Native Son

Feeling confident and secure, Bigger wishes that instead of killing Mary out of fear, he had planned it and gotten more money. On the streetcar, Bigger fantasizes about shouting what he had done to the white people on the street. But his enjoyment of their shocked expressions wasn’t worth being arrested and executed. He realizes that he has won something, “and in winning it had seen just within his grasp another goal, higher, greater” (148). When Bigger reaches Bessie’s apartment, he finds that she is upset that Bigger had ignored her at the restaurant and hasn’t come to see her. Bigger tries to soothe her, explaining that he had been working, but she responds coldly when he kisses her. Bigger decides that Bessie is toying with him to tease him. Hoping to warm her affections, he shows her the roll of money, which he has yet to count. Immediately, Bessie is concerned, wanting to know where it came from.

Bessie allows him to kiss her. She takes the money and counts $125, but Bigger still won’t explain how he got it. Bigger kisses her and invites her to bed, touching her breasts and remembering touching Mary’s breasts the night before. They have sex and Bigger imagines that he is cleansed and remade anew. Afterward, he tries to hold onto the feeling that “the whole blind world which had made him ashamed and afraid fell away” (153) and of “the quiet finger of peace upon the restless tossing of his spirit” (154). But the warm peace fades, and Bessie asks about his job. When she hears where he’s working, Bessie is surprised and explains that the address is close to where the Loeb family, of the famous Leopold and Loeb case, had lived. In 1924, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, both students from rich families, had kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks and then sent his wealthy parents a ransom note as an intellectual exercise to prove that they could commit the perfect crime without being caught—although they were both convicted and incarcerated.

Bigger realizes if he sends a ransom note to the Daltons, he can demand ten or even twenty thousand dollars. He remembers that Leopold and Loeb had ordered their victim’s father to toss the money from a moving train and jumps to his feet, imagining that he could have Dalton throw the ransom from a car and ignoring Bessie’s upset pleas to tell him why he’s so preoccupied. She turns away from him and Bigger wonders if Bessie would be his accomplice and whether he can trust her. He decides that Bessie’s perspective of the world is as small and oppressed as his family’s, and she is also blind. Bessie only seeks out pleasure and fun, constantly turning to alcohol to cope with her world. She works long hours and drinks, and she won’t be satisfied if she thinks he’s keeping secrets. Bessie is still suspicious, but Bigger convinces her to go out and get a drink.

As they walk outside, Bigger feels as if Bessie is two people: her warm and inviting body and her skeptical, questioning face. He wishes he could destroy the second Bessie and keep the first, her body, “in his chest, his stomach, some place deep inside him” (160) to have her with him all the time. As they drink, Bigger says vaguely, “I got something big on. […] It’ll mean a lot of money” (161). Bessie gets annoyed that he won’t explain further and wants to go home. Bigger adds that he might have to go on the run and Bessie surprises him by saying that she wants to go with him. Bigger agrees and tells her that his millionaire employer’s daughter had run away and eloped with a communist and Bigger had stolen the cash from her bedroom. Since she’s missing, Bigger has the idea to send a ransom note. Bessie becomes suspicious again when Bigger asserts his certainty that Mary won’t suddenly come home. Although Bigger denies it and gets angry, Bessie knows that he killed her.

Bessie is afraid; Bigger assures her that the plan will work. She can be the one to pick up the ransom money and then they can wait until it’s safe and leave town. Bigger gives Bessie the roll of money and says, “Get you something and save the rest for me” (166). She is unsure but takes it. He continues to try to persuade Bessie to help him, but she finally refuses. They have committed small crimes together, such as stealing from her employers, but Bessie is scared to take part in something so big. Abruptly, Bigger starts to walk away. Bessie begs him to stay and then reluctantly agrees to help him. They say good night, and Bigger promises to come back tomorrow night. Walking back to the Dalton house, Bigger thinks about the terror that began when he had discovered that Mary was dead. Now that terror was overpowered by a calming sense of control over his own fate. His secret gives him confidence, and “no matter how they laughed at him for his being Black and clown-like, he could look them in the eyes and not feel angry” (170).

