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#1 The briefcase symbolizes white supremacy because it represents how white people were the only ones who can "grant" success to African Americans.

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#1 "'Boy,' he said, addressing me, 'take this prize and keep it well. Consider it a badge of office. Prize it. Keep developing as you are and some day it will be filled with importance papers that will help shape the destiny of your people.'" (32)

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#2 "I felt an importance that I had never dreamed." (32)

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#3 "...I got down my prized brief case from the closet. It was still as new as the night of the battle royale, and sagged now as I placed the smashed bank and coins inside and locked the flap." (327)

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#4 "What's in that brief case?" "You," I said, suddenly laughing. "What do you think of that?" (566)

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#5 "My brief case with the broken image lay on the table." (332)

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"...I swung my brief case with confidence." (168)

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#2 The briefcase can also symbolize his future and his education and how important his future is to him.

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#3 IM carries the brief case around along with the broken pieces of the Sambo Doll which he tries to get rid of it but he can't. This can symbolize how his past will always continue to follow him even when he tries to leave it behind and pretend to fit in as a white man.

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#4 In this quote you can see a clear shift in IMs development as a character standing up to others. The brief case remains significant in this portion of the book because it still remains by his side as his character is progressing

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#5 The brief case symbols him carrying the past with him and bringing it along when he goes to Marys house.

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The briefcase carries the broken bank and coins and symbolizes that he is carrying his past with him.

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The briefcase symbolizes how IM is unknowingly turning back to assimilation with white society after joining the Brotherhood.

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"It was a scholarship to the state college for Negroes." (32)

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The scholarship that was given to IM symbolizes white supremacy and how white people are the only ones who can deem African American people to be successful. The white men reward IM for being obedient and "behaving well around them".

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The 7 letters symbolize false hope for IM's future, the identity that Dr. Bledsoe wants IM to have, and how Dr. Bledose doesn't want IM to overshadow his success.

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The coin bank symbolizes the racial stereotypes against African Americans. The way IM fails to discard the remains of the coin bank represents how he cannot escape the harmful stereotypes.

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"And in a corner, my brief case, covered with specks of dust like memories--the night of the battle royal." (527)

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The dusty briefcase symbolizes how the briefcase has been with IM since the very beginning as he reminisces about the battle royal.

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"'Here buddy, this yours?' It was my brief case, extended to me by its handles. I seized it with sudden panic, as though something indefinitely precious had almost been lost to me." (536-537)

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"'...You fill that brief case, buddy. Get yourself something!' 'No,' I said, 'I've enough in it already.'" (540)

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IM's reaction towards the briefcase can relate to the first chapter where IM was told to prize the briefcase. Even as he has changed since the beginning, IM continues to keep the briefcase close to him and considers it an important thing in his life.