Summary
The narrator speaks of his grandparents, freed slaves
who, after the Civil War, believed that they were separate but equal—that
they had achieved equality with whites despite segregation. The
narrator’s grandfather lived a meek and quiet life after being freed.
On his deathbed, however, he spoke bitterly to the narrator’s father,
comparing the lives of black Americans to warfare and noting that
he himself felt like a traitor. He counseled the narrator’s father
to undermine the whites with “yeses” and “grins” and advised his family
to “agree ’em to death and destruction.” Now the narrator too lives
meekly; he too receives praise from the white members of his town.
His grandfather’s words haunt him, for the old man deemed such meekness
to be treachery.
The narrator recalls delivering the class speech at his
high school graduation. The speech urges humility and submission
as key to the advancement of black Americans. It proves such a success
that the town arranges to have him deliver it at a gathering of
the community’s leading white citizens. The narrator arrives and
receives instructions to take part in the “battle royal” that figures
as part of the evening’s entertainment. The narrator and some of
his classmates (who are black) don boxing gloves and enter the ring.
A naked, blonde, white woman with an American flag painted on her stomach
parades about; some of the white men demand that the black boys
look at her and others threaten them if they don’t.
The white men then blindfold the youths and order them
to pummel one another viciously. The narrator suffers defeat in
the last round. After the men have removed the blindfolds, they
lead the contestants to a rug covered with coins and a few crumpled
bills. The boys lunge for the money, only to discover that an electric
current runs through the rug. During the mad scramble, the white
men attempt to force the boys to fall face forward onto the rug.
When it comes time for the narrator to give his speech,
the white men all laugh and ignore him as he quotes, verbatim, large
sections of Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address. Amid
the amused, drunken requests that he repeat the phrase “social responsibility,”
the narrator accidentally says “social equality.” The white men
angrily demand that he explain himself. He responds that he made
a mistake, and finishes his speech to uproarious applause. The men
award him a calfskin briefcase and instruct him to cherish it, telling
him that one day its contents will help determine the fate of his
people. Inside, to his utter joy, the narrator finds a scholarship
to the state college for black youth. His happiness doesn’t diminish when
he later discovers that the gold coins from the electrified rug are
actually worthless brass tokens.
That night, the narrator has a dream of going to a circus
with his grandfather, who refuses to laugh at the clowns. His grandfather instructs
him to open the briefcase. Inside the narrator finds an official
envelope with a state seal. He opens it only to find another envelope,
itself containing another envelope. The last one contains an engraved
document reading: “To Whom It May Concern . . . Keep This Nigger-Boy
Running.” The narrator wakes with his grandfather’s laughter ringing
in his ears.
Analysis
The narrator’s grandfather introduces a further element
of moral and emotional ambiguity to the novel, contributing to the
mode of questioning that dominates it. While the grandfather confesses
that he deems himself a traitor for his policy of meekness in the
face of the South’s enduring racist structure, the reader never
learns whom the grandfather feels he has betrayed: himself, his
family, his ancestors, future generations, or perhaps his race as
a whole. While this moral ambiguity arises from the grandfather’s
refusal to elaborate, another ambiguity arises out of his direct
instructions. For in the interest of his family’s self-protection,
he advises them to maintain two identities: on the outside they
should embody the stereotypical good slaves, behaving just as their
former masters wish; on the inside, however, they should retain
their bitterness and resentment against this imposed false identity.
By following this model, the grandfather’s descendants can refuse
internally to accept second-class status, protect their own self-respect,
and avoid betraying themselves or each other.
