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a passage of description on the narrator’s new boss: Mr. Brockway, a black man. “The man who moved out of the shadow and looked at me sullenly was small, wiry and very natty in his dirty overalls. And as I approached him I saw his drawn face and the cottony white hair showing beneath his tight, striped engineer‘s cap. His manner puzzled me. I couldn’t tell whether he felt guilty about something himself, or thought I had committed some crime. I came closer, staring. He was barely five feet tall, his overalls looking now as though he had been dipped in pitch. ”(Ralph Ellison 1952: 207) That’s the first time for the narrator to meet his new boss, Mr. Brockway. The word “sullenly” and the sentence “I couldn’t tell whether he felt guilty about something himself, or thought I had committed some crime” tell us the narrator was unwelcome. Because Mr. Brockway worried his occupation might be replaced by the narrator, and was jealous of the narrator. In fact, he was exploited and oppressed by a white boss, his job are devalued. But he didn‘t support black brothers’ fighting against the white boss. His softness fully exposed in the fiction. 2.2.5 In chapter fourteen “Then from down the hall I could hear Mary singing, her voice clear and untroubled, though she sang a troubled song.” It is the time when the narrator returns to Mary from the Brotherhood. He knows that Mary is short of money and led a very difficult life. However, humor reduces his worry. Because Mary is singing a troubled song but her voice is untroubled, which indicates that Mary is optimistic. Mary is an old black woman and she is the poorest person in that society and Ellison here comforts his heroine by humor. 2.2.6 In chapter seventeen “Upon hearing that one of the unemployed brothers was an ex-drill master from Wichita, Kansas, I organized a drill team of six-footers whose duty it was to march through the streets striking up sparks with their hob-tailed shoes. On the day of the parade they drew crowds faster than a dogfight on a country road…”(Ralph Ellison 1952: 379) Ellison compares the drill team with a “dogfight”, there is some sense of humor and here the word “dogfight” implies his despise on the brotherhood. 2.2.7 In chapter twenty-five “When I reached Morningside the shooting sounded like a distant celebration of the Fourth of July, and I hurried forward. At St. Nicholas the streetlights were out. A thunderous sound arose and I saw four men running toward me pushing something that jarred the walk. It was safe.”(Ralph Ellison 1952: 535) This happens near a rioting, but the shooting is humorously compa red to a distant celebration of the Fourth of July. What a bitter satire! It reveals the chaos of the society. 2.3 Pieces of characters’ humorous words In the fiction, most of the time, the characters say humorous words to express their sense forcefully and gracefully. That‘s a big characteristic of the fiction. “Mr. Norton stood abruptly. ‘Let us go, young man’, he said angrily. ‘No, listen. He believes in you as he believes in the beat of his heart. He believes in that great false wisdom taught slaves and pragmatists alike, that white is right. I can tell you his destiny…’“ (Ralph Ellison1952: 85) It’s the time the narrator and Mr. Norton are in the Golden Days, a vet doctor’s words about the narrator said to Mr. Norton. “He believes in you as he believes in the beat of his heart” is a smart simile humor. It points out that the narrator is a slave to M