All 4 Uses of
abstract
in
Native Son
- Bigger went to the window and stood looking out abstractedly into the street.†
Book 1
- These were the rhythms of his life: indifference and violence" periods of abstract brooding and periods of intense desire" moments of silence and moments of anger"like water ebbing and flowing from the tug of a far-away, invisible force.†
Book 1 *
- He listened awhile to her rubbing clothes on the metal washboard, then he gazed abstractedly into the street, thinking of how he had felt when he fought Gus in Doc's poolroom.†
Book 1
- Does not the life of a Negro girl mean as much in the eyes of the law as the life of a white girl? "Yes" perhaps, in the abstract.
Book 3 *abstract = conceptual idea (but not in specific instances in the real world)
Definitions:
-
(abstract as in: abstract thought) of a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance
-
(abstract as in: read the abstract) a summary; or to summarize -- especially academic writing