he eats here. He might soon be in jail. And here he sits, his family completely unaware that he had murdered a white girl and burned her body.

The thought of what he had done, the awful horror of it, the daring associated with such actions, formed for him for the first time in his fear-ridden life a barrier of protection between him and a world he feared. He had murdered and had created a new life for himself. It was something that was all his own, and it was the first time in his life he had had anything that others could not take from him. Yes; he could sit here calmly and eat and not be concerned about what his family thought or did. He had a natural wall from behind which he could look at them. His crime was an anchor weighing him safely in time; it added to him a certain confidence which his gun and knife did not. He was outside of his family now, over and beyond them; they were incapable of even thinking that he had done such a deed. And he had done something which even he had not thought possible.

Though he had killed by accident, not once did he feel the need to tell himself that it had been an accident. He was black and he had been alone in a room where a white girl had been killed, therefore he had killed her. That was what everybody would say anyhow, no matter what he said. And in a certain sense he knew that the girl’s death had not been accidental. He had killed many times before, only on those other times there had been no handy victim or circumstance to make visible or dramatic his will to kill His crime seemed natural; he felt that all of his life had been leading; to something like this. It was no longer a matter of dumb wonder as to what would happen to him and his black skin; he knew now The hidden meaning of his life— a meaning which others did not see and which he had always tried to hide— had spilled out. No; it was no accident, and he would never say that it was. There was in him a kind of terrified pride in feeling and thinking that someday he would be able to say publicly that he had done it. It was as though he had an obscure but deep debt to fulfil to himself in accepting the deed. Now that the ice was broken, could he not do other things? What was there to stop him? While sitting there at the table waiting for his breakfast, he felt that he was arriving at something which had long eluded him. Things were becoming clear; he would know how to act from now on. The thing to do was to act just like others acted, live like they lived, and while they were not looking, do what you wanted. They would never

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Identify a writing strategy used on this page. Underline examples of this strategy.

Summarize the Main Ideas on this side.

How did murder create a new life for Bigger?

How does Bigger justify Mary’s murder? Is he right? Explain.

Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 AllUse text coding: Main ideas(!), details(*), connections(C), questions(?), circle unknown wordsknow. He felt in the quiet presence of his mother, brother, and sister a force, inarticulate and unconscious, making for living without thinking, making for peace and habit, making for a hope that blinded. He felt that they wanted and yearned to see life in a certain way; they needed a certain picture of the world; there was one way of living they preferred above all others; and they were blind to what did not fit. They did not want to see what others were doing if that doing did not feed their own desires. All one had to do was be bold, do something nobody thought of. The whole thing came to him in the form of a powerful and simple feeling; there was in everyone a great hunger to believe that made him blind, and if he could see while others were blind, then he could get what he wanted and never be caught at it. Now, who on earth would think that he, a black timid Negro boy, would murder and burn a rich white girl and would sit and wait for his breakfast like this? Elation filled him.

Bigger stands up to leave. His mother wants to know when she’ll see him again, but Bigger doesn’t know. He hears his name being called and Buddy comes running after him. He wants to know if Bigger is in trouble. Bigger wants to know what Buddy means. It’s clear that Bigger is suddenly frightened again. Buddy says it’s nothing, but Bigger seems kind of nervous. Then Buddy holds out a roll of bills. He tells Bigger than he dropped that on the floor. Bigger is taken aback. He takes the money and asks if Ma saw it. “No,” Buddy replies. Bigger tells Buddy to keep his mouth shut about the money. Buddy says he’ll keep quiet, but wants to know if he can help in any way. Bigger doesn’t want Buddy’s help, though.

He heads out, wanting to taste and experience everything again with this new feeling inside him, "like a man reborn." He wants to see the old gang, to see how he feels about them now. He meets Jack, Gus and G.H. at the drugstore. He buys them cigarettes and beer, realizing to himself that he will never see them again. He goes out into the snow, feeling excited. It was the first time he’d been with the gang without being afraid.

Bigger realizes that nobody knows what he’s done. As long as he behaves like everything’s normal, nobody will know. So he’s not afraid. He is worried, though, about how he’ll ever stop seeing the image of Mary’s severed head with her bloody curls. He thinks about what a fool Mary Dalton was and how she should have left him alone.

