Born to a white father and a Black mother sometime after the Civil War, the Ex-Colored Man is the narrator of the novel. The novel traces his movement from innocence of the impact of racism in his life to knowledge about how to confront this challenge. The retrospective narrative allows the narrator to reflect on his life experiences from the perspective of the present.

In the early chapters of the novel, the narrator is unaware of his racial identity and the reason his father is absent from his life. The turning point in his awareness of his racial identity comes one day at school when the teacher sorts him with the other Black students in his class. Shocked by the realization that he is not white, despite his very light skin, the narrator begins to feel alienated from both his Black and white classmates. Inspired by his mother’s hopes for him and the example of a dark-skinned young man that he names “Shiny,” the narrator decides that he will become a great man who brings honor to his racial community.

This personal and racial ambition is his primary