All 5 Uses
futile
in
Native Son
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- He had been so conditioned in a cramped environment that hard words or kicks alone knocked him upright and made him capable of action"action that was futile because the world was too much for him.†
Book 2
- It seemed to sound a warning that no one could hide from it" that action to escape was futile" that soon the men with guns and gas would come and penetrate where the siren sound had penetrated.†
Book 2 *
- And at the same time he wanted those words to stop the tears of his mother and sister, to quiet and soothe the anger of his brother" he longed to stop those tears and that anger because he knew that they were futile, that the people who stood along the wall back of him had the destiny of him and his family in their hands.†
Book 3
- He is a hot jet of life that spattered itself in futility against a cold wall.†
Book 3futility = pointlessness (uselessness)
- Under the pressure of a feeling of futility his voice trailed off.†
Book 3
Definitions:
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(1)
(futile) effort that is pointless because it is unproductive or unsuccessful
- (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)