The trip was paid forby the magazine Sepia, and in return for thetrip, Griffin was to supply the magazine with thetales of his journey.While John Howard Griffin and Thomas Hobbes arefrom different eras, their concepts of basic humannature were in most cases very similar. Hobbestheorized that man is consumed by psychologicalegoism, which is the need to attend to ones ownneeds over that of another human being. Griffinfound the same line of thinking in the white manwhile living as a black man in the Deep South. However, Griffin also stumbled upon theresilience of the human spirit in times of duress. The black people that Griffin encountered inAtlanta were determined to improve their condition. The difference between the white people and theblack people in this instance was that the blackpeople held into account the needs of other blackpeople. The whites seemed only concerned withtheir own personal well being.It would appear as though both thinkers sharesimilar ideas in regards to this form of humannature. It would be interesting to determinewhether race makes a difference in the outcome. That is to say, what would happen if the roles werereversed? What would happen if the black personwere in a position of power and the white personwere supressed?If these are truly examples of human nature,one could theorize that the outcome would remainthe same. As John Howard Griffin discovered fromhis experiences, the only difference between whiteand black is the color of our skin....