In addition, Bigger feels strong for having a woman like Bessie, “who would be bound to him by ties deeper than marriage” (171) and is willing to risk her life for him. Entering the house, he checks on the furnace and notes that the ashes are accumulating and need to be shoveled in the morning and sifted for bones. Peggy calls his name and tells him that Mrs. Dalton has asked him to fetch the trunk from the station. No one picked it up and Mary never arrived in Detroit. Peggy comes down to the basement and Bigger becomes alert, again ready to kill her if she spots something out of order. But Peggy just asks questions about the half-empty trunk. Mrs. Dalton calls out to Peggy, asking, “Is the boy back yet?” (172) and invites Bigger into the kitchen. She asks Bigger to repeat his story about the trunk and the car. Mr. Dalton enters and questions him about the events of the night and whether Jan was drunk. Bigger says he is unsure, but Jan had been drinking.

Bigger says he had accompanied Jan and Mary upstairs and taken the trunk down to the basement. Mary had told him to leave the car in the driveway and Jan would put it away. Mr. Dalton wants to know what the couple had talked about and Bigger looks down in feigned embarrassment. Mr. Dalton knows that Jan can likely be found at the Labor Defender office but comforts his wife with his certainty that Mary is “up to some of her foolish pranks” (174). Bigger leaves to get the trunk, confident that the Daltons don’t suspect him. He fantasizes about the ransom note and extorting ten thousand dollars, which Dalton will drop off and Bessie will pick up. Carrying the trunk, Bigger realizes that it is noticeably not heavy enough, which will likely invite more questions. He is relieved that Bessie has the money since it might have been found in a search. Taking the trunk into the basement, Bigger has a sudden desire to look inside it. With his fingers on the clasp, he is startled when Mr. Dalton calls his name.

Bigger is immediately alert and defensive, reminding himself to act like he’s calm. Mr. Dalton is with another white man. Although Mr. Dalton promises that the man isn’t a police officer, Bigger sees that he is wearing a badge and is unsettled by his cool, hard demeanor. Mr. Dalton introduces Mr. Britten, a private investigator who is employed by Mr. Dalton’s office and has questions for Bigger. First, Britten wants to open the trunk, demanding to know if Bigger has the key. Bigger wonders if the question is suspicious and says that he doesn’t have it, so Mr. Dalton sends Bigger to bring the hatchet. Bigger, who had burned the hatchet after using it to decapitate Mary, pretends that he can’t find it. Undeterred, Britten springs the lock with a kick. They confirm that the trunk is mostly empty. Britten questions Bigger, and he repeats that he had followed Jan and Mary to her room and then taken the locked trunk down. Britten asks about the events of the evening and Bigger states that they left at 8:30 and feigns hesitation before admitting that he hadn’t taken her to school, which shocks Mr. Dalton.

Bigger explains that Mary had sworn him to secrecy. He gives them the address of the Labor Defender office, stating that she had directed him there and come out with Jan after about thirty minutes. Dalton interjects, “This Jan’s a Red” (180). Then, Bigger says, Jan had insisted on driving. Bigger feels powerful and in control of the narrative. Bigger goes on to explain how Jan had asked for a restaurant recommendation and then forced Bigger to eat with them, against his wishes. They had been drinking and talking about communism and by the time Bigger drove them home at two, Mary had been so drunk she had been passing out. Bigger now says that Jan, not Mary, had told him to take the trunk and Bigger hadn’t said anything because he didn’t want to break his promise. Britten demands to know what Jan had said about the Party. Confused, Bigger replies, “It wasn’t a party, mister. He made me sit at his table and he bought chicken and told me to eat” (183).

