Native Son

“The rat’s belly pulsed with fear. Bigger advanced a step and the rat emitted a long thin song of defiance, its black beady eyes glittering, its tiny forefeet pawing the air restlessly.”

The rat in the apartment is trapped, afraid, and fighting, a symbol of what’s to come for Bigger . The rat escapes again, but Bigger finally kills him. He treats the animal with disgust, which mirrors the way that the white mob will treat him when they’re trying to catch him.

“He hated his family because he knew that they were suffering and he was powerless to help. […] He knew that the moment he allowed what his life meant to enter fully into his consciousness, he would either kill himself or someone else.”

Love is an emotion that makes one vulnerable. What one loves can be hurt or destroyed, just as Bigger will destroy the daughter who the Daltons love. Bigger is afraid to love his family, so he hates them. He is terrified of what will happen if he faces his life with full consciousness and awareness, so he masks his pain, even to himself.

“He wanted to see a movie; his senses hungered for it. In a movie he could dream without effort; all he had to do was lean back in a seat and keep his eyes open.”

Bigger’s description of the way movies can provide an escape is perhaps the most wholesome musing he experiences throughout the entire novel. Bigger covers his pain with more pain. He is constantly alert and defensive and doesn’t even seem to find rest from this when he sleeps. But while he is watching the movie, Bigger ends up being distracted by what he had seen in the newsreel, letting his mind wander and worry about his life.