Native Son: Book 2 Summary & Analysis

Bigger awakes and realizes, just as his eyes open, that his has killed Mary and stuffed her body in a furnace; the events of the previous night, at the Dalton house, were real. He quickly realizes that, although the rest of his family is still asleep in their apartment, he has left Mary’s purse, with some of her money, lying out on a chair in the room, and his pocket-knife, still in his pocket, has dried blood on it. Bigger realizes that he can take some of the pamphlets Jan gave him, which are still in his pockets, and put them in his drawer at the Daltons’, making it seems like Jan was trying to forcibly convert him to the (purportedly evil) Communist cause.

Bigger looks at the clock; it’s seven a.m. Bigger then decides that, in the hour and a half before he is to take Mary’s trunk to the train station, he will pack and work further on his alibi, to make it seem that Jan is Mary’s murderer. As he is gathering clothes and putting them in his own small suitcase, he wakes his mother, who asks if Bigger got the job at the Daltons. Bigger says that he did. His mother asks why Bigger came in so late the night prior—at four a.m.—but Bigger angrily replies that he came in at two. His mother quibbles for a moment, and says four—Bigger corrects her again, hoping to keep his alibi straight, in case he has to relate it later to the police.

Vera and Buddy soon also wake up, and Vera, like Ma, asks Bigger if he got the job, and how much he’s making. Bigger angrily tells Vera the details of the job; Vera can sense that Bigger is upset, but Bigger won’t tell her why. Buddy takes Bigger’s side, and seems excited about Bigger’s new occupation. Ma prepares breakfast for the family, and as she is doing so, Buddy tells Bigger that Bessie came by their apartment the night before, telling Bigger’s family that she saw Bigger at Ernie’s eating with two white people. Bigger explains that this is part of his new driving job, and Buddy seems impressed by this.

As Ma is preparing breakfast, Bigger realizes that this is perhaps the final time he will eat with his family. Although he is nervous about the crime he has committed, he also feels that he has “surpassed” his family now, that he has done something that has liberated him—killing a white woman—and that, now, there is no turning back—that Bigger is free to determine the course of his life. Bigger and the rest of the family eat bacon and eggs, and Bigger jumps up, saying he has to go. Realizing that he ought to pretend he does not have the cash he has in fact stolen from Mary’s purse, Bigger asks his mother for a half-dollar, which she gives him. Bigger walks out the door.

Buddy comes after Bigger and meets him on the staircase; Buddy hands his brother the large wad of cash that had fallen out of Mary’s purse, which Bigger thought he had stuffed securely in his pocket. Buddy asks where the money came from, but Bigger tells Buddy not to mention to anyone, under any circumstances, that Bigger has this money. Buddy agrees, and looks at his brother with a mix of fascination and awe. Bigger says he has to go, and leaves his brother, walking out into the snowy morning.

Walking back to the Daltons’, Bigger stops off in a drugstore, where he finds G.H. at the soda counter. Bigger buys G.H. a pack of cigarettes, and G.H., surprised at Bigger’s generosity, asks what has changed—Bigger hints that his job at the Daltons’ has made him a rich man overnight. Jack and Gus enter, too, and Bigger, to show that there are no hard feelings, buys them all packs of cigarettes and wishes them a good day, saying he has to head off to work. On his walk to a tram-car, which will take him to the Daltons’, Bigger appears positive about his plans, believing that, when news of Mary’s death is revealed, everyone will immediately blame Jan and his “red” (Communist) companions.

On the tram-ride to the Daltons’, Bigger thinks about the possibility, however improbable it might seem, of a large group of black citizens rising up against their white overlords in Chicago. Bigger seems to wish that this would happen—or, at the very least, that blacks would organize themselves and agitate for better rights—but Bigger thinks to himself that it would take an enormous effort for African Americans to do this. Bigger also remarks on the growing difficulties in the world—the Second World War is about to start, and there is strife in Spain, Italy, and Germany—and he wonders if African Americans in Chicago have any hope of standing up to the white majority, if, in turn, entire countries are having difficulty holding back the tides of dictatorship and war.