Suddenly, Britten accuses Bigger of being a member of the Communist Party and having known Jan previously. Taken aback, Bigger exclaims that he isn’t. Britten shoves him, banging his head against the wall, and Bigger feels a flash of fury. Bigger denies again that he is a communist and Britten produces the handful of pamphlets from Bigger’s dresser. Bigger cries that Jan had given him the pamphlets and that he and Mary had wanted him to read them. Britten accuses Bigger of having also known Mary before taking the job, but Mr. Dalton intervenes. He recalls that when Mary had met Bigger, she had attempted to discuss unions. Britten lets Bigger go. Bigger knows that Britten is targeting him because he is Black, and he wishes that he could kill him on the spot. The two white men shift their focus to Jan, but Britten turns back to Bigger and demands to know if his story is truthful. Bigger swears that it is, offering to quit the job as he had only come to work at the Dalton house because the relief organization had sent him.

Mr. Dalton realizes that this is true, apologizing to Bigger and asking him to stay. Dismissed to his room, Bigger listens to the two men. Mr. Dalton feels guilty for accusing Bigger, who he was trying to give a second chance after a checkered past. But Britten insists that “you got to be rough” with Black people, using a racist epithet (186). Mr. Dalton blames his daughter and doesn’t want Bigger to get in trouble for following her commands. Wary of creating a public scandal with the communists, Mr. Dalton decides to convince Jan to come to the house rather than sending Britten to pick him up. Bigger wonders if Jan will try to lie about seeing Mary and drinking with her, hoping that he does since that will only incriminate him. He considers the ransom note and determines that it should be sent quickly, but after Jan tells his side of the story. In the Daltons’ luxurious house, Bigger recognizes the privilege and security that white people take for granted, which Bigger has never experienced in his own life. Knowing that he had taken their beloved daughter from them makes Bigger feel as if he has made himself equal.

Smiling, Bigger imagines that he might be called to testify against Jan and feels certain that he will have no trouble manipulating Britten. Once Jan is the main suspect, Bigger is confident that a ransom note will elicit a quick response and payment without casting suspicion on him. Bigger falls asleep, dreaming that he hears a church bell, which becomes an urgent warning. He carries a package that feels wet and slippery, and when he opens it, he finds his own bloody, grisly head. He tries to run, but white people surround him to ask about the severed head. No longer concerned about his own fate, Bigger throws the head in their white faces. He wakes up to discover that the sound of the bell wasn’t a dream, but the insistent ringing of the bell used to summon him in his room. Britten is waiting, demanding, “We want to talk to you” (190). Bigger sees that Jan is there, gazing at Bigger, and they enter Bigger’s room. Britten confronts Jan with the pamphlets and Jan responds with a slight smile. Britten interrogates Bigger, asking him to confirm that Jan had been the man who Mary had brought to her room.

Disbelieving, Jan addresses Bigger and asks why he lied. Bigger both despises Jan and feels a deep shock of guilt. Jan expresses confusion when Britten asks about Mary’s whereabouts. At first, Jan claims that he hadn’t seen Mary the night before, but then admits that he had and was lying to protect her. Jan confesses to drinking with Mary and giving the pamphlets to Bigger. Jan lies again and says that he had taken Mary home, likely, Bigger suspects, because he realizes that after drinking with Mary, he ought to have made sure she got home safely. When Jan realizes that Mary is missing and he is being interrogated, Jan tries to tell the truth, but his credibility is already damaged. Jan addresses Bigger again, asking what he has said about him and urging him to tell the truth. Bigger remains silent and Jan stares at him, perplexed. Jan swears that he has no idea where Mary has gone. Mr. Dalton offers Jan money in exchange for her location, and Jan, offended, storms out. Britten waves Jan off, promising to have him picked up. He is now convinced that Jan is guilty of something.

