Vocabulary in Native Son

Uncomfortably small and crowded, leaving very little room to move or live with any comfort or privacy.

Completely unable to change or fix a situation, no matter how much one wants to; lacking any effective means of helping.

The complete, unfiltered depth of a feeling or experience, without holding anything back or looking away from it.

A state of great suffering, poverty, and unhappiness that grinds a person down over a long period of time.

Overwhelmed so completely by emotion that a person loses control of their own thoughts and sense of self, as if carried away by a flood.

A total loss of hope so deep that a person feels nothing can ever improve or be changed.

Wealthy and living in comfortable, well-resourced circumstances, well above the financial level of most people.

The male head of a family who holds authority and control over the household and its finances.

A person employed to drive a private car for a wealthy family or individual, typically wearing a uniform and on call as needed.

Drunk from alcohol to the point of being unable to walk or take care of oneself properly.

Kills someone by pressing something tightly over their face so they cannot breathe.

A large enclosed heating unit, typically in a basement, that burns coal or other fuel to heat a building — here used to burn and conceal a body.

Cutting completely through something so that it is separated into two parts; here, cutting off a head from a body.

To redirect blame or doubt away from oneself and toward someone else, so investigators look in the wrong direction.

To falsely make another person appear responsible for a crime or wrongdoing, framing them so punishment falls on them instead.

A person who has become a dangerous risk — someone whose knowledge or behavior could expose another person to harm or capture.

An organized, large-scale search by police and authorities to track down and capture a specific person who is fleeing.

Feared something deeply and intensely, anticipating it with a feeling of dread that goes beyond ordinary worry.

So mentally shut down from shock or trauma that a person becomes motionless, unresponsive, and unable to interact with the world around them.

Chosen and enforced by oneself rather than forced by anyone else; a condition or restriction one places on oneself deliberately.

The act of choosing not to hold a wrong or injury against someone, releasing them from guilt or the expectation of punishment.

The idea, felt bitterly by Bigger, that in a racist society simply existing as a Black person is treated as a punishable offense, as if one's race itself is a crime.

Here used not just legally but personally — the deliberate killing of another person, which Bigger reflects on as the defining act of his existence.

Having genuine significance or importance to a person's sense of self and purpose — the opposite of feeling invisible or without value.

Feeling sorry for another person's suffering and showing care or pity toward them, which Bigger ultimately rejects as insufficient.