Black Like Me

Black Like Me

              Black Like Me was first published in November of 1961.   It was originally written as an article describing the rise in suicide tendency among Southern Negroes.   John Howard Griffin assumed that "it would be an obscure work, of interest primarily to sociologists."   Historically, Griffin was the first white person to experience certain issues known only to black people.   By simply darkening his pigment, he encountered a complex reality formerly unknown to him or any other white person.
Black Like Me was written as a journal, a portrayal of Griffin’s life as he experienced it as a black man.   It was not meant to have symbolism or themes, however, it is important to evaluate the book as a fiction novel.   This allows the reader to determine its symbolism and recognize its themes.   It was assumed that if this book was intended to be read as a story, isolation would be the symbolic theme.
In the following quote, Griffin has completed the process of darkening his skin and sees himself in the mirror for the first time as a black man.
"The transformation was total and shocking.   I had expected to see myself disguised, but this was something else.   I was imprisoned in the flesh of an utter stranger, an unsympathetic one with whom I felt no kinship.   All traces of the John Griffin I had been were wiped from existence.   Even the senses underwent a change so profound it filled me with distress.   I looked into the mirror and saw nothing of the white John Griffin’s past."   (pgs.15-16)
The theme of isolation is first discovered in this quote.   Griffin feels imprisoned in a body other than his own.   He does not like the person he sees before him and feels that the figure he sees in the mirror has no relationship with the mind and soul inside.  
The next quote describes the separation Griffin feels from his own body.   He feels that he is sharing his body with a stranger, someone he feels no connection with.
"The completeness of this transformation appalled...