Britten and Mr. Dalton walk out, and the moment Bigger hears them leave the house, he creeps down to the basement. Bigger stares at the furnace briefly, then heads out to see Bessie to take care of the ransom note and return before his absence is noted. Jan calls his name and Bigger, on edge, feels for the gun inside his shirt. Jan questions Bigger. Knowing that Jan hasn’t done anything to hurt him, Bigger feels overwhelmed with guilt. Bigger feels so terrible that he considers that he might have to shoot Jan rather than continue to feel such guilt. Jan offers to have coffee with Bigger and help him if Britten and Mr. Dalton are intimidating him into lying. Bigger threatens Jan with his gun and Jan, taken aback, backs off, walking quickly away. As Bigger regains control of himself, a white woman approaches, sees him, and races away. Replacing the gun inside his shirt, Bigger walks to a drugstore and buys a pencil, paper, and an envelope to write the ransom note before Jan can prove his innocence.

Planning to himself, Bigger decides that Bessie can watch for Mr. Dalton to toss out the ransom money from one of the “many empty buildings with black windows, like blind eyes” (198). Bigger finally chooses a building on a corner, ignoring the people around him who he also sees as blind. A sign posted on a nearby building declares that the property is managed by South Side Real Estate, which Bigger recognizes as both Mr. Dalton’s company and the company his family pays to rent their squalid, one-room apartment. For all of Mr. Dalton’s charitable donations toward the education of African Americans, he only rents to Black tenants in the designated Black Belt, where buildings are dilapidated and poorly maintained. Bigger hopes his ransom note will destroy Mr. Dalton’s comfort and complacency.

Arriving at Bessie’s apartment, Bigger becomes angry when he must ring several times, certain that she is drunk. His fury rises when she opens the door, half-asleep, her eyes bloodshot from drinking. He pulls out the paper and pencil from the drugstore and Bessie tells him that she won’t help with his ransom plot. Bigger argues that Bessie had broken the law with him before by stealing from her employers. He crumples the drugstore paper and tosses it to the floor. Bessie picks it up and he laughs suddenly at her priorities, as she concerned about keeping her apartment tidy a such a moment, and he decides again that she is blind. Bigger commands her to fetch a knife to sharpen the pencil. Bessie asks why he can’t use his own knife, and Bigger sees a flashing vision of the knife, covered in Mary’s blood before he had destroyed it. Bigger threatens to hit her and she gets the knife. He tells Bessie to have a drink, sit down, and stay silent. After a moment, she does.

Carefully, wearing gloves, Bigger writes the note with instructions to Mr. Dalton on how to deliver the ransom if he wants his daughter to return alive. Bigger signs the note “Red” and draws a hammer and sickle. Looking over his shoulder, Bessie asks in a horrified whisper if Bigger had killed the girl. Bigger won’t respond, and Bessie starts to weep on the bed. Sealing the note into the envelope, Bigger lays next to Bessie and holds her. He tries to soothe her and claim that he hasn’t killed anyone, but Bessie doesn’t believe him. She exclaims, “If you killed her you’ll kill me. […] I ain’t in this” (204). Bigger had once promised Bessie that he wouldn’t ever kill anyone, but Bigger insists that white people don’t count because they’ve killed so many Black people. Bigger wonders if he will be able to trust Bessie and decides that he must make sure that she isn’t a loose end, one way or another.

Forcefully, Bigger tells Bessie that she is already an accomplice. He admits that he killed Mary but points out that Bessie had helped to spend her money. Bessie pleads with Bigger to leave her out of it and run away and Bigger threatens to kill her if she won’t help. Bigger is certain that he can’t trust her to leave her behind and thinks that he may end up having to kill her anyways. Bigger orders her to come with him and she accompanies him unwillingly through the snow. Bessie offers to run away with Bigger, swearing that she loves him, but he shuts her down. They arrive at the empty building Bigger chose. Bessie cries and begs, but Bigger digs his fingers into her arm and guides her inside. Bigger notices that the building is like most homes on the South Side of Chicago, once luxurious and owned by wealthy white people but left to rot as apartments for Black tenants. Bessie sobs and tells Bigger that she would prefer that he go ahead and kill her than force her to be involved. Bigger slaps her and insists that she’s already involved.

