Monday, July 14, 2008
Chapter 1: Invisible Man
I'll be posting some questions from the AP guide mixed in with some from my brain for each chapter. Feel free to comment on these questions or share your own insights, interpretations, questions, etc. with us. Post all things relating to Chapter 1 here.*How is allusion used in paragraph 2?*Explain the advice that the narrator's grandfather gives him.*What is the significance of the narrator viewing himself as a "potential Booker T. Washington"?*What is the effect of the images of the white men?*How is the imagery in the main paragraph on pg. 23 ironic?*How does this chapter show the limits of assimilation?
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This chapter shows the limitations of assimilation when it shows the way that the white men interact with the black men. The white men are vicious and cruel to the black students with out showing any remorse. They seem to view the black students more as animals than human beings. These black students are educated young men and trying to become successful individuals yet the white men still do not see them as people. The reaction of the white men when the narrator accidentally says “social equality” instead of “social responsibility” in his speech is that of anger and hostility. This shows that, despite their attempts to assimilate to the white life style, or what they believe to be the white life style, the white men are still unwilling to accept them. They would rather have the black men continue to act with blind obidience toward the white men.
The advice that the narrator's grandfather gives him contains numerous ways how keep fighting with the white society. He considered his life as a war and himself as a traitor while advising the narrator's parents to overcome the whites with "yeses" and "undermine 'em with grins." Due to this advise, the narrator begins to act the same way and considers himself to live under his grandfather's curse. The narrator also views himself as a "potential Booker T. Washington." This is significant because Booker was a civil rights activist who grew up from poverty and became an important education leader for blacks. Although he wanted equal rights he knew it would be a gradual fight. Similar to these views, the narrator gave a speech to the leading white citizens in his town while staying loyal to his grandfather's advice.
The whites essentially treat the blacks as if they were dogs. The blacks try to merge their lifestyles with that of the whites by assimilating to the whites lifestyle. They do this in order to be accepted. However, the whites still become hostile towards the blacks, especially with the slip up in the narrators speech (ie: social equality instead of social responsibility). The whites do not take kindly to the blacks, as rachel said, whites would rather have the blacks continue to act with 'bline obidience'-- like dogs.
The significance of the narrator viewing himself as a "potential Booker T. Washington" is that the narrator wishes to become a great leader like Washington, but in the prologue of the novel, the narrator is not anywhere near where he wanted to be. He lives alone in the basement of an apartment building and steals electricity from a power company. However in the first chapter, he is shown as a powerful speaker when he gives his speech at the battle royal. The narrator proves there that he can become as great a leader as Washington was.
The whites treat the black men like they are worthless. They do this by making them fight each other in the ring blind folded. The white men in this part of the section are all important men to the society. They are also all drunk and acting like pigs. This points out that the important white men are corrupt in how they act, and even more important is how the narrator feels the need to impress them with his speech. Even though he is treated terribly by them, he feels the need to be accepted by them. He tries to be accepted by giving a good speech, and he doesn't even realize he is trying to impress white men who are acting like pigs.
In this chapter the realism of the way that the white men undermine and treat the black men struck me quite hard. When they fight in the ring they fight blindfolded, almost like entertainment for the white men, who seem to be very important to their society, yet still they reward them. with what? fake coins and money, and what got to me was that the narrator still delivered his speech, as if that could change the way that the white men viewed him.
The narrator's grandfather advice to the narrator is very important. He tells his grandson to be his own person and do what is good for him, not do whatever the white people like. He is telling him to stand up for what he believes in and not just say that nothing will ever change. He wants his grandson to go out to the world and help change it for the better, not just accept things the way they are and go along with life, the way that the grandfather did. The narrator's grandfather wants the world to be better for his grandson and he gives him advice on how to make things better.
brooker t washington was a black civil rights leader who believed that former slaves could only redeem themselves by being educated and earning their right for equality. it seems like ellison doesnt agree with this because the narrators grandfather was a meek man who was a "good slave" and on his death bed, regrets ever doing so, telling everyone there that he was a traitor to someone (maybe the entire black race?) ellison obviously, and correctly, thought that it would take more than obedience and subservitude from black people to white people to gain equality.
The Narrator's grandfather advises him to undermine white people with yeses and surprise them with grins. Then the narrator starts to live like his grandpa. He lives a meek and quite live like his grandfather did. The Narrator earns the praise and respect of white people from the town.
I notice that despite being oppressed the black man believes that it may be possible to win over the white man to his side, but it is quite clear in the realism portrayed in the story that blacks are often if not always treated as second-class citizens.