Bigger’s musings are cut short by the end of his tram-ride; he arrives at the Dalton house, and, entering, is wished good morning by Peggy, who tells Bigger that he ought to tend to the furnace, which, according to her, burned hot the night before, but is now burning only feebly. Bigger says he will look to the furnace immediately. Peggy tells Bigger that it is nearly time to take Mary to the station; Bigger begins his alibi, telling Peggy that Mary had him keep the car outside overnight (the car is now covered in fresh snow); Bigger also reports that Mary asked him to bring her trunk downstairs in preparation for her departure the next day.

Peggy goes upstairs to get dressed, and Bigger goes down to the furnace-room, where he fears that Mary’s body might still be visible among the coals—or, even worse, that the body has somehow, miraculously, avoided being burnt at all, which would completely foil Bigger’s plan. Bigger notices that the furnace seems especially full, but he cannot detect anything particular among the ashes; he adds more coal to the furnace, then drags Mary’s trunk out to the car, making it seem as though Bigger’s preparations for driving Mary have not been interrupted.

Peggy returns to the kitchen and asks if Bigger has seen Mary come downstairs yet that day; Bigger says that he has not, and Peggy, not knowing how Mr. and Mrs. Dalton will react when they wake up, tells Bigger to take Mary’s trunk down to the train station, for it to be sent along to Detroit (presumably, Peggy thinks, along with Mary). Bigger drives the trunk to the station and drives back, navigating the now quite snowy streets.

When he returns to the Daltons’ house, Bigger is asked by Peggy if he’d like any breakfast; he has no appetite, but agrees to eat some oatmeal and milk. Peggy asks who Mary was with the night before, and Bigger says it was Jan, while also insinuating that Bigger left the car with Jan and Mary, in the driveway, and that Jan was the last person to see Mary before she went to bed. He then goes to check on the furnace and heads back to his bedroom, wondering what will happen when the Daltons find out that Mary is missing.

Bigger, in his room, hears Mrs. Dalton and Peggy talking in the hall; he goes into a closet in his bedroom, from which he can hear Mrs. Dalton and Peggy quite distinctly. Mrs. Dalton asks Peggy why the car was in the driveway all night; Peggy responds that Mary is not in her room, that her bed appears not to have been slept in, and that Jan called that morning (as he promised to do, in Bigger’s presence, the night before), checking in on Mary before her train-ride to Detroit. Peggy wonders if Jan’s calling wasn’t just a feint, used to make it seem that Mary did not stay at his house the night before. Peggy seems to believe that Mary’s absence is simply one of her pranks, an instance of “bad behavior” with Jan.

But Mrs. Dalton responds that Mary was in her room at two a.m. the night before—when Mrs. Dalton crept in and smelled liquor in the room—and wonders if something hasn’t happened to Mary. Mrs. Dalton then feels around in Mary’s room and discovers that a good many of Mary’s new clothes were not packed in the trunk—this causes Mrs. Dalton to believe that Mary didn’t pack her trunk at all the night before, and that something happened to Mary to keep her from going to Detroit as planned. Mrs. Dalton says that she’d like to speak with Bigger later that day, after she’s thought for a moment about where Mary could be.

Some time passes, which Bigger spends dozing in his room. Mrs. Dalton has Peggy ring for Bigger; Bigger hears it on the third ring, and Mrs. Dalton comes to his door, asking about the events of the previous night. Bigger knows that Mrs. Dalton’s embarrassment about Mary’s disappearance—which she believes is a result of Mary’s sexual impropriety with Jan—will cause her not to grill him too harshly. Bigger makes it seem that Jan came back to the house with Mary, that Jan told Bigger to leave the car in the driveway, and that Jan then went up to Mary’s room with her—and that both of them were inebriated. Mrs. Dalton thanks Bigger for this information and tells him he can have the rest of the day off.

