anonymity

Anonymity is a recurring theme throughout the "autobiography."  To start, James Weldon Johnson published The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man anonymously.  Neither the publishers nor the readers knew who wrote it or exactly who the book was about.  After all, the title only describes an "Ex-Colored Man," making the main character extremely vague.  The so-called autobiography could have been fiction or nonfiction (although we now know that it is indeed fiction).  

A second form of anonymity manifests itself through the recognition of people by their appearance.  Not once is a person's name mentioned throughout the book.  Most references to people are through their occupation, looks, or clothes.  The main character names the big kid in class "Red Head" because he first sees his "face full of freckles and a head full of very red hair" (p.7).  "Shiny" comes to be because the main character notices his "sparkling eyes" and "glistening white teeth."  His father is remembered because "his shoes or boots were always shiny, and he wore a gold chain and a great gold watch" (p.9).  The people the main character meets on his journey south are fittingly called "the conductor," "the landlady," "my new friend," etc.  Why does the narrator dance around giving people real names, real identities?  Is he saying that the message in the novel is more important than its characters?  If he actually did give exact names and places would the events seem isolated and circumstantial, detracting from the themes the author is trying to get across?