The stories "Sonny's Blues," "Battle Royal," and "The Man..," all focus on the lives of characters who are African American men that are faced with finding acceptance in society. They are living in a mostly white society where black men were the lower working class having jobs like maids and nannies. When trying to break free from society's norms they are faced with obstacles. Ralph Ellison tells about an old African American phrase, “If you’re black, stay back; if you’re brown, stick around; if you’re white, you’re right” (901). This was the mindset of almost everyone in that time which made the struggle to break free from this stigma even harder. All three stories focused on characters that had little money. This led them to have less opportunities