Bigger decides that he will take the afternoon and visit with Bessie, his girlfriend, whom he glanced briefly the night before at Ernie’s. He rides a streetcar to Bessie’s neighborhood and thinks, en route, of how, if the white people he passes in the streetcar knew that he had just murdered a white woman, they would beat and murder him. Bigger also scolds himself for not managing to make more money out of the murder—he briefly considers the idea that he might have pretended to kidnap Mary to extort more from the Daltons.

Bigger arrives at Bessie’s small, squalid apartment, and greets her cheerfully. Bessie does not know “what’s gotten into” Bigger, and when Bigger asks what Bessie’s been up to, Bessie replies that she’s been working, and that she wonders if Bigger has been doing the same. Bigger says he’s been very busy, which is why it’s been difficult for him to call Bessie or see her, but now he shows her the wad of money he’s taken from Mary’s purse, making it seem like the money was given to him by the Daltons; he promises to be sweet to Bessie from now on, and says that she can stay with him occasionally at his room in the Daltons’ house.

Bessie is alarmed at the sight of all this cash, and asks Bigger several times where he could have gotten it all at once. They count the money; it amounts to 125 dollars. Bigger then tells Bessie that he’s going to be sweet to her, without revealing any more information about the money; they make love and nap for a time. When they wake up, Bigger seems distant, and Bessie asks whether Bigger doesn’t have something on his mind; Bigger replies that he does, but wonders if he’ll be able to share this information with Bessie. Bessie says she can keep a secret and wants to know, but Bigger replies that they should go out and get a drink.

Bessie continues to ask Bigger about the nature of what he’s been up to, and Bigger replies that it will be easier to talk once they’re seated at the Paris Grill, the bar where they will have drinks. Bigger thinks that what Bessie really wants is alcohol—he believes that she drinks to forget the difficulties of her life—and what Bigger lusts after is Bessie’s body. This reverie is interrupted when they reach the bar; Bigger orders two gin cocktails, and Bessie drinks hers quickly. Bessie again asks Bigger if he will tell her what’s on his mind.

Bigger decides, on the fly, to tell Bessie a half-true version of what has happened to Mary. He says that Mary has eloped with Jan, that no one can find the couple, and that he, Bigger, has taken some of the money from Mary’s room—thus the large wad of cash he’s been holding in his pocket. Bigger tells Bessie that the two of them can make it seem that Jan, or someone else, has abducted Mary—Bigger and Bessie can therefore ask for a ransom, and make their way out of town while Mary is still unaccounted for. Bigger tells Bessie that it’s very important she keep this plan secret, if it’s going to work.

Bigger and Bessie leave the bar; Bessie is worried about the plan, since it is so obviously illegal, since it exposes her to criminal prosecution—and, most of all, since she can’t be sure that Mary wouldn’t return on her own. Bigger makes it seem that it’s very unlikely Mary would return in this way, and Bessie asks how Bigger can be so sure, but Bigger doesn’t respond. Outside, Bessie tells Bigger that she’s scared of the plan, but that she’ll go along with it to please Bigger, if necessary. Bigger gives Bessie some money and tells her he’ll meet with her the following night. On his walk back to the Daltons’ house, Bigger thinks on the “blindness” he has seen, from Bessie to his mother to the Daltons—no one can believe that Bigger would be capable of killing Mary, right under their noses, without their realizing.

This feeling, that everyone in the world is blind, and that he, Bigger, can see, makes Bigger feel proud of his own strength. He reaches the Daltons’ house, and runs into Peggy, who tells Bigger that Mrs. Dalton wants him to pick up Mary’s trunk from the train station, since the family has called to Detroit and Mary has not arrived at her destination. The family is now extremely worried on Mary’s behalf, and Bigger fears that his plot is becoming more complicated.

Mr. and Mrs. Dalton come down to the kitchen to speak with Bigger before he leaves to pick up the trunk from the station. Mr. Dalton asks Bigger, directly, what happened the night before, and Bigger, lying to keep his alibi straight, says that Jan returned to the house with Mary, that Mary told Bigger to take the trunk down to the basement, and that Jan told Bigger to keep the car outside all night. Bigger then implies that Jan and Mary were in Mary’s bedroom together after two o’clock.

