One can see how his grandfather's words can be confusing to a young boy: "Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is at war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome'em with yeses, undermine'em with grins,agree'em to death and destruction, let'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open" (Ellison 449).

"His grandfather's words confront him with the enigma of the contradiction between appearance and reality, mask and ide

"The narrator attends the Cajun innocently believing that he is supposed to deliver his valedictory speech, stressing his belief that humility was the...very essence of progress. However, he again found disparity between appearance and reality" (Busby 46). Like Busby said, the narrator goes to the gathering with the intention of delivering a speech which he earned acclaim from the white superintendent. He is driven by the desire to please the whites, and therefore advances his own standing among them. He measures his accomplishments by what the white man thinks of him. Of course, things do not go exactly as he had planned. The white men whom he had hoped would treat him with respect, instead proceeded to humiliate him just as they had to his black peers. For example occurs when the boys are presented with a white exotic-dancer. Many of the white men in the room force the boys to look at the dancer, while others threaten them when they do. The dancer was something they could see but never be allowed to touch.

At the end of th

Some common words found in the essay are:
Son I'm, Ralph Ellison, grandfather meant, grandfather's words, battle royal, , advice grandfather, meaning grandfather's, ellison 449, invisible strings, appearance reality,
Approximate Word count = 701
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)