Monday, July 14, 2008
Chapter 3: Not-So-Good Times at the Golden Day
*What is the significance of the wide range of professions that the insane men at the Golden Day used to practice?*How do the apocalyptic ravings of one of the patients serve to foreshadow the future?*Why do the patients find that kicking Supercargo is therapeutic?*Why does the veteran call the narrator invisible?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
The narrator is called invisible by Mr. Norton because the narrator has learned to be what the white people want him to be, which is invisible. Mr. Norton tells the narrator that he has repressed his emotions and humanity. By doing this, the narrator becomes invisible because invisible people have no emotions or humanity. The narrator, at the time, believes that Mr. Norton is crazy for the way he is acting. It is hilarious to find that in the Prologue the narrator has actually admitted to becoming the type of invisible that Mr. Norton was talking about. Since the narrator believes that Mr. Norton is crazy for calling him invisible, does it make the narrator crazy for calling himself invisible? Seems like forshadowing.
I think the many professions held by the patients at The Golden Day are symbolic of how things can go from good to bad because of the treatment of soldiers in the armed forces. The "apocalyptic ravings" are true because soon enough Mr. Norton nearly dies, more than once.
the patients seem to find kicking supercargo therapeutic because they fell that they are kicking that which has kept them enslaved beyond th years of slavery. supercargo keeps the patients under control most of the time, but when they get too rowdy, the beat him up and humiliate him. maybe supercargo is meant as a symbol of the overseers back in slavery times when whites would put blacks in charge of blacks. supercargo is black, but his clothes are said to be extremely white, so supercargo represents the patients enslavement in those times.
The narrator is called invisible by the veteran because that is what the narrator is "meant to be" in the eyes of the white people. It is rather ironic that in the prologue the author has admitted to the invisibility already and that the author thinks presently that Norton is crazy for suggesting it.
The patients find kicking Supercargo is therapeutic because in a way he was enslaving them for years. When they finally get the chance to hurt him it makes them feel good because they can now hurt there leader. It makes me think of slave days. The white man has slaves and if those slaves could beat up the person who made them do things they did not want to do for years, they would find it therapeutic to beat him up.
One patron at the Golden Day says "It will occur at 5:30. The great all-embracing, absolute Armistice, the end of the world." This symbolizes that by the evening, the narrator will have his life changed dramatically. He will lose his paradise, the school. And he will be thrust into a world that he is not ready to face.
The narrator is shocked to see that Mr. Nortan is a victim of what seems to be heat stroke, and takes him to a local bar for a drink. There, they are met by many veterans of war who, it is said, all have gone insane. They take their attendant "Supercargo" and beat hin unconcious. They do this because he is the only one that keeps the order and they want to have no restrictions on their behavior. Mr. Nortan goes unconcious again because, as the woman suggested, he was unfamiliar with how strong the Brandy was. A vet calls the narrator 'invisable'. What I think is that he meant people think very little, or nothing of him; probably because of his race.
the veteran calls him invisible because he is supposed to invisible to white people and society. The Narrator is "supposed to be" invisible to society.
Supercargo has been acting like a slave driver to the insane people. and the insane people like the revenge of kicking their oppresor.
When one of the patients starts raving about the end of thw world and etc, he's foreshadowing that something will happen to someone (i.e. Mr. Norton). When Mr. Norton becomes unconcious, the narrator freaks out because Norton is such an important person in the community and he almost lost him. So basically that becomes the end of the narrators world for awhile.
Supercargo is pretty much the only person of authority at the golden day. He seems to run things and be in charge of keeping things in order. So when the patients see an opportunity to fight against him, they gladly take it. To them, he represents an even fuller sense of authority- the institutions and social values, or mores, of the time. So when they are fighting against him, it is therapeutic because it is like they are receiving a chance to fight against the things that had gone against them in life such as slavery and prejudice.
The patients find that kicking Supercargo is therapeutic because to the patients Supercargo has been keeping them "enslaved" all these years. Now, the patients get rowdy and excited and gang up on Supercargo to get revenge on him for keeping them "enslaved" for all these years.
The veteran calls the narrator invisible because the narrator does not understand how the white community looks upon him. The white community does not notice the narrator as closely as the narrator believes they notice him.
The apocalyptic ravings of the man that the narrator first meets when he walks into the Golden Day foreshadow negative events for the narrator. The insane man rambles: "The great all-embracing, absolute Armistice, the end of the world!". This foreshadows the the bad events that occur, including the nearly passing out of Mr. Norton and Mr. Norton's anger. The narrator knows that getting an important white man like Mr. Norton, who is very much involved with the school, could spell bad news for him.
I agree with Dustin Brown about how Supercargo could be symoblic of the overseers in times of slavery, so the veterans beat him up to almost get revenge against all "traitors" like him.
The apocalyptic ravings are about foreshadowing for the narrator realizing he is invisible. The man who rants about it says, "it will occur at 5.30", which is a time late in the afternoon (around the time that Mr. Norton and the narrator arrive at the Golden Day). Then after the narrator gets away from all the chaos, he is told that he's invisible by one of the veterans. Also the fact that the narrator's realization of his invisbility is compared to the end of the world, this could also be foreshadowing for something much worse in the future.
The narrator has adapted to white expectations for black people- invisibility. Hence forth why he is the "invisible man." Mr. Norton says that the narrator has hidden his emotions, same with invisibility... no emotion
Post a Comment