Bigger goes to the train station, picks up the trunk, and returns to the Dalton house. He thinks, en route, that he will have to “fasten” his story straight in order to keep the authorities from figuring out that Bigger is lying about Jan’s presence in the house, and other details of the previous night. Bigger takes the trunk downstairs to the furnace room, and, just as he is considering busting open the trunk to look inside and again examine its contents, Henry comes into the room, startling Bigger. Henry asks Bigger what’s the matter, and Bigger, saying nothing, is introduced by Henry to Britten, a private investigator hired by Henry to look into Mary’s disappearance.

Britten says hello to Bigger and asks, first, to see in the trunk; because it is locked, Britten will need to bust it open, and for this Henry asks for the hatchet—the same one Bigger burned the night before in the furnace, after using it to chop off Mary’s head. Bigger feigns looking for the hatchet and says it’s not in the furnace room—Britten says it’s no problem, and breaks open the trunk himself, finding very little clothing inside. Britten then has Bigger sit on the trunk and, again, answer some questions about the previous night.

Bigger realizes that now is the time to go into more detail with his story, in order to convince the Daltons and the authorities that Jan is responsible for Mary’s disappearance. Bigger tells the story of the night more or less as it happened, except making it seem that Jan came back to the house with Bigger and Mary, and that Jan then went into Mary’s room after telling Bigger to take the trunk down to the basement, and to keep the car parked out in the driveway. Britten asks Bigger if Jan attempted to give him any Communist literature, or talk to him about Communism, and Bigger, sensing that this is an opportunity to make Jan seem suspicious, agrees that Jan did in fact do so.

Britten suddenly begins yelling at Bigger, asking if he, too, is a Communist, and if Bigger is therefore in on Jan’s plot to kidnap or hurt Mary. But Bigger, genuinely frightened, says that he doesn’t know anything about Communism, and that he was only following orders the previous night, the first night of his new job at the Daltons’ house. Henry seems convinced by Bigger’s innocence—by the idea that Bigger is as scared of Communism as any God-fearing American would be—and Britten, grudgingly going along with Dalton’s assessment, tells Bigger he might have questions for him later. Dalton tells Bigger to go upstairs and continue working for the family as usual.

Bigger goes back up to his room and hears Mr. Dalton and Britten talking in the kitchen. Dalton defends Bigger, in his typically paternalistic way, saying that many black young men from the South Side never get a chance, and that he, Dalton, only wants to help them. Britten, on the other hand, has only derogatory things to say about African Americans, and wonders whether Bigger can be trusted in his account of the previous night. Britten says that he will go about trying to contact Jan, to see if Bigger’s story stands up to scrutiny.

Bigger lies down and has a nightmare about the previous night, in which he, Bigger, is running in a terrible apocalyptic landscape, and in which a furnace looms, burning bright and hot, on the horizon. Bigger awakes to the sound of a bell ringing, and realizes he is being called from below. When he arises, he answers the door to find Jan, Mr. Dalton, and Britten wanting to speak with him. The three come into Bigger’s room. Britten asks Jan whether it’s true that Jan gave Bigger Communist pamphlets and then came back to the Dalton house the night before. Jan says he didn’t come to the Daltons’ at all, and asks Bigger directly why Bigger is lying to the authorities to say that this is so.

Jan continues to describe the events of the previous evening—he does not lie, but instead says that, although he gave Bigger some Communist literature, he, Jan, did not come back to the Daltons’, nor did he tell Bigger to do anything with Mary’s trunk. Jan wonders, genuinely, who or what has put Bigger up to lying about the night’s events—Jan cannot convince Britten or Dalton that he isn’t lying, and although Jan says he’s going to go back to his own apartment (since Britten is only a PI and not the police), Britten says that he’ll call the authorities and have Jan picked up for questioning. Britten and Dalton seem to trust Bigger’s word over Jan’s at this point in the conversation.

