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g to their own will. The sambo doll represents an invisible deterioration of position of African-Americans in American society. The protagonist’s position is similar to that of Brother Clifton. He comes to be convinced that he has been used by people all his life and that this has stripped him of his identity. The sambo doll awakes the protagonist to his present state of spiritual discrimination and serves as a stimulus to urge to protagonist to search for his identity.
 
3.3.2 Brother Tarp’s Chain Links
 
Just because Tarp said “No” to the white man, he has been imprisoned for nineteen years and lost everything, including his family. The chain link he keeps symbolizes the desire and occasional ability of the Negro to be able to say “No” to the white man and the suffering of the Negro in the past. Tarp holds onto it as “a keepsake and a reminder”. (Ellison, 2000: 388) Now Tarp gives it as gift to the protagonist. He explains: “It might help you remember what we’re fighting against…it signifies more” (Ellison, 2000: 392) Tarp’s gift reveals his identification and his hope that the protagonist can do something for the blacks. This time the protagonist does not refuse, on the contrary, he accepts it as a gift from “father”, “It is something like a man passing on to his son his own father’s watch.” (Ellison, 2000: 389) This marks his turning attitude to the blacks’ culture: He begins to accept his race and its history. In other word, he comes to know who he is. He gradually learns to claim his African-American heritage and embrace his culture. This shows us that the protagonist has made great progress in his searching for identity. The chain link, like a passionate reminder, hurries the protagonist to accept his own culture and history and search for his identity.
 
3.3.3 Eating Yam
 
The narrator's public declaration of his love for blacks and the reconfirmation of black history are expressed in the episode of description of eating yam. The sweet potatoes draw him “with such a surge of homesickness that I turned away to keep my control”. (Ellison, 2000: 264) Such feeling is summed up in such word: “they’re my birthmark” and “I yam what I am!” (Ellison, 2000: 266) In this view, he acknowledges his identity of a southern black. When he eats them he recalls his free and happy past life in the south. This episode is the best evidence which proves that he has chosen for himself and is never chosen by other people. “I walked along, munching the yam, just as suddenly overcome by an intense feeling of freedom... I no longer had to worry about who saw me or about what was proper. To hell with all that...” (Ellison, 2000: 358) As a particular food for blacks, the baking yam is a fountain of strength from which the protagonist has assimilated the nutriment to overcome the grim difficulties he faces. The narrator at this time has gradually found the identity of himself. He recognizes that: “What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?” (Ellison, 2000: 345) In this way, he defines himself as a southern black with his own culture and tradition, and thinks it is no longer a shame to live his black way.
 
After acknowledging his black origin he firstly feels his freedom of eating baked yams. Eating yam becomes a ritual to reveal his recognition of true “self” and his race. This incident rela本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。