There was only one thing that worried him; he had to get that lingering image of Mary’s bloody head lying on those newspapers from before his eyes. If that were done, then he would be all right. Gee, what a fool she was, he thought, remembering how Mary had acted. Carrying on that way! Hell, she made me do it! I couldn’t help it! She should’ve known better! She should’ve left me alone, Goddammit! He did not feel sorry for Mary; she was not real to him, not a human being; he had not known her long or well enough for that. He felt that his murder of her was more than amply justified by the fear and shame she had made him feel.

It seemed that her actions had evoked fear and shame in him. But when he thought hard about it it seemed impossible that they could have. He really did not know just where that fear and shame had come from; it had just been there, that was all. Each time he had come in contact with her it had risen hot and hard. It was not Mary he was reacting to when he felt that fear and shame. Mary had served to set off his emotions, emotions conditioned by many Marys. And now that he had killed Mary he felt a lessening of tension in his muscles; he had shed an invisible burden he had long carried.

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Write your own thoughts on this side.


Why would Bigger feel so fascinated by people who rule others?

Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 AllUse text coding: Main ideas(!), details(*), connections(C), questions(?), circle unknown words

As the streetcar lurched over the snow, he lifted his eyes and saw black people upon the snow-covered sidewalks. Those people had feelings of fear and shame like his. Many a time he had stood on street corners with them and talked of white people as long sleek cars zoomed past. To Bigger and his kind white people were not really people; they were a sort of great natural force, like a stormy sky looming overhead, or like a deep swirling river stretching suddenly at one’s feet in the dark. As long as he and his black folks did not go beyond certain limits, there was no need to fear that white force. But whether they feared it or not, each and every day of their lives they lived with it; even when words did not sound its name, they acknowledged its reality. As long as they lived here in this prescribed corner of the city, they paid mute tribute to it.

There were rare moments when a feeling and longing for solidarity with other black people would take hold of him. He would dream of making a stand against that white force, but that dream would fade when he looked at the other black people near him. Even though black like them, he felt there was too much difference between him and them to allow for a common binding and a common life. Only when threatened with death could that happen; only in fear and shame, with their backs against a wall, could that happen. But never could they sink their differences in hope.

As he rode, looking at the black people on the sidewalks, he felt that one way to end fear and shame was to make all those black people act together, rule them, tell them what to do, and make them do it. Dimly, he felt that there should be one direction in which he and all other black people could go whole-heartedly; that there should be a way in which gnawing hunger and restless aspiration could be fused; that there should be a manner of acting that caught the mind and body in certainty and faith. But he felt that such would never happen to him and his black people, and he hated them and wanted to wave his hand and blot them out. Yet, he still hoped, vaguely. Of late he had liked to hear tell of men who could rule others, for in actions such as these he felt that there was a way to escape from this tight morass of fear and shame that sapped at the base of his life. He liked to hear of how Japan was conquering China; of how Hitler was running the Jews to the ground; of how Mussolini was invading Spain. He was not concerned with whether these acts were right or wrong; they simply appealed to him as possible avenues of escape. He felt that some day there would be a black man who would whip the black people into a tight band and together they would act and end fear and shame. He never thought of this in precise mental images; he felt it; he would feel it for a while and then forget. But hope was always waiting somewhere deep down in him.

It was fear that had made him fight Gus in the poolroom. If he had felt certain of himself and of Gus, he would not have fought. But he knew Gus, as he knew himself, and he knew that one of them might fail through fear at the decisive moment. How could he think of going to rob Blum’s that way? He distrusted and feared Gus and he knew that Gus distrusted and feared him; and the moment he tried to band himself and Gus together to do something, he would hate Gus and himself. Ultimately, though, his hate and hope turned outward from himself and Gus: his hope toward a vague benevolent something that would help and lead him, and his hate toward the whites; for he felt that they ruled him, even when they were far away and not thinking of him, ruled him by conditioning him in his relations to his own people.

