“A second comforting display in the novel was the compassion and help Griffin received from strangers throughout the novel. Sterling Williams, his gateway to the black world, had hardly known him when he accepted him as a friend into his shoeshine stand. Griffin received shelter from a network of people through a stranger on a bus, stayed several nights in the home of a poor black man who was happy to share with him, and slept one night at a the house of a black man whom he had met on the highway. In the small restaurants Griffin ate at, there was always a level of respect and understanding between the waitresses and himself. On the buses the blacks were very friendly toward each other, as though they had known each other forever and were the best of friends. The blacks also seemed to feel compassion for one another – whether another black triumphed in a situation involving whites or faltered, they felt the emotions and bound together in the situation.”