All 24 Uses of
naive
in
Black Boy
- And when word circulated among the black people of the neighborhood that a "black" boy had been severely beaten by a "white" man, I felt that the "white" man had had a right to beat the "black" boy, for I naively assumed that the "white" man must have been the "black" boy's father.†
Chpt 1.1
- Naively I wanted to go and see how the whites looked while sitting in their part of the train.†
Chpt 1.2 *
- Naive rebellion.†
Chpt 1.3
- Rejection of naive rebellion.†
Chpt 1.3
- One boy, who lived across the street, called on me one afternoon and his self-consciousness betrayed him; he spoke so naively and clumsily that I could see the bare bones of his holy plot and hear the creaking of the machinery of Granny's maneuvering.†
Chpt 1.4
- "But these papers come from Chicago," I protested naïvely, feeling unsure of the entire world now, feeling that racial propaganda surely could not be published in Chicago, the city to which Negroes were fleeing by the thousands.†
Chpt 1.5
- Many of the naive black families bought their insurance from us because they felt that they were connecting themselves with something that would make their children "write 'n speak lak dat pretty boy from Jackson.†
Chpt 1.5
- Had I kept the job I would have learned quickly just how white people acted toward Negroes, but I was too naive to think thatthere were many white people like that.†
Chpt 1.6
- I had, of course, read my Horatio Alger stories, my pulp stories, and Iknew my Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford series from cover to cover, though I had sense enough not to hope to get rich; even to my naive imagination that possibility was too remote.†
Chpt 1.7
- Her naive simplicity was overwhelming.†
Chpt 1.11
- When I awakened the next morning and recalled Bess's naïve hopes, I was glad that I had the can of pork and beans.†
Chpt 1.11
- Some vague thought was trying to worm its way into my dense, naïve, childlike mind.†
Chpt 1.11
- Last night I had found a naive girl.†
Chpt 1.11
- This morning I had been a naive boy.†
Chpt 1.11
- T felt sick, filled with a consciousness of the woman's helplessness, of her naive hope.†
Chpt 1.12
- Again I would read and wonder as only the naive and unlettered can read and wonder, feeling that I carried a secret, criminal burden about with me each day.†
Chpt 1.13
- I had naively supposed that I would have much in common with them, but I found them preoccupied with twisted sex problems.†
Chpt 2.16
- Though they did not know it, they were naïvely practicing magic; they thought that if they acted like the men who had overthrown the czar, then surely they ought to be able to win their freedom in America.†
Chpt 2.16
- I told no one of my intentions, and I did not know how fantastically naive my ambition was.†
Chpt 2.18
- Naively I thought that he himself would make a good model for a biographical sketch.†
Chpt 2.19
- I was naive.†
Chpt 2.19
- And now I was facing fear again, though I had no notion that I was slowly adding fagots to a flame that would soon blaze over my head with all the violence of the assault I had sustained when I had naively thought I could learn the optical trade in Mississippi.†
Chpt 2.19
- Perhaps, I told myself, when the Communist party hasgrown up, when it can work without tactics of terror, threat, invective, intimidation, suspicion, I would go back ....Aw, God ....How naive I was!†
Chpt 2.19
- I'm not that naïve," I said, smiling.†
Chpt 2.19
Definition:
lacking experience or sophistication, and the understanding that comes from them -- often too trusting or optimistic