Bigger explains how Bessie is to come back tomorrow night and wait for Mr. Dalton’s car to drop off the money. He coerces her to agree, then guides her back to the stop to take a car home. Bigger walks back to the Daltons’ house, pausing to slide the ransom note under the front door with a flash of giddy elation. He goes inside through the basement, pausing to look at the furnace. He pulls the lever to add coal but is afraid to look inside. Back in his room, Bigger suddenly panics. He goes back to the furnace to burn the pencil, his gloves, and leftover paper. In the basement, he is overcome with a wave of dizzy dread that nearly knocks him over. Realizing that he is exhausted and hasn’t eaten, Bigger goes into the kitchen. He sees lavish plates of food and pauses, unsure if he is allowed to eat from them. Then he laughs at himself for being so afraid of eating food that might not be meant for him after all that he has done.

Peggy enters the kitchen, holding the unopened ransom note. She tells Bigger that the food has been plated and waiting for him since 5:00, and he eats ravenously. Peggy leaves to give the envelope to Mr. Dalton and Bigger’s anxiety overtakes his appetite. But he forces himself to eat to avoid suspicion. Peggy returns and sighs about Mary’s silly behavior, irresponsibly worrying her parents. Bigger imagines the Daltons reading the note, never fathoming “that a Black, timid Negro” (215) could have carried out this plot. Peggy tells Bigger that in the morning, he needs to clean the ashes out of the furnace fire. Abruptly, Mr. Dalton comes into the kitchen, panicked and gray. He demands to know where Peggy got the letter and she explains, confused, that she found it at the door. Mrs. Dalton joins them in the kitchen and grabs her husband, shaking and asking what’s wrong. Instead of answering his wife, Mr. Dalton asks both Peggy and Bigger if they saw who left the note and they both claim that they didn’t.

Mr. Dalton informs them all that Mary has been kidnapped. Mrs. Dalton wails and Peggy cries and runs out, exclaiming, “Lord, don’t let them kill her!” (217) Mrs. Dalton starts to faint, and her husband carries her out of the room. Bigger remembers carrying Mary’s body just the previous night. Alone in the kitchen, Bigger briefly contemplates running again, but he wants to know how the situation turns out. He listens, but the Daltons fall silent. Then he hears Mr. Dalton calling Britten and telling him to come to the house right away. Bigger prepares himself for more questioning. He goes down into the basement and glances at the furnace, wondering if Mary’s body has fully burned yet. Bigger returns to his room and listens. After a while, he hears voices and the doorbell, rushing to the closet to listen. Britten is questioning Peggy, who is sobbing and can’t imagine who would have sent such a letter.

Then Britten asks about Bigger, wondering how he behaves and if he seems like he might be pretending to be less intelligent than he is. Doubtfully, Peggy replies that he acts “just like all the other colored boys” (220), well-mannered and quiet. Britten asks about his mannerisms, trying to identify whether Bigger has shown signs of having spent time with communists, but Peggy asserts that he doesn’t act or speak any differently than any other Black people. Britten ends the interrogation and Bigger smiles, knowing that Britten has no evidence to build a case against him. Britten speaks to the men who came to the house with him, stating that Mary is most likely already dead because kidnappers are usually afraid of being identified. Britten says that Mr. Dalton plans to pay the ransom, which he sees as a waste of money. The men speculate that the communists might be trying to raise funds. Britten is still reluctant to call the police, but one of the men points out that Jan will certainly notify the police and the newspapers when he’s picked up.

