Function of Specific Words: Short Fiction Practice Test

A teenage narrator describes her mother’s advice: “She spoke in certainties, as if the world were a locked door and she’d kept the key in her apron pocket.” What is the function of “certainties”?

During a power outage, the narrator says: “In the sudden dark, the apartment felt unclaimed, as if we had been living there only on the city’s permission.” What is the function of “unclaimed”?