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 burst wide open Learn it to the younguns(449)These last words that his grand father speaks are the chain-breakers that set the young boy's mind free. What hit's him the hardest is finding out that his people are in an ongoing fight, a war for freedom and equality. And it is these words that guide him on the right path to the realization of who he is, and how he needs to start thinking and acting. However this path that his grandfather sets him on, is one that presents many mind-tormenting problems. How will his people treat him if he takes on a rebellious attitude? Also if he refuses to fight for his rights what will his deceased grandfather think of him? These questions torment the boy's mind and soul. In his mind he literally sets himself between two hard places. Look at this new knowledge that our young hero is given as being given the secrets to life. Breaking the walls of ignorance down, and shown in what kind of society he really lives. This new perception of life now cleans away his old principals, morals, and ethics and sets him up with new and renewed ones. He learns that he is not obligated to act as the oppressing society around him demands. Reading a passage from Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" helps us connect his realization of how the world around him works, and his awareness of a new reality:Behold! Human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and y...
