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Rising above oppression through humility. The oppressed people in each story have risen above what has restricted them - race and poverty and power. Not by flipping the cards, but by accepting what life (fate?) had resorted them to. In Black Boy, the masses of blacks seeking food among their neighbors has led them to feel tense and embarrassed. But, as Wright observed, they started talking, and soon they were coming together, eliminating their fears by accepting that, "their past had betrayed them". In Langston Hughes' case he seeks revenge on the whites who tell him they cannot eat with them. But not the kind of revenge you would think. They say the best revenge is living well, and that is what Hughes seeks. Putting their pasts to rest is what causes the blacks in the relief station line and Langston Hughes to progress.