This is a first-person narrative account on the life of Johnson. Unaware in youth of his race, he painfully learns the lessons of segregation, being an only child, and loneliness. Trying to attend school in Atlanta per the request of his mother, Johnson instead finds employment in Florida, Georgia and New York, then travelling to Europe as a musician, only to return to the South to discover reevaluated ideas of employeement and duty.

The realities of Johnson's actions, reasonings and ideas may disturb people. When reading this, take into account the historical context of this piece, and how dramatic idealogies, racism and socioeconomic conditions were in the early years of the 1900s. A bold, intense and sick account of one of America's most important and anything but sanguine writers to emerge from this time. A timeless read and obvious influence on Richard Wright's "Black Boy."