Bigger wonders what will happen if the police become involved and he is caught lying about Jan’s presence in the house. One of the men knocks on Bigger’s door and informs him that he is wanted downstairs. Three white men are waiting by the furnace with Britten, who asks Bigger whether he thinks Jan had taken part in the kidnapping. Bigger affirms his story about what happened the night before. Britten wants to know what Jan had said to Bigger about communism. Bigger repeats those goals of the Communist Party that pertain to racial equality, knowing that these make most white men angry. Bigger asserts however, that he had only listened to Jan because he felt he was doing his job. Britten asks if Mary had seemed frightened, and Bigger mentions truthfully that she had cried at one point. Britten questions whether Jan had promised Bigger that he could socialize with white women if he joined the Party. Bigger, knowing that most white men would be disgusted by the idea of a Black man with a white woman, acts as if the question is shocking. Likewise, when they ask if Jan had had sex with Mary in the back of the car, Bigger pretends to have been appropriately uninterested in her sexuality.

More cars pull into the driveway and newspaper reporters enter the scene. One of them produces a newspaper with the headline, “RED NABBED AS GIRL VANISHES” (227). The reporters call out questions, asking about Bigger. Bigger gives his name and Britten tells him not to speak. Bigger sense that the reporters might be even more threatening than Britten’s men because they seem ruthless. One tries to bribe Bigger to talk with a handful of cash, but Bigger gives it back. Britten announces that Mr. Dalton won’t make a statement, which Bigger takes to mean that he intends to pay the ransom instead of involving the police. Britten refuses to answer their questions, claiming that they will have to wait for Mr. Dalton’s statement, but Mr. Dalton enters. He is holding the ransom note and warn the reporters that the situation is delicate, and his daughter’s life is at stake.

Mrs. Dalton enters followed by the white cat who jumps onto Bigger’s shoulder and sits there.

Bigger feels as if the cat has accused him of the murder, and he manages to dislodge its claws from his coat. Mr. Dalton proclaims that he has told the police to release Jan and issued an apology for his arrest. He announces that Mary has been kidnapped for a ransom demand of $10,000. Mr. Dalton pleads with the reporters to print that he intends the pay and will not involve the police, asking them to beg the kidnappers not to kill his daughter. Mr. Dalton won’t allow them to photograph the note but reveals that how it was signed. He refuses to speculate as to the identity of the kidnappers, stressing that their priority is Mary’s safe return. They photograph the Daltons holding the note, and Bigger is surprised when some reporters take pictures of him. Bigger tenses when one reporter opens the furnace door, but then he closes it.

After the men leave the basement to photograph Mary’s bedroom, Bigger seizes the copy of the newspaper that the reporter had brought earlier. The story focuses on Jan, suggesting that Mary might be “hiding out with communists” (238). The men return to the basement with Britten, wondering why they aren’t allowed to speak to Bigger. Britten gives permission, but they find Bigger’s vague responses unsatisfying. Noticing that the men are beginning to get cold, Bigger realizes that he needs to clean the ashes out of the furnace to stoke the fire. Britten speaks congenially to Bigger about the messy situation and conjecturing that Jan is responsible. Bigger is overcome with exhaustion. Then, an excited reporter rushes into the basement to announce that Jan is refusing to leave the jail and can produce witnesses who will corroborate his claim that he hadn’t entered the Dalton house.

Britten brushes this off, arguing that Jan’s communist friends will lie to protect him. The reporters converge on Bigger again with questions. Jan had told police that he had gone to a party after leaving Mary. Bigger contemplates how to respond to the reporters. They ask about communism, and one determines that Bigger is “a dumb cluck” (246) who doesn’t understand it. Peggy brings coffee and instructs Bigger to clean out the furnace because the house is cooling down. Panicked, Bigger tries to think quickly and stoke the fire without emptying the ashes in front of a basement full of reporters, but he accidentally fills the basement with smoke. The men shout at him, and one of the reporters grabs the shovel to help with the ashes. Bigger freezes and watches as the reporter digs in the furnace. The smoke clears, and the reporter suddenly pauses. There is a bone amid the ashes on the floor. Another man finds an earring.