At his stop, he gets off the street car. In the Dalton’s driveway, he sees that the car is just as he left it, but blanketed with snow. He passes the car and thinks about why he’s going back. He already has some money and a gun. But, first he needs to know if there is a reason to run. Peggy stands at the furnace, staring into it. She turns around

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Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 AllUse text coding: Main ideas(!), details(*), connections(C), questions(?), circle unknown wordsand says good morning. The fire needs coal, she says. Bigger tells the woman that he’ll take care of it. Peggy adds that the fire was very hot last night, but now it’s low. Again, Bigger says he’ll fix it. He wonders if she suspects anything. Will he have to kill her if she does? He sees an iron shovel nearby but Peggy moves away and says she’ll turn on the light. When Peggy flicks the light on, Bigger understands what’s wrong with her—she’s just ashamed at being caught in her nightgown. She leaves

Bigger opens the furnace to see if Mary’s body burned. It has but he still sees the image of her body in the shape of the red burning coals. He pulls the lever for more coal. But he doesn’t want to poke the coal and hopes nobody else will either. Then he runs to his room and puts the communist pamphlets in a neat pile on the dresser drawer, so that they wouldn’t look like he’d read them if his room is searched.

He takes the trunk to the car and fastens it to the top. It’s 8:20 so he has to wait for Mary to come out. Then he thinks that maybe he should ring the bell for her. At that moment, Bigger sees the snow in all its intense brightness and he realizes he should go ask for Mary, otherwise it might seem like he doesn’t expect her to come out. Peggy comes hurrying to the door and asks if she’s come out yet. No, Bigger replies, and it’s getting late. Peggy runs up the stairs to see and then comes down and announces that Mary isn’t there. They go through the round of questions. All Bigger knows (or says he knows) is he’s supposed to drive Miss Dalton to the station and she told him to bring her trunk down last night. Peggy says he should take the trunk on then. Maybe Mary didn’t stay at home last night. Then Bigger makes sure she knows that the "gentleman"—Jan—was also in the car with Mary last night when he left. Bigger drives to the train station and leaves the trunk there with a man who gives him a ticket for it.

Bigger overhears Mrs. Dalton questioning Peggy about the car being left out all night and Mary telling Bigger to leave it there. Mrs. Dalton is worried because Mary didn’t even leave a note. Even when Mary ran away to New York, she left a note. Peggy tells the mother that Jan was with Mary. Mrs. Dalton wishes those awful people (Communists) would leave Mary alone. Peggy mentions that Jan called this morning. She’s wondering if Mary is actually with him, like she was in Florida, and if Jan had just called to see if they knew she was gone. Mrs. Dalton mentions that Mary was in her bed at 2 a.m. Peggy says that her bed looked as if she hadn’t really slept in it, more like she’d lain down for a minute or two and then gotten up. By now, both women realize there’s something strange about the story. Mrs. Dalton says Mary was drunk last night and she wonders if something has happened to her. There’s a long silence and then Mrs. Dalton says that she’s just felt around in Mary’s room and the girl never finished packing—at least half her new things for the trip are still there.

Later, Mrs. Dalton speaks to Bigger. She wants to know if he took the trunk to the station. Bigger says he did. He knew he had the protection of her shame—she wouldn’t ask too much. Mrs. Dalton now asks about the car in the driveway and his taking the trunk downstairs. He realizes he can’t let her think he was alone in the room with Mary, so he says the gentleman was with them as he went to get the trunk.She looks like a ghost as he goes over these details with her. As she leaves, he thinks about all the things that make him safe:

“He knew that she was really worried and wanted to ask him more questions. But he knew that she would not want to hear him tell of how drunk her daughter had been. After all, he was black and she was white. He was poor and she was rich. She would be ashamed to let him think that something was so wrong in her family that she had to ask him, a black servant, about it. He felt confident.”

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Why did Bigger take the trunk to the station?


He decides to leave the Dalton’s and visit Bessie…

He went to Forty -Seventh Street and stood on the corner to wait for a car. Yes, Bessie was the one he wanted to see now. Funny, he had not thought of her much during the last day and night. Too many exciting things had been happening. He had had no need to think of her. But now he had to forget and relax and he wanted to see her. She was always home on Sunday afternoons. He wanted to see her very badly; he felt that he would be stronger to go through tomorrow if he saw her. The street car came and he got on, thinking of how things had gone that day. No; he did not think they would suspect him of anything. He was black. Again he felt the roll of crisp bills in his pocket; if things went wrong he could always run away. He wondered how much money was in the roll; he had not even counted it. He would see when he got to Bessie’s. No; he need not be afraid. He felt the gun nestling close to his skin. That gun could always make folks stand away and think twice before bothering him.

