Editing Native Son (section)

=== Book One: Fear ===
Twenty-year-old Bigger Thomas lives in one room with his brother Buddy, his sister Vera, and their mother. Suddenly, a rat appears. The room turns into a maelstrom, and after a violent chase, Bigger kills the animal with an iron skillet and terrorizes his sister Vera with the dead rat. She faints, and Mrs. Thomas scolds Bigger, who hates his family because they suffer and he cannot do anything about it.

That evening, Bigger has to see Mr. Dalton, a white man, for a new job. Bigger's family depends on him. He would like to leave his responsibilities forever, but when he thinks of what to do, he only sees a blank wall.

Bigger walks to a poolroom and meets his friend, Gus. Bigger tells him that every time he thinks about whites, he feels something terrible will happen to him. They meet other friends, G.H. and Jack, and plan a robbery. They are all afraid of attacking and stealing from a white man, but none of them wants to admit their concerns. Before the robbery, Bigger and Jack go to the movies. They are attracted to the world of wealthy whites in the newsreel and feel strangely moved by the tom-toms and the primitive black people in the film, yet also feel they are equal to those worlds. After the film, Bigger returns to the poolroom and attacks Gus violently, forcing him to lick his blade in a demeaning way to hide Bigger's own cowardice. The fight ends any chance of the robbery occurring, and Bigger is vaguely aware that his actions were intentional.

When he finally gets the job, Bigger does not know how to behave in Dalton's large, luxurious house. Mr. Dalton and his blind wife use strange words. They try to be kind to the young man, but actually make him uncomfortable; Bigger does not know what they expect of him.

Then their daughter, Mary, enters the room, asks Bigger why he is not in a union, and calls her father a "capitalist". Bigger does not know the word and becomes even more confused and fearful that he may lose the job. After the conversation, Peggy, an Irish cook, takes Bigger to his room and tells him the Daltons are a nice family, but he must avoid Mary's [[Communism|Communist]] friends. After she leaves, Bigger marvels that he has never had a room of his own before.

That night, he drives Mary around and meets her Communist boyfriend Jan. Throughout the evening, Jan and Mary talk to Bigger, oblige him to take them to a diner where their friends are eating, invite him to sit at their table, and tell him to call them by their first names. Bigger does not know how to respond to their requests and becomes frustrated, as he is simply their [[chauffeur]] for the night. At the diner, they buy a bottle of rum, then Bigger drives throughout [[Washington Park (Chicago park)|Washington Park]] while Jan and Mary drink and make out in the back seat. Jan departs, but Mary is so drunk that Bigger has to carry her to her bedroom when they return home. He is terrified someone will see him with her in his arms; however, he still cannot resist the forbidden temptation and kisses her.

Just then, the bedroom door opens, and Mrs. Dalton enters. Bigger knows she is blind but is terrified she will sense him there. Frightened of the consequences if he, a black man, were to be found in Mary's bedroom, he silences Mary by pressing a pillow into her face. Mary claws at Bigger's hands while Mrs. Dalton is in the room, trying to alert Bigger that she cannot breathe. Mrs. Dalton approaches the bed, smells alcohol in the air, scolds her daughter, and leaves. As Bigger removes the pillow, he realizes that Mary has suffocated to death. Bigger starts thinking frantically, and decides he will tell everyone that her boyfriend Jan took Mary into the house that night.

Thinking it will be better if Mary disappears as she was supposed to leave for Detroit in the morning, Bigger decides in desperation to burn her body in the house furnace. Her body initially will not fit through the furnace opening, but after decapitating it, Bigger finally manages to put the corpse inside. He adds extra coal to the furnace, leaves the corpse to burn, and goes home.