On the way out of the house, Jan runs into Bigger, who has gone down the staircase (Britten and Mr. Dalton have already left Bigger’s room to discuss matters further); Jan asks Bigger, again, why Bigger is lying about the previous night, but Bigger says he doesn’t want to talk to Jan. The two walk down to the furnace room, and, after Jan continues asking Bigger what’s the matter, and why Bigger is lying to Britten, Bigger pulls out his gun and threatens Jan, saying he does not want to talk to him, and that Jan ought to leave the premises. Jan, confused as to Bigger’s motivations and Mary’s whereabouts, leaves the house, and Bigger, in a kind of rage, walks out into the still-snowy night.

Bigger goes to a corner store and gruffly asks for some paper, a pencil, and an envelope, then rides the tram-car to Bessie’s apartment, remarking along the way that Mr. Dalton’s company owns the apartment house in which Bigger was raised, and probably the one where Bessie lives, too—Dalton claims he is all for helping African Americans, but he’s also happy to take their money and force them to live in squalid conditions. At Bessie’s apartment, Bigger gets out of the tram-car and walks up to her room, banging loudly on the door and asking to be let in. Bessie does so, but seems afraid of Bigger; he tells her to shut the blinds, get him a knife (for sharpening the pencil), and have a drink while he works.

Bigger puts on gloves (so his fingerprints cannot be traced on the letter), and writes a ransom note, pretending to be a Communist from Jan’s group called “Red.” The note, scrawled quickly, asks for ten thousand dollars to be brought the following evening at midnight, in small bills, to a stretch of Michigan Avenue on which Bessie will be stationed, in an abandoned apartment—when the car sees a flashlight shine three times, it’s to drop off the money out the window of the car and speed away; Bessie will then collect the cash, and Bigger and Bessie will leave town.

Bessie comes up to Bigger after he finishes the note, asking once again where Mary is, and if Bigger knows about her whereabouts—she begins to think that Bigger himself has kidnapped or harmed Mary. Bigger finally breaks down and admits to having killed Mary; he tells Bessie that she’s now “in” the plot “as deep” as he is, and that, because she has spent some of the money Bigger gave her the night before, she could also be arrested and tried, along with Bigger. Bessie is terrified by this, but Bigger says they are going out to scout locations for an abandoned apartment, wherein Bessie can wait, the following night, for the Dalton family’s drop-off of the ten thousand dollars.

They leave Bessie’s apartment and head to Michigan Avenue; Bigger has brought a flashlight along, and they duck into an abandoned apartment building, one that used to be owned by wealthy white families who have since fled the Black Belt. Bessie has begun whimpering and crying to herself, and when Bigger tells her, continually, to be quiet, Bessie finally asks aloud if Bigger isn’t just going to kill her, too, and whether it might not be better if Bigger were in fact to do so.

Bigger gets Bessie, finally and grudgingly, to agree to wait for the “drop-off” of the money the following night, in the abandoned apartment they have staked out. Bigger leaves Bessie, tells her to be patient and calm, and says he will see her soon. Bigger walks through the snowy, cold night back to the Daltons’ house, where he goes up to the front door furtively and drops the ransom note, sealed in an envelope, under the front door. He is nervous that he has committed himself to this additional ruse, on top of already having murdered Mary, but he feels, too, that he is powerful enough to pull off the trick. Bigger then goes inside through the back entrance.

Bigger finds that a large dinner has already been set out for him by Peggy. Bigger lays into the food, and finds that he is famished, having eaten only little in the past 24 hours. Bigger also sees that Peggy has brought in the envelope from the front hallway, and set it on the table in the kitchen—Bigger eyes the envelope nervously, until Mr. Dalton comes in and takes it away. While Peggy tells Bigger that he should be up the next morning at 8 a.m., in order to drive Henry to work, Henry himself comes back into the kitchen, with Bigger present, and asks Peggy who dropped the letter off at the house. Bigger notices that Henry looks stunned by the contents of the note.