But of the whole business there was one angle that bothered him; he should have gotten more money out of it; he should have planned it. He had acted too hastily and accidentally. Next time things would be much different; he would plan and arrange so that he would have money enough to keep him a long time. He looked out of the car window and then round at the white faces near him. He wanted suddenly to stand up and shout, telling them that he had killed a rich white girl, a girl whose family was known to all of them. Yes; if he did that a look of startled horror would come over their faces. But, no. He would not do that, even though the satisfaction would be keen. He was so greatly outnumbered that he would be arrested, tried, and executed. He wanted the keen thrill of startling them, but felt that the cost was too great. He wished that he had the power to say what he had done without fear of being arrested; he wished that he could be an idea in their minds: that his black face and the image of his smothering Mary and cutting off her head and burning her could hover before their eyes as a terrible picture of reality which they could see and feel and yet not destroy. He was not satisfied with the way things stood now; he was a man who had come in sight of a goal, then had won it, and in winning it had seen just within his grasp another goal, higher, greater. He had learned to shout and had shouted and no ear had heard him; he had just learned to walk and was walking but could not see the ground beneath his feet; he had long been yearning for weapons to hold in his hands and suddenly found that his hands held weapons that were invisible.

Bessie gives Bigger a hard time about being with white folks last night. She calls them his "friends," but he insists he just works for them. She wants to know why he didn’t speak to her last night. Was he ashamed, sitting there with the white girl? Bigger knows she’s playing a game with him. How badly did he want her? That was her game. So he kisses her, but Bessie doesn’t respond. She’s still cold because he’s been gone so long. They argue some more. This time, she responds to his kiss a little. But, she still argues with him about how long he’s been away and about the fact that he didn’t acknowledge her last night when he was with the white folks. Bigger likes the way Bessie teases him. He likes the game because it makes him want her more. Suddenly, he pulls out his money and says, somebody else might like this money since she doesn’t seem to. They make love and as they do, Bigger feels the fear and shame that caused him to kill Mary melt away. He feels at home.

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What does this line reveal about Bigger?

What does Bigger mean here? What goal?


Bessie begins to ask questions about his new job. He wonders why she’s asking questions and if she senses anything. Then she says she’s asking because she used to work over near the Loeb family. One of the Loeb boys killed the Franks boy and tried to get money from the Franks family. Bigger begins to see the possibilities as Bessie talks. He could ask them for money! He could have them pack the money in a shoe box and throw it out of a car on the South Side.

Bessie still wants to know where Bigger got the money. She can sense that something is wrong, that Bigger has something on his mind. Bigger begins to think maybe he can use Bessie, if he can trust her. Bigger now understands how narrow Bessie’s life is, just like his family’s life. She worked hard seven days a week and only had one afternoon off. When she took that afternoon off each week, she wanted hard, fast fun. That’s why he likes her. All he needs to do is give the girl liquor and he can have sex with her. She likes him because he gives her money for alcohol.

They leave to get drinks. As they go, Bigger wishes they were back in bed, but things have changed now. Bessie isn’t easy like she was; her face is hard and unyielding.Bigger realizes there are two Bessies: one is a body that he can have sex with, and the other is a real human being with feelings and desires and questions and needs. He wants to kill the second Bessie so he can always have the sex Bessie whenever he wants her. They go to a bar where Bigger convinces her to be part of his plan, even though she is unsure.

Bigger returns to the Dalton’s where he is questioned by Mr. and Mrs. Dalton. His answers seem to make the Dalton’s more sure of Jan’s involvement. He realizes he has to hurry up and write the ransom note if his plan is to work. He goes to put more coal in the furnace.

Bigger sees Mr. Dalton and another man in the basement. Mr. Dalton’s companion examines Bigger and asks him what the matter is. He stares at Bigger and Bigger begins to feel panic, especially as he realizes that this is a policeman. The police officer smiles at Bigger but it’s "a smile that Bigger did not believe." Mr. Dalton introduces the policeman as Mr. Britten, a private investigator, who would like to ask Bigger some questions.

