How we cite our quotes: (Entry. Paragraph)
Quote #1
I had expected to see myself disguised, but this was something else. I was imprisoned in the flesh of an utter stranger, an unsympathetic one with whom I felt no kinship. All traces of the John Griffin I had been were wiped from existence. Even the senses underwent a change so profound it filled me with distress. I looked into the mirror and saw reflected nothing of the white John Griffin's past. No, the reflections led back to Africa, back to the shanty and the ghetto, back to the fruitless struggles against the mark of blackness. (7.12)
What do you think is so shocking to Griffin about seeing himself in the mirror? What would you do if you suddenly looked entirely different? Would that change who you are?
Quote #2
I knew now that there is no such thing as a disguised white man, when the black won't rub off. The black man is wholly a Negro, regardless of what he once may have been. (7.12)
What does Griffin mean by, "the black man is wholly a Negro?" Does simply darkening your skin make you a black person? What about if you lightened your skin? Are you a white person then?
Quote #3
I had tampered with the mystery of existence and I had lost the sense of my own being. This is what devastated me. The Griffin that was had become invisible. (7.15)
We're pretty sure that you have to do a lot more than some intense sun tanning to mess with, "the mystery of existence." It's interesting, though, that he uses the word invisible to say what happened to his old self. When something is invisible, that just means that you can't see it. Not that it's totally gone. So yeah, we can't see the white Griffin. But he's still there. Right?