Native Son: 5

"What his knife and gun had once meant to him, his knowledge of having secretly murdered Mary now meant"(Wright 150).

Bigger's gun and knife had once given him a feeling of safety and confidence. As long as he carried them, no one could freely do damage to him. He now sees his secret in the same way. Just knowing something that no one else knew would make him feel powerful, but a secret with this much weight, this much ability to alter his life, gives him not only the sense of power, but a sense of impending danger. The longer he keeps the secret, the greater his feeling of power and the lesser his feeling of danger. This will end badly for him because his new found confidence is making him do things he has never done before, something that is not bad, except when you have just committed a crime and are about to be under scrutiny of the law.