Book One: Fear Native Son takes place in Chicago in the late 1930s, and it is a harsh winter in the "Black Belt". The main character is a twenty-year-old black man named Bigger Thomas, who lives in an impoverished, one room apartment with his mother and his teenaged siblings, Vera and Buddy. Ma and Vera share one bed, Buddy and Bigger share the other. One morning, Ma and Vera wake up to find a foot-long …showed first 75 words of 1939 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1939 total…the train station the following morning (Sunday). After carting the heavy laden trunk downstairs, Bigger decides to burn Mary's body in the furnace and in an unthinking frenzy, Bigger decapitates Mary, mutilating her body so that she will fit inside the furnace. Horrified by his own actions, Bigger takes the money out of Mary's purse and goes home to sleep, convinced that the police will never be able to prove that he did anything wrong.