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One of Bigger’s jobs at the Dalton house is to stoke the furnace that heats the entire property. He is taught to do this by Peggy on his first day of the job. After accidentally smothering Mary later that night in a fit of panic, however, Bigger decides that it would be best to burn Mary’s body in the furnace in order to avoid detection and make it seem that Jan is, in fact, Mary’s killer. Bigger manages to stuff Mary’s body entirely in the furnace, although he has to cut off her head and load it in separately. But Bigger fears all along that the furnace will not burn Mary’s body completely, and he is right. The journalists who gather in that room the next day find Mary’s body, and this eventually leads to the conviction that places Bigger on death row. The furnace, therefore, is not just an implement used by Bigger to aid in the commission of his crime; it is also a symbol of one of his small jobs at the Dalton estate, and a fiery reminder of the terrible deed Bigger has done. Later in the novel, Bigger has a dream in which the furnace appears to be burning the entire landscape, and it is clear that the physical act of placing Mary inside the machine has stuck with Bigger—it is the dominant image of his crime. And just as Bigger fed Mary into this destructive device, so too is Bigger fed (as Max later argues, at the trial) into the maw of the Chicago criminal justice system. Despite Max’s best efforts, the court rules that Bigger ought to be punished this way, and he is sentenced to execution at the novel’s end.
The Furnace Quotes in Native Son
The Native Son quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Furnace. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Book 1
Quotes
He was not crying but his lips were trembling and his chest was heaving. He wanted to lie down upon the floor and sleep off the horror of this thing. . . . Quickly, he wrapped the head in the newspaper . . . then he shoved the head in. The hatchet went next.
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Book 2
Quotes
There was silence. Bigger stared without a thought or an image in his mind. There was just the old feeling, the feeling that he had had all his life: he was black and had done wrong; white men were looking at something with which they would soon accuse him.
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The Furnace Symbol Timeline in Native Son
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Furnace appears in Native Son. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 1
...Henry also informs him that it will be part of Bigger’s duties to stoke the furnace and keep the house warm.
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...of (mostly Communist sympathizers). Peggy takes Bigger down to the basement and shows him the furnace, where he is to burn the trash, rake out the coals, and sweep the ashes...
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...the trunk is extremely heavy, and that he can instead burn Mary’s body in the furnace. Bigger puts Mary body about halfway in and begins pushing it into the fire; he...
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Book 2
...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...
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...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....
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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,...
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...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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...more commotion downstairs, and then hears Britten calling for Bigger to join him in the furnace room. Bigger obeys and goes downstairs, nervous now.
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Britten greets Bigger curtly in the furnace room; Britten has been joined by three men, his “associates” at the private investigation firm....
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...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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...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...
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Bigger tries to shove more coal into the furnace without clearing out the ashes, but the furnace begins smoking and fuming, causing the reporters...
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...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...
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...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;...
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