how does the setting of the book influence the characters in the book the Autobiography of an ex-colored man

Atlanta is first Southern city the narrator spends any significant time in in his adult years. While the numbers of poor Blacks he sees in town disgust him, he is equally impressed by the Black student population in Atlanta University. In Atlanta, the narrator is robbed and loses his college tuition. Certainly the racial history of the Southern United States forms much of the thematic significance of the story.

The fictitious events of this book take place shortly after the end of the Civil War, with tensions high between Whites and Blacks and between Southerners and Northerners. The narrator several times describes conversations he joined discussing “the Negro question”: how Blacks should be treated post-Civil War and what rights they are entitled to. All of the conversations he was in and all of the observations he made were in context of the relationships between Whites and Blacks in different parts of the country and among different social strata. The narrator likely made such observations throughout his life to help determine what class and what race he wanted to belong to, a choice available to him only because of his good upbringing and his light skin color. He easily could fit in with educated Whites or Blacks, but something would always keep drawing him to the rural South. Whether it was his desire to connect with his lineage or his interest in music that pulled him to the South, the undeniably atrocious treatment of Blacks forced him to run away. While his skin color gave him the luxury of avoiding treatment other Blacks could not escape, the price he pays is inauthenticity and never feeling like he belonged anywhere.