Britten questions Bigger who retells his story. Bigger knows he has to reveal each detail as if he doesn’t know its significance. As Bigger reveals that he didn’t take Miss Dalton to the university last night, he pretends to be ashamed. Mr. Dalton is shocked. Bigger says he took Mary to the Loop, to Lake Street. Then Jan came out and wanted to drive, so Bigger let him.

Bigger is excited. He finally has control of the story he tells these white folks. They can’t make him reveal anything he doesn’t want to reveal. He tells them how he took them to Ernie’s Kitchen Shack and how Jan made him eat with them and talked about Communism. The two got pretty drunk. He drove them through the park and then they came here. They had to help Miss Dalton up the steps because she was pretty drunk. She passed out, she was so drunk.

Mr. Britten says that if what Bigger says is true, Miss Dalton couldn’t have left this house by herself. Then Bigger lies that Jan told him to take Mary’s trunk down and not to put the car in the garage. Bigger says that Jan was drunk too. Mr. Britten wants to know what Jan said about the Party. Then he starts questioning Bigger as if Bigger is a Communist.

Bigger didn’t expect this. He gets nervous. Mr. Britten slams Bigger’s head against the wall and continues to accuse him of being a Communist, especially because

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Why is “control” so appealing to Bigger?

How might this information impact Bigger?

Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 AllUse text coding: Main ideas(!), details(*), connections(C), questions(?), circle unknown wordshe found the pamphlets in Bigger’s room. Bigger protests that Jan gave him the pamphlets and Mr. Dalton finally steps in and says he thinks Bigger’s telling the truth.Bigger realizes now that Britten is his enemy. In Britten’s mind, Bigger is guilty because he’s black. He wants to kill Britten now. But he controls himself.

Britten and Mr. Dalton discuss getting a hold of Jan now. Britten wants to be sure Bigger is telling the truth and Mr. Dalton once again vouches for him. Bigger goes to his room and Mr. Dalton and Britten head upstairs. Bigger listens to their conversation through the closet. They’re discussing him and Dalton’s sorry that Britten was so rough.Britten says you have to treat blacks that way to get information from them. Dalton says it wasn’t really Bigger’s fault—it was his crazy daughter’s. Then they discuss keeping this scandal out of the newspapers and about seeing Jan.

Britten questions Jan, who initially lies until he realizes what is going on. He looks to Bigger to verify his story, but Bigger remains silent. This interview makes Dalton and Britten believe Jan and the Communist party are surely behind Mary’s disappearance. When the interview is over, Bigger leaves to find Bessie to make arrangements for the ransom note.

As he heads to the South Side, he thinks about what kind of note he should write. He starts examining buildings to see which one would be a good place for Bessie to stand…

He looked round the street and saw a sign on a building: THIS PROPERTY IS MANAGED BY THE SOUTH SIDE REAL ESTATE COMPANY. He had heard that Mr. Dalton owned the South Side Real Estate Company, and the South Side Real Estate Company owned the house in which he lived. He paid eight dollars a week for one rat-infested room. He had never seen Mr. Dalton until he had come to work for him; his mother always took the rent to the real estate office. Mr. Dalton was somewhere far away, high up, distant, like a god. He owned property all over the Black Belt, and he owned property where white folks lived, too. But Bigger could not live in a building across the “line.” Even though Mr. Dalton gave millions of dollars for Negro education, he would rent houses to Negroes only in this prescribed area, this corner of the city tumbling down from rot. In a sullen way Bigger was conscious of this. Yes; he would send the kidnap note. He would jar them out of their senses.

Throughout the process of writing the note, Bessie tries to reason with Bigger.With anger and determination, Bigger writes his ransom note and signs it "Red." He draws a hammer and a curving knife but knows it doesn’t look right until he realizes he’s left the handle off the knife. Bigger reads the note over and realizes he’s forgotten to mention the time to bring the money, so he adds a P.S. to bring the money at midnight.Bessie wants to know again where Miss Dalton is. When Bigger insists he doesn’t know, she asks him if he killed her. When he doesn’t answer, Bessie start sobbing. Bigger looks at the note shaking in his trembling fingers, but he reassures himself that he isn’t scared. He tries to convince Bessie to play her part but she says no. If he killed that girl, then he’ll kill her, too. Bigger realizes she knows too much. He wonders if he needs to kill her. He tells Bessie that if she isn’t in this for life, then she’ll tell on him. She says she won’t. Bigger admits he killed the girl, but he insists that Bessie is in it as deep as he is because she spent some of the money already. He forces Bessie to drink, but doesn’t want her too drunk because he needs her sober enough to do a good job on the ransom plan. Bessie begs Bigger to leave her alone and not to make her do this. Finally, Bigger

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Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 Allthreatens to kill her if she doesn’t join him. They leave and find a building for Bessie to hide in and

Use text coding: Main ideas(!), details(*), connections(C), questions(?), circle unknown wordspick up the ransom money. Then Bigger returns to the Dalton’s. When he reaches the house, he slips the note under the door, then turns around and runs away.

