"I"m a fool" is the story of a young man that tends horses. He trains and looks after racing horses. His job makes him to associate with gambling and people who do it. He tells us about his best friend, Burt, who is a black man. At first the narrator seems to be proud of who he is and where he stands socially; but, as the story goes on, the man's personality changes slowly. He dresses up as a high-class person and goes to the race track. There, he sees a man with a "cane and a Windsor tie" (P.74), which is in his eyes, "putting on airs". So he goes to the bar, beside the man, and orders some drink to show him that he is also as well as the man. Then, he goes to the track. There, he notices Miss Lucy Wesson and fells in love with her. So, he goes to her, who is standing with her brother and his girlfriend. He starts a conversation with them during which he tells all sorts of lies about his identity, just to attract the girl. By the end of the story, as they are leaving him to their house, she suggests that she write letters for him; but he will never get the letters because she thinks he is somebody else: A son of Mr. Mathers, the owner of some coal mines and a big stable. But in reality Mr. Mathers has no child but an ill and ugly girl. After lying and finding out that he will never see her again, he finds out that she would have liked him regardless of where he stood socially or what kind of work he did. .
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CONFLICT.
As the plot clearly shows, the narrator of this story is involved in a conflict between his reality -his social position- and his imaginations. Although the narrator is trying to cope with his social position by criticizing more privileged and more educated people, when it comes to behavior, he treats quiet the same as they do. The best example of this is where he believes he should "Put up a good front" (P.74) but later he criticizes a man "with a cane and Windsor tie on." (P.74).
