Chapter 1 Summary

The story goes back twenty years to when the narrator says he had always been looking for something, taking answers from other people, and being naïve. He says it took him a while to realize he was nobody but his invisible self. The narrator's grandparents had been slaves, and he says he was not ashamed of them. He says his grandparents worked hard after they had their freedom. We learn that the narrator's grandfather was a strange one, and that the narrator is said to take after him. On his deathbed, the grandfather tells the narrator's father that he wants him to continue the good fight and that he has been a traitor and a spy. The grandfather's final words cause much anxiety in the family, and they have a haunting effect on the narrator. The narrator reflects on what a meek...