He goes to the basement and looks at the fire, wanting to poke around in it, but afraid to. He just pulls the lever for more coal and goes to bed. In bed, he’s cold and hungry—and he’s getting scared. Bigger realizes he’s forgotten something important. He goes to the furnace and dumps the gloves, pencil, and paper he used to write the ransom note into the fire. Then he collapses, feeling weak.

When the Dalton’s find the note, Bigger hears commotion in the house. He realizes he can still run away or go upstairs and confess. Knowing he has choices makes him feel curiously free. Still, he’s convinced they will never suspect him, a black man, of killing the rich white girl. Bigger hears Britten and Mr. Dalton talking about the note. Britten asks Peggy if she saw anybody leave it (no) or if she recognizes the handwriting (no). Then there are more people in the kitchen, sounding like men, and the conversation continues. This time, the questions are about Bigger—how he acts, whether he seems intelligent or not, and whether he might know about the note. Britten wants to know if Bigger acts like he’s been around Jews or if he’s ever used the word "comrade" or if he seems used to being in the presence of whites. He’s trying to find out if Bigger’s been around Communists. Bigger smiles, hearing these questions. He realizes that Britten is trying to trap him, but he won’t find anything. Bigger is again interviewed by Britten, and again gives answers that point to Jan’s involvement.

The press arrives. They tell Britten that the scandal is in the newspapers; that the Reds say they’re being charged with kidnapping Mary Dalton. One of the reporters wants to know if Bigger is the man that Jan Erlone said accused him. Britten tells Bigger to keep quiet.

Bigger has never seen media people before and they seem dangerous to him. One of them slips him a bribe to get him to talk, but Bigger gives it back. Britten announces that Mr. Dalton won’t be seeing members of the press until Tuesday. Bigger knows that means Mr. Dalton plans to pay the ransom.

One of the media men says that Jan believes Mr. Dalton is trying to smear the Communist party to break up Jan and Mary’s relationship. Apparently, Jan also insists that Bigger lied about Jan being in the Dalton house last night. Britten refuses to comment on anything.

Mr. Dalton lets the media know that he has called and asked that Jan Erlone be released. He also wants to apologize for his arrest. Mr. Dalton tells the group that his daughter has been kidnapped. Her captors are asking ten thousand dollars for her release. He plans to pay the ransom and he wants the story to say that he does not plan to call the police. He just wants his daughter’s safe return. He won’t show the press the ransom note because of the detailed instructions, but he wants them to print in the newspaper that he plans to follow those instructions. One of the reporters wants to know how the note is signed. Mr. Dalton tells them that it’s signed "Red" and has a drawing of the sickle and hammer on it. But he doesn’t know if the Communists did it. He only wants his daughter returned. They take pictures for the paper and Bigger knows that there are enough pictures of him now to recognize him in a crowd.

When reporters question Bigger, though, he doesn’t say anything but "I don’t know" to their questions. The men question Bigger again—and all the answers point to Jan.

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Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 AllFinally, the media men leave. Bigger knows now that they’ll write stories about Jan trying to convert him to Communism, Mary and Jan getting drunk, the half-packed

Use text coding: Main ideas(!), details(*), connections(C), questions(?), circle unknown wordstrunk taken to the station, the ransom note. He looks at the fire and realizes he’ll need to shake the ashes out.

A reporter returns to announce that Jan refuses to leave jail. Britten says that proves he’s guilty, but the reporter adds that Jan has a dozen people who will swear that he didn’t come here last night. He also believes that Bigger has been paid to lie and that the whole thing is a stunt to smear the Communists.

