"Native Son" Quotes
A young black man's life unravels after he accidentally kills a white woman in 1930s Chicago.
fiction | 443 pages | Published in 2016
Quotes
Violence is a personal necessity for the oppressed...It is not a strategy consciously devised. It is the deep, instinctive expression of a human being denied individuality.
The moment he found himself free, Bigger knew that he was lost.
He was black and he had been alone in the white world. He had killed and was free. He had made his own fate.
It was not he who had killed Mary; it was the fear in him.
He was astonished at the change that had come over him; he felt that he had been suddenly transformed into another man.
Free! He was free! He was not in jail. He was not dead.
He was so afraid he could not think; he was so afraid he could not move.
But why did he sound so afraid? He could not help it; he was afraid.
He hated his family because he knew that they were suffering and that he was powerless to help them.
There was no escape for him; the white and black worlds were one and the same.