Bigger goes back up to his room, from which he can hear a commotion downstairs. Henry has called Britten over to the house once again, and Britten immediately begins asking questions of Peggy—wondering if anyone else what at the house that afternoon, if Bigger has been acting strangely, and, notably, if Bigger has referred to anyone as “comrade” or has used other instances of Communist language. Peggy says that she doesn’t believe so; Bigger waits, hears more commotion downstairs, and then hears Britten calling for Bigger to join him in the furnace room. Bigger obeys and goes downstairs, nervous now.

Britten greets Bigger curtly in the furnace room; Britten has been joined by three men, his “associates” at the private investigation firm. Britten continues to ask Bigger the same questions he asked of him earlier in the day, but with a renewed urgency: what Bigger did the night before, what Bigger saw, how Jan behaved with Mary, what Jan told him to do with the trunk. Bigger repeats his story and makes no glaring errors in recounting it to Britten.

Britten asks Bigger, pointedly, if Bigger is a Communist, and Bigger says he is not, and that he knows very little about Communism. A voice from upstairs calls down to the furnace room—newspaper reporters have arrived at the house, and though Britten says he can provide them with no information at the time, one reporter answers that the story has already hit the pressed: the headline is “Red Nabbed as Girl Vanishes.”

Britten goes upstairs for a moment to talk to Henry, then returns to say that Dalton will not have anything official to say on the matter till Tuesday (it is still Sunday, the day after the crime was committed). The reporters ask if Mary is missing, if Jan is responsible, if Jan has been arrested, and what Dalton plans to do about finding his daughter. Britten admits that they don’t know where Mary is, but does not provide any more information. One nameless reporter attempts to talk softly to Bigger and slips him some money, asking him for all the information he has; but Bigger realizes he cannot speak to the reporter, says as much to him, and slips the money back into his hand.

Mr. Dalton comes downstairs, however, and announces that he would like to make a statement after all regarding his daughter’s disappearance. Mrs. Dalton follows him down the stairs, and the reporters gasp at her white, nearly glowing presence, whom the narrator describes as being “ghost-like.” Henry tells the reporters that he has asked the police to release Jan and drop all charges against him; Henry goes on to apologize to Jan for the statements made by Bigger and others that put him in jail in the first place. Henry then announces that Mary has been kidnapped by a man calling himself Red, whose note the Daltons have recently received; because this note was delivered when Jan was in custody, Dalton has reason to believe that Jan is not involved.

The reporters ask if the Daltons plan on paying the ransom, and Henry replies that he will, and will follow the instructions listed in the letter (which the letter itself has asked the Daltons not to make public; thus Dalton does not tell how the ransom will be delivered). As Henry is telling the reporters this information, Bigger stands quietly in the corner of the furnace room and wonders if the plan will work as he intended. The reporters go upstairs to check Mary’s room for more clues, and when they return to the furnace room, they find Bigger reading the newspaper in which the story of Mary’s disappearance, and Jan’s arrest, are first reported.

The reporters ask Britten if they may interview Bigger, since he was the last to see Mary alive the previous night. Britten says Bigger can provide no new information, but grudgingly agrees to allow them to talk to Bigger. Bigger tells the reporters that he really can’t say anything more than Mr. Dalton has just told them, and during their conversation, another reporter, who has gone upstairs to use his phone to call the newsroom, comes back to say that Jan won’t leave police custody after all.

Some of the reporters, and Britten, believe that Jan won’t leave the precinct because he is in fact guilty and afraid of what will happen to him if he’s free to walk around; other reporters, however, believe Mr. Dalton’s hunch, that Jan has nothing to do with the kidnapping. Some of the reporters ask more questions about Jan—including if he’s Jewish—and others try to get more information from Bigger, who stands more or less mute in the furnace room; the reporters conclude that Bigger can provide little useful information to them, and that Bigger himself is “stupid.”

The reporters take more pictures of Bigger—this picture-taking causes Bigger to feel even more uncomfortable. Peggy comes downstairs with food for the reporters and Britten, and tells Bigger that it’s become cold upstairs, and that Bigger will therefore need to clean the ashes out of the furnace in order to push more coal into it. Bigger realizes that, if he cleans out the ashes, there might be chunks of Mary’s body that have not yet burned—he is filled with fear at having to stoke the furnace in front of the reporters.