I really am exposed at how whites treated blacks with such a manner as to embarass the blacks for a good laugh. The way they just stick the blacks in a fighting ring and beat each other just for money is just unbearable to even think about. And then to see the rug electrified. I feel the worst part is that the world was so bad for blacks that they went through the pain just to get a few bucks.
Whites viewed blacks not as people but as entertainment. His grandfather did not want him to live like that, but to be his own self. Not something alot of blacks believed to do.
His grandfather tells him that being an African American is like being in a war. He also says that he has been a traitor all his life, always working with, not against, the white people. But then he goes on to tell the narrator that he wants him, in his future, to do the same thing. He tells him to "undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or burst wide open." And so, the grandfather's advice to the narrator is to be so kind, nice, and pleasant to their enemy that they will become unguarded.
The significance of the narrator viewing himself "as a potential Booker T." is that he thinks highly in himself in the quality that believes he has as a leader. Almost as if he believes that he has the power to be as influencial and outstanding as Washington and help to eliminate the predjuice and discrimination caused to the black community by the racist ways of some of the whites.
The irony in the imagry on pg. 23 is that the men act like they have no grievances before and after the fighing occours. The white men place them in a ring blindfolded to fight oneanother for their entertainment. This shows the discrimination felt by the blacks because the white men did not believe they could ammount to anything more, with the exception of the narrator who delivered a speach to them. He angered them by an alarming ammount when he used the words "social equality" to describe what he sought after for his race. This also shows the extreme predjuice felt by the narrator.
This first chapter shows the limits of assimilation, because even though the narrator does his best to be accepted by the white men and please them, they still treat him as a black man at the time. The adive his grandfather gives him is to always make it seem like your listening and obeying the white men, but allways keep the goal of equality in mind and never stop fighting for it, even if it's a long, slow process.
On page 23, it says, "It was complete anarachy' and 'No group fought together for long", which refers to the fight among the group of all black men, organized and forced by the white men. It's ironic because instead of going against the white men, they were pitted against each other, and everyone fought for themselves instead of together.
On page 23, the irony is that all of the black men are fighting each other while the white men watch and laugh. Rather that fighting their way out, they fight each other instead. This could also be correlated to the limit of assimilation in that their fighting of each other greatly reduces their chance of equality. Perhaps another theme? Their different feelings and ideas cause them to fight each other rather than gang up on the white men who are poking fun.
The significance of the narrator viewing himself as a "potential Booker T. Washington" is that Booker T. Washington was a nationally prominent leader and spokesman for African Americans. Both the narrator and Washington want more equal rights for African Americans. During the narrator's speech he expressed these view points. The narrator hopes that he will be able to enforce these views and become a well-known leader like Washington.
I think chapter 1 shows the limits of assimilation in a couple different ways. First of all, we are starting to be shown the narrators attitude of meekness and blind obedience. He feels that this is the best way for assimilation to occur-if he is basically completely submissive. This therefore limits assimilation, which I believe is partly why his grandfather claimed his meekness made him a traitor. Also, the limits of assimilation are shown with the way the white men acted. They clearly treated the black men like scum, forcing them to fight blindfolded, even sending them to get fake gold coins on a rug with electric currents. They also reacted in a very hostile manner when the narrator said ‘social equality’ instead of ‘social responsibility.’ They are not at all willing to contemplate the thought of social equality, which then limits any true assimilation.
In this chapter, the narrator's grandfather gives him advice as he is on his death bed. He states that he regrets everything he did, meaning he was always a good slave who tried to comply with everything his master wanted him to do, but now regrets it. Also in this chapter, the reader is able to view how the blacks were treated in comparison to the whites, showing how the whites would go just to see the blacks fight for fun and entertainment. The lives of black men were very different and unfair in the time of the book, which is shown through the narrator's point of view.
This chapter demonstrates the limits of black assimilation into white culture with the ways that the black and white men act towards one another. When the black men are given boxing gloves, the narrator states: "..we entered looking caautiously about us and whispering, lest we might accidentally be heard above the noise of the room". This quote demonstrates the fear the black men had towards the white men, as if the white men were more powerful or worth more then them (I don't mean that in the money sense). When the boxing match is about to begin, the narrator tries to remove his blindfold and a white man yells, "Oh no you don't, black bastard! Leave that alone!". The man, by calling him a 'black bastard', shows that the narrator is not identified as an individual but simply a black man.
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