At the beginning of the novel, the school superintendent of the protagonist’s hometown gives the protagonist a briefcase. Inside the case is a certificate granting him admission to a Black college, making the object a highly symbolic item already. The briefcase accompanies the protagonist throughout the novel’s events, and he begins to collect important papers and memorabilia in it. By the end of the novel, when he falls down the manhole into the coal heap, the case is full of papers representing various stages of his journey. To see in the darkness of the underground room, the protagonist is forced to burn several of the items in the briefcase, including his high school diploma, the doll that Clifton was selling, and the threatening note that Jack wrote him. The briefcase is symbolic of the protagonist’s desire to carry these things around with him: His accomplishments, his failures, and his attempts to discover who he is are represented by the papers in the case. By burning them, the protagonist has rejected the influence of such objects and their associations, determined to rely only on himself.