Bigger tries to shove more coal into the furnace without clearing out the ashes, but the furnace begins smoking and fuming, causing the reporters to choke on a cloud of black smoke that begins filling the furnace room. The reporters tell Bigger that he has to clear out the ashes, and he finally relents; one of the reporters pokes around in the furnace and releases the ashes; he spots something curious inside, and pushes the ashes out of the furnace with a shovel, scattering them on the floor of the room. The reporters realize that the white chunks of bone are in the ash, and that they probably belong to Mary’s body, which has burnt in the furnace and choked it with ash and debris. Bigger is immediately gripped by an immense dread.

Bigger realizes that, if he doesn’t go, he will be questioned once again by Britten and the authorities, and may in fact be placed in jail. As the reporters are combing through the ashes and wondering who is responsible for Mary’s death and cremation, Bigger walks quietly out of the furnace room, climbs the steps, and makes his way to his own bedroom; he then jumps out the window into the snow. Bigger realizes that, in his fear, he has urinated in his pants, but he also realizes that he still has his gun. He begins to walk to Bessie’s house.

On his way to a tram-stop, which will take him to Bessie’s, Bigger stops at a kiosk and buys a copy of a newspaper, in which he reads more about the abduction, the ransom, and the holding of Jan in custody. Bigger fears that, with all the scrutiny of the police across the city, there will be no way for him to pick up the money on Michigan Avenue later that night without being caught—he fears that the plan is now off, and that he and Bessie will have to flee. He hops on a tram, rides it for a few minutes, gets off, and enters Bessie’s apartment, where he tells her sharply to turn on the lights.

Bigger tells Bessie everything—that he truly did kill Mary, and that the reporters found her body in the furnace; that he ran away from the Dalton house and will be hunted by the police; that he only has 90 dollars left, with which they will need to live while they hide out in abandoned houses in the Black Belt. Bessie moans and says she wishes she were dead—she tells Bigger, as they gather quilts, drink whiskey, and prepare to leave Bessie’s apartment, that the police will find them and perhaps kill them. Bessie also tells Bigger that the police will believe he raped Mary, if word gets out that he was in her room with her. Bigger had not thought of this, and immediately realizes that Bessie is right—they will consider Bigger a rapist and a murderer.

Bigger and Bessie leave Bessie’s apartment and walk outside for several blocks, until they find a different abandoned building that smells of rot and decay. They climb up to the third floor, and Bessie spreads out quilts and takes out the flask of whiskey they’ve brought with them; Bigger leans over the window to an air-shaft in the building and smokes a cigarette. Finishing his smoke, Bigger tells Bessie to lie down and be calm for a moment in the cold, dark room of the abandoned building; Bigger lies down next to her, and though Bessie protests, Bigger begins taking off her clothes and fondling her. Bessie continues saying no, and Bigger rapes her on the floor of the abandoned room; Bessie is intoxicated and appears to fall asleep at some point during or after the assault.

Bigger goes to the air-shaft once again and thinks about his murder of Mary and his current situation with Bessie—he worries to himself that Bessie will not be able to keep quiet and go along with the plans he devises; that she will give herself up to the police and cause Bigger to die in prison or be electrocuted. Bigger decides that he must kill Bessie; he scans the apartment for materials (using the flashlight, briefly, to illuminate the space while Bessie sleeps), and finds a brick, which he takes over to where Bessie is sleeping.

Bigger holds the brick above Bessie’s head and hesitates for a moment, wondering if he can kill again, but soon this hesitation is gone, and he decides that the only way to carry out his plan and possibly escape police detection is by bludgeoning Bessie to death. He brings down the brick on Bessie’s skull, repeatedly, until he feels a sickening softness and moistness on her head; he turns on the flashlight again to make sure she is dead, and sees her mangled and broken face lying in a pool of blood.

