Beginning of Essay
"Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight…Live with your head in the Lion's mouth"(174). In , by Ralph Ellison, the protagonist is dealt many expectations. The unnamed narrator is placed in a situation where he instantly must choose betwee ....

Middle of Essay
.... level than his fellow black men because he is educated, and he says of his racial equals, "I felt superior to them in my way, and I didn't like the manner in which we were all crowded together into the servants' elevator"(175). The boy undergoes a realization that he is, in fact, not a Booker T. Washington as he plans to be in life, but merely a common black man who is in disagreement with his own race. He comes to this realization after being victimized by the white men and forced into battle with men of his own ethnicity. As a result of the ethnic battle, the boy ultimately lives up to the expectations of the white men. He expects to live with ....