Those petite purple pills, which turned my nervous system into a tangle of pleasurably twinkling Christmas lights, had become a constant companion.
-- The narrator (chapter 1 paragraph 2)

Importance: Through a dominant mode of satire, Ruffin explores the ways that racism of all forms, blatant or subtle, can warp an individual’s psyche. The introductory scene of the book presents a narrator and main protagonist who will lower himself to any level necessary if it means he will succeed. To manage or suppress the legitimate feelings of anxiety he experiences, he becomes dependent on the pills, known as Plums. The dependency develops into an addiction, which the author uses to explore the theme of temptation and destruction.

These shadows followed us wherever we went. Sometimes I felt like we all had birthmarks.
-- The narrator (chapter 6 paragraph 1)

Importance: In the novel, shadows symbolize both the external threat of racist treatment as well as the internal threats posed by such treatment, including doubt, perceived...