Bone

The Bone is a raw, meat-stained object that becomes the focus of the narrator's most desperate and degraded attempt to stave off starvation, an episode that pushes him to the brink of madness and a final, furious renunciation of God.

Obtaining the Bone

Driven by a hunger that has become a "shameless appetite" gnawing at his chest like a score of diminutive insects, the narrator, after wandering the streets in a state of near-collapse, conceives a plan to beg for raw meat. He descends the steps to the meat bazaars beneath the market, and with a bold lie, addresses the first butcher he meets. Claiming he needs a bone for his dog—"only a bone; it's just to give him something to carry in his mouth"—he is given a "capital little bone" that still has a morsel of meat on it. He hides it under his coat, thanking the man so heartily that the butcher looks at him in amazement.

The Desperate Attempt to Eat

Seeking complete darkness, the narrator sneaks into a passage near the forges, stopping outside a dilapidated door leading to a back-yard. There, in the blessed darkness, he begins to gnaw at the bone. The attempt is immediately disastrous. The bone has no taste, and a rank smell of blood oozes from it, causing him to vomit almost at once. He tries again, forcing himself to keep the meat down, but vomits again. Growing wild, he bites angrily into the meat, tearing off a morsel and gulping it down by sheer strength of will, yet it is of no use. As soon as the fragments become warm in his stomach, they come back up. In a frenzy of helplessness, he clenches his hands, bursts into tears, and gnaws at the bone like one possessed, crying so that the bone becomes wet and dirty with his tears, all while vomiting, cursing, and groaning.

The Climax of Fury and Renunciation

Finding that all his efforts are in vain, the narrator casts the bone at the door. This failure triggers a final, explosive spasm of rage. Filled with impotent hate, he shrieks and menaces with his fists towards Heaven, yelling God's name hoarsely. He then delivers a long, blasphemous curse, declaring that if God exists, he would curse Him so that Heaven would quiver with the fire of hell. He renounces all divine works and pomps, vowing to execrate his own thoughts if they dwell on God again and to tear out his lips if they ever utter His name. He bids God a final, irrevocable farewell, turns his back, and goes his way. The episode leaves him trembling with excitement and exhaustion, hiccoughing after the violent crying fit, broken down and apathetic.