The main character's self-reflection reveals a past full of naivety and invisibility. It is also full of underlying race and class segregation. The dream setting of the battle in which the main character took part, despite having spent his life maintaining good conduct, adhering to the wishes of the whites and being praised by them for his excellent conduct (Charters 295), is symbolic of racial struggles and class that African Americans must participate in simply because they are born with different skin colors, because they were not born white. The glass ceiling, violence and hatred that the main character is forced to face in the story is reminiscent of the struggle that African Americans face in a capitalist white America that often overlooks successful African Americans in favor of whites, further dividing the races . and fueling oppression. Segregation and oppression hinder the main character's personal growth even as he receives a scholarship to attend an African-American college and a first-class item from Shad Whitmore's store