Bigger’s mind is blank: “There was just the old feeling, the feeling he had had all his life: he was black and had done wrong; white men were looking at something with which they would soon accuse him” (253). The men find the hatchet blade. In hushed tones, one articulates that they’ve found Mary’s body. Quietly, Bigger steals away to his room and jumps out the window into the snowbanks below. Too tired to run, he walks quickly away from the house. Becoming a fugitive feels like something that has been inevitable his entire life, confirming the outsider status that he has always felt. Bigger checks the gun in his shirt, determined to go down fighting. He needs to get the roll of money from Bessie and run. Passing a newsboy, Bigger buys a paper and boards a streetcar, reading the soon-to-be-outdated story about the kidnapping and ransom. There’s a photo of Bigger, the white cat on his shoulder, with the headline that the communists had tried to recruit him.

Bessie lets Bigger into her apartment, expressing relief when Bigger tells her that the ransom plan is cancelled. But Bigger doesn’t want her to feel relieved and leave him to bear the situation alone. He tells her what happened. She starts to cry. Bigger asks about the money and Bessie replies that she has $90 in her pocket, but she wishes she could die. When Bigger threatens that he will leave her if she doesn’t calm down, Bessie begs him to stay. Seeing that Bigger is exhausted, she heats up some milk and asks him about Mary. He describes it to her, swearing that he hadn’t meant to kill her. Bessie starts to cry again, telling Bigger that everyone will assume that he had raped Mary. Staring at Bessie, Bigger realizes that this is true, and he can’t prove otherwise.

Bigger tells Bessie to pack some things, but Bessie curls up on the bed, unwilling to move. He threatens to leave again, and she begs him to stay. Then she is overcome with despair, lamenting her hard life, cursing Bigger, and wishing she had never met him. Calmly, Bigger grabs an armload of bedding and orders Bessie to come with him and bring her bottle of liquor, dragging her out of the door. He pulls her into a rotting, empty building and to a frigid third-floor room with an open window and air shaft. As Bessie weeps, Bigger drinks whiskey. He tells Bessie to lay on the bedroll with him and after several moments, she does. Bigger starts to kiss and touch her. Bessie begs him to stop, but he rapes her. Afterward, he contemplates what to do with Bessie, who will be a liability whether he brings her or abandons her. Feeling her asleep beside him, Bigger rises carefully and finds two bricks in the corner of the room. He decides that he needs to kill her to save himself. He panics for a moment, unwilling to go through with it. Then he steels himself and hits Bessie with the brick.

He drops her down the air shaft, followed by the bloody bedding. Then he realizes with a start that the money had been in her pocket. He can’t stand the idea of seeing Bessie’s body, so he resigns himself to running with only seven cents in his possession. The night passes restlessly, and dawn shows a fresh blanket of snow. Bigger goes out and steals a paper from a newsstand and is nearly caught but escapes into an empty building.

The newspaper confirms that the police are chasing him, declaring that five thousand officers have been dispatched to the Black Belt, aided by three thousand volunteers. The headline includes the phrase, “AUHORITIES HINT SEX CRIME” (281), which Bigger knows is signing his death warrant, filling every white man who reads it with murderous rage. White rioters have descended upon the Black Belt, smashing windows and beating up Black men. They are searching every home and empty building, and the police have welcomed the help of vigilante groups. Hundreds of Black men have been arrested workers have been fired by their white employers. Jan has not been dismissed as a potential accomplice because police believe that the plot was too complex for a Black man to have orchestrated it. Bigger has the indignant urge to declare that he had acted alone.

Knowing that there will be roadblocks preventing him from leaving the city, Bigger considers where he ought to hide. The paper shows the hunt will soon close in on him. On the roof of the building, Bigger sees several Black men gathered, speaking excitedly around a newspaper talking about him. Through the uncovered window of a nearby building, he sees three naked Black children watching from one bed as a couple has sex in the other. He remembers seeing a similar scene as a child as his parents had sex in the room the family shared. A wave of hunger passes over Bigger. Feeling saliva frozen at the corners of his mouth, Bigger decides that he needs to find somewhere to warm up. He burns the newspaper, providing some fleeting warmth.