Peggy interrupts to invite them up for coffee. The reporters want to know who she is and whether she knows anything, but Britten says she doesn’t. Then they turn to Bigger. Bigger feels like he needs to defend himself now—after all, Jan is saying he’s lying. The reporters ask Bigger if Jan talked to him about Communism and Britten interrupts, giving them the pamphlets he found on Bigger’s dresser. The men take pictures of the pamphlets. The media men start asking him questions, but stop when they ask him if he believes in private property. Bigger is just confused now.

The fire seems to have gone out in the furnace.Peggy returns with cream and sugar for the men and tells Bigger that there’s

not enough heat upstairs. He needs to clean the ashes out. Even though the men are standing around, Bigger feels like he needs to do something. Bigger walks to the door of the furnace and looks inside. He wonders if he can sift the ashes down and make that work until the men leave. He tries, but the air still doesn’t get through. He lifts the lever for some coal, but the fire doesn’t start blazing. He looks into the furnace and wonders if he should just leave now. But no, he decides, he still has a chance to get all that money. With more coal, the fire will burn eventually. Bigger adds even more coal. Instead of catching fire, though, it starts to smoke. The smoke rolls out into the room and everybody is coughing. He realizes he needs to do something about the ashes quickly. The men start calling out to him to do something about the ashes and he tries but one of the men comes around and takes the shovel from him. As the man deals with the ashes, Bigger considers a violent act towards him. Finally, the man yells at them to open the door. Wind rushes in and with it Bigger’s realization that the situation is out of his hands. The man mentions that there’s a lot of ashes in there and Bigger shouldn’t let it get that way. He clears the air passage and the fire gets going. But then, with the air clear, the man looks at the ashes near his feet and he calls the men over to look…

Bigger tiptoed and looked over their shoulders; he did not know how he got strength enough to go and look; he just found himself walking and then found himself standing and peering over the men’s shoulders. He saw a pile of scattered ashes , nothing else. But there must be something, or why would the men be looking?

“What is it?” “See? This!” “What?”

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Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 All

Use text coding: Main ideas(!), details(*), connections(C), questions(?), circle unknown words “Look! It’s….”

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What do the men believe?


Use text coding: Main ideas(!), details(*), connections(C), questions(?), circle unknown words

Bigger tiptoes up the steps and goes to his room. He lifts the window. He runs to the door and locks it, then crawls out the window. He falls into the snow and as he does, he pees all over himself. He looks around, walks, then tries to run. He knows now that he needs to find Bessie and tell her not to go to that house. Running away feels familiar. He gropes to find the gun and is reassured when he still has it, knowing he might have to use it. As he heads to Bessie’s, he sees newspapers and reads the headline about the abducted millionaire heiress. Soon, he knows, the newspapers will be telling stories about how the men found Mary’s body and how he, Bigger, was the killer.

He presses Bessie’s doorbell and she buzzes him in. He jumps up the stairs and tells her the plan is off and he’s a hunted man. Bessie points out that they’ll say Bigger raped the girl. Until this moment, Bigger hasn’t even thought of that possibility but now he realizes she’s right. He also begins to realize that what white people had done to him every day of his life—that was rape, too.

Bessie’s upset and Bigger doesn’t know what to do with her. He doesn’t want to leave her behind, but she’s clearly going to be a burden if he takes her. So he decides he has to take her with him for now and "settle things" in the future so he won’t be in danger. Bessie speaks about how she’s struggled all her life. She wishes she had never met Bigger. Now she sees that he’s brought nothing to her life but alcohol so he could sleep with her. Now she has to run away with him and she knows he doesn’t even really care about her. At this moment, Bigger knows that he can’t leave Bessie behind and he can’t take her with him either. So now he knows what he has to do.

Bigger takes Bessie to an abandoned building where he rapes and smashes her chest in with a brick. Then he wonders, what does Bessie look like? Is she staring at him with accusation in her dead eyes? So he looks at her – she’s limp and bloody. Bigger doesn’t want to leave her in the open, so he hoists her into an airshaft. Then he throws the bloody bedclothes and pillows after her.

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Why would the police think this was a sex crime? Why would they put this in the paper?

What is happening in town as a result of the manhunt? How might this make other people in Bigger’s neighborhood feel about him?

Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 AllHe goes to the first floor and looks outside. Could he steal a newspaper? Could

he hide? He goes outside and sees the headline: HUNT BLACK IN GIRL’S DEATH. He looks for a place to hide. He steals a newspaper and reads an article about Mary’s murder.


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Use text coding: I Agree; Disagree; (?) question; (!) answer; (=) connection; (eye) visualize; (light bulb) prediction; (checkmark) important

Bigger walked the neighborhood, moving in and out of empty buildings, searching for food. He thought about the houses in this part of town…

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Why did Bigger want to talk to a police officer when he read the article? How does this fit with Bigger’s feelings about race?



While he sneaks around the neighborhood he overhears this conversation between two black men…

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Why does the author have Bigger overhear this conversation?

Why does the newspaper keep calling him a rapist? What image are the trying to project?



Bigger continues his flight. He manages to buy a newspaper and reads…

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Bigger knows the police are almost there and decides that the safest place is the roof. Up he goes, through the trapdoor onto the roof. Bigger listens to shouts and screams. As he hides, he knows they’re coming and it’s just a matter of time before they find him. He thinks about how he can jump from roof to roof if necessary. He watches as one of the searchers comes up to the next roof and searches with a flashlight. He misses Bigger. Bigger waits. He hears pounding feet below. They’re coming and he’s torn about what he should do. They’re directly underneath the trapdoor. He listens to their conversation about how good-looking one of the black women in the apartments below

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Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 Allis. One asks, “Why Bigger would want to kill a white woman when black women are so beautiful?”

Bigger holds the gun and waits for the trapdoor to open. A man comes out of it and stands with his back to Bigger. Suddenly, Bigger thinks he could hit this man. He switches the gun so it’s a weapon he can hit with. He raises his arm and then smashes the man on the skull until he falls down. The sirens begin again as he stares at the man. Then he sees a man crawling up on the roof to the left and he hears someone below him call out, "Jerry?"

Bigger takes a chance and crawls to another roof. He looks behind him as he hears the voice calling for Jerry grow louder. Men come up to see what Bigger’s done and give orders to surround the block—he’s somewhere close by.

Bigger begins to crawl from roof to roof. At last, he hears the men yelling that they see him. Then a shot rings over his head. As he goes, he looks behind him and sees a man running after him. Bigger reaches the last roof. He can’t go any further. But he sees a water tank on the roof, with a ladder, so he climbs up the ladder. He lies flat on his stomach and watches as the men come up. He tries to shoot one of them and misses. He tries again when he sees a man running toward the water tank. Again, he misses.

The men start throwing tear gas up on the water tank. He knocks the first one off but then another and another come except the wind blows the gas away.

One man tries climbing the water tank, but Bigger hits the guy’s fingers with the butt of his gun and the man falls back. Finally, somebody tells him he’s surrounded and he might as well give up. Bigger knows they’re afraid. He also knows he’ll be caught or killed, one or the other, soon, but he’s not afraid. He hears them yell to hurry up with the hose but he doesn’t know what they mean. The trapdoor opens and somebody yells that it’s his last chance. He lays still until the stream of water hits and he realizes what they’re doing: trying to coax him out with force.

The water hits him and takes his breath away with the pain. He’s freezing and, as they yell at him to throw down his gun, he lets go of it and gives up. The men keep yelling at him to throw down the gun but he doesn’t have enough strength to do it. He tries but his fingers are stiff and frozen. He can’t do it.

The water hits him again and he can’t hold on. So he falls over the edge of the tank onto the roof below, face-first. They drop him through the trapdoor, then drag him by his feet, down the hall, down the stairs, his head bumping on each stair as they go.Bigger tries to protect his head with his arms but soon he has no strength left.

Outside, he’s dragged into the snow to shouts of "lynch him" and "kill him!"His captors stretch his arms out and put a foot on each of his wrists.

Bigger faints.

Compose a 5 sentence summary of this packet.

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Name_______________________________ Native Son Book 2 All________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The police and news reports try to reduce Bigger to someone with animalistic behavior. Has Bigger shown this to be true? Is Bigger an animal or a victim of his surroundings? Explain with 3 pieces of TBE and analysis. This should be a paragraph! (this can be on loose leaf if it is easier – just write “on loose leaf” here)

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mrmangoldsenglish.weebly.com · web view2020-02-14 · he had murdered and had created a new life...

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