At the end of the night, after he had successfully endured humiliation and physical pain at the hands of the white men, his speech finally came. He delivers his speech in spite of pain, with his mouth full of blood. Throughout his speech the white men continue to humiliate him, in spite of the seriousness of his speech and his enthusiasm. After delivering his speech, the narrator is rewarded with a briefcase and scholarship to the state college for negroes. Although the narrator is rewarded for his speech, it was not nearly enough. At the end of the story the narrator has a dream about his grandfather which had symbolized that no matter how hard he tried to gain respect with whites he would still be invisible to them.
2. Characterize the main characters discussing (a) what they do, (b) why they do what they do motivation, ( c) what insights they might or might not have gained from their actions.
The protagonist was a bright naive young black boy. He was confused by what and whom he thought he should be, and he was alone. He was being pulled into two directions by the advice of his grandfather and his longing to please white society. While attempting to satisfy their wishes, he loses what is most important his own dignity. He was driven by the desire to please the whites, and therefore advance his own standing among them. He measured his accomplishments by what the white men thought of him. It took him a long time and "much painful boomeranging of his expectations" to realize he is nobody but himself. Though he first had to realize that he was an "invisible man." In the story we witness the protagonist's search for his identity. He was compelled by his grandfathers words of wisdom and the need to have a social identity. .
3. Identify the setting and discuss what it adds to the story.
The setting takes place the main ballroom of the leading hotel in a southern community. The time this story took place greatly affected this story.