Bigger searches for an empty apartment in an occupied building, although there is a housing shortage in the Black Belt because dilapidated apartment buildings there are constantly being condemned. Once, his family had been ejected from their apartment in a building that had collapsed two days later. And yet, Black tenants pay twice as much rent as white ones. A black rat darts in front of him into a building and Bigger watches enviously as it disappears into the safety of a hole. Bigger finds a grocery store and buys a loaf of bread, breathless with fear, but no one seems to recognize him. He finally finds a building with a “For Rent” sign and crawls into the window of an empty apartment. It’s warm. He hears the neighbors arguing about him. One insists that he would turn Bigger in if he saw him because he makes all Black people look like criminals. He’s upset because he was one of the hundreds who was fired from his job. The other argues that white people already see Black people as criminals and Bigger might not be guilty at all, swearing that he would rather die than turn Bigger in or comply with people who hate him just for being Black.

Bigger drinks from the faucet and eats the bread. He sleeps fitfully. His dreams of safe, familiar places are invaded by the sound of drums. He wakes to the sound of a Black church service below. The singing makes him feel lonely and sad, hearing the way the churchgoers, like his mother, find completeness in their faith. But Bigger knows that to feel that complacency, he would have to embrace humility and insulate himself from the world, which he is unwilling to do. Back on the street, Bigger sees a newsstand, crowded with Black people who undoubtedly want to read about him. He steals another paper and then finds another vacant apartment and climbs the stairs to the fourth floor. Bigger pauses when an alarmed neighbor hears him, but her husband assures her that she is simply frightened by the news of Bigger in the paper. Bigger realizes that he would have had to kill the couple if they had spotted him.

After crawling carefully through the window of the empty apartment, Bigger reads the newspaper. The paper is now referring to him as a rapist, reporting more raids and riots. On an updated map of the manhunt progress, Bigger sees that he is right in the middle of the shrinking unsearched area and knows that they must be close. They had also raided several communist headquarters and arrested hundreds of party members. The paper also notes that Bigger’s family had been renting their apartment from a company owned by Mr. Dalton. A siren sounds and voices around him begin to rumble with excitement and one exclaims, “They’s comin’!” (297) Bigger climbs the stairs to the attic and then up to the roof. The white mob searching the buildings on the street, filling the sky with searchlights. Bigger knows that he is reaching the conclusion of the chaos that began when he had tried to silence Mary with the pillow. Bigger considers suicide. He watches tensely as a white man searches the roof next door without spotting him.

Bigger hears the white men beneath him, discussing the nearly undressed woman they had just ogled in the apartment below. The trapdoor from the attic to the roof opens, and time seems to slow to a standstill as a white face appears, searching the roof with a flashlight. Bigger slams the butt of is gun into the back of man’s head, knocking him out. He watches as another man searches the roof next door. A voice from below him calls out the unconscious man’s name: Jerry. Bigger pulls himself over to the roof next door which has already been searched. The calling voice comes up to the roof and finds his unconscious partner. He begins to shout. Bigger considers escaping into another building through the trapdoor on the roof, but knows that the inhabitants would scream and turn him in. Another man joins Jerry’s partner and shouts to the white men on the street to block off the area. A bloodthirsty cheer rises from the street when the man announces that he believes they are close to surrounding Bigger.

Bigger decides to run from roof to roof, climbing over to the next one. Then someone shouts, “There he is!” (307) Gunshots ring past him as he races across the roofs. He climbs a water tower, dodging bullets. He turns and shoots at the men behind him but misses. A cheer from the street suggests that those below believe that the shots mean that Bigger has been caught or killed. A canister of tear gas lands near him, but he hits them back toward the men who are pursuing him. Bigger resolves to shoot but save one of his three remaining bullets for himself. The stream of a fire hose strikes him and saps his strength. He loses the gun and collapses onto the roof and the white men grab him. As Bigger sinks into unconsciousness, he hears men on the street calling for him to be lynched, one shouting, “Kill that Black ape!” (314)