Bigger dumps Bessie’s body down the air-shaft, only to realize, after he’s done so, that Bessie had Bigger’s remaining money in her shirt pocket. Now Bigger is entirely without cash, and he reflects on the two murders he has committed in the past two days—he realizes that a major split has occurred in his life; he lives a “new life” now, and he must figure out a way to avoid detection and survive. But he still feels the small, electric feeling of pride, or excitement, at the thought that he has escaped the narrow confines of his previous life. Bigger tries to sleep on the floor of the abandoned building before planning his next move in the morning.

Bigger wakes up the next morning and, curious about the recent developments in his case, steals a newspaper from a corner vendor while the man isn’t looking. Bigger then ducks into an alley and reads the headlines and article, which seem to say much that he’d expected: that he is being hunted by the Chicago Police, that they believe he murdered and possibly raped Mary, and that thousands of officers, and some vigilantes, are walking the streets of the Black Belt and South Side in order to find him.

Bigger realizes that he has to find a place to hide out. He goes first to a bakery and uses five of his remaining cents to buy a loaf of bread; he then hoists himself, via the alley, in the kitchen of second floor apartment with a For Rent sign out front. Bigger huddles in the corner of the apartment and eats his bread; he can hear, from the noise in the adjacent apartment, that a family is arguing about his case, which they’ve read about in the newspaper—everyone in the Black Belt seems to be talking about it. Someone in the other apartment says that Bigger’s running away makes him seem guilty; another says that Bigger will always have seemed guilty, even if he was innocent, and that perhaps he ran away only in order to avoid an unfair trial.

Bigger moves to the back of the kitchen and tries to sleep, as he has barely slept the past two nights. He dozes for an indeterminate amount of time, then goes back to the window and hears more African American citizens discussing his case; one person even fears that he has heard noise in his apartment building, assuming it is Bigger, hiding out. Bigger sees, while hiding out in the alley again, the headline of a newspaper that states that 8,000 armed men are bearing down on the Black Belt, sweeping from house to house; Bigger realizes that he must hide himself even better, or pray there is a way to elude the authorities. He climbs back into the apartment building, turns off the light, and waits.

Bigger then hears, after several minutes, the sounds of motors and sirens, which by now have encircled the block in which he is hiding. It is unclear whether Bigger’s presence has been tipped to the police, or whether this is simply part of the sweep the police are doing of the entire neighborhood; Bigger climbs through a trap door and makes his way to the roof of the building, where he wedges himself between the chimney and the trap-door. He hears police officers arguing about whether Bigger is still in Chicago; one says that Bigger “could be in New York” by now.

Another police officer, to whom the first was talking, roots around in the apartment then climbs the trap-door and begins to poke his head through it, scanning the roof. Bigger, acting almost on reflex, pulls the gun out of his pants and uses it to hit the officer, named Jerry, on the head; the officer tumbles back down to the apartment and Bigger begins crawling away to another part of the roof. Bigger then gets up and begins running across the roof of the building, jumping over ledges to the roofs of adjacent buildings, in the hopes of eluding the police officers who have reached the roof and are now following him on foot. The block is encircled.

A bullet flies past Bigger’s head, and Bigger realizes that he is captured; there is nothing he can do to avoid the police. He also realizes that, eventually, he will reach the edge of the block and will only be able to jump off the entire building. The police officers continue shooting at him and throwing tear-gas canisters at him; they realize that Bigger has a gun, although he does not fire back on the police. Finally, the police decide to use the hose on Bigger; it is pulled onto the roof, and a spray of water is unleashed onto Bigger’s freezing body.

Bigger collapses under the powerful stream of water, and the policemen tell him repeatedly to put down his weapon. At this point, Bigger realizes that he has truly been captured; his flight is over. The police take Bigger’s shivering body and drag it down the steps of the apartment building; his head and body knock against the staircase as he is led outside. The last thing Bigger hears before losing consciousness is the sound of people on the street yelling at him, calling for his death by lynching, and referring to Bigger as a “black ape.” The second book ends.