The primary settings of the story are New York City’s ghetto and a rural Virginia town, home to his grandparents who lived a comfortable, middle-class lifestyle for African Americans of the depression era. Lucas chronicles the desperate poverty his family finds themselves facing while living in urban American after leaving the abundance of the family farm in Virginia. These opposite worlds offer the writer a diverse picture of “life’s offerings.” They open the door to Lucas’ discovery of how to “go within” to “freedom consciousness.” As a child, Lucas exorcises himself through the strategy of “going within” to sustain abuse from his father and state hospitals that experiment on him with electrical shock treatments. The story is insightful for all audiences, especially African American. It has tremendous ramification for understanding the root of domestic violence and the psychological impact of racial discrimination and poverty. It’s greatest Power, however, is in demonstrating the power the soul to overcome the trauma of these social, psychological, environmental, and physical circumstances. Lucas worked for New York City Transit for 22 years before retiring and relocating to Maryland.