Although the narrator seems out for the count in chapter 12, he gets some TLC, rest, and magnificent sweet potatoes in chapter 13 and regains his faculties in a remarkable way. (The imagery involved in the sweet potato passage made me change my yam stance; I thought I didn't like them, but I think I'll need to try them again. Ellison would have been an amazing writer of menus. Is anyone else hungry after reading that part?)
*What is the rhetorical purpose of the "spoiled cream" complexions of the women that the narrator sees as he careens out of the subway?
*How does the syntax of the first three pages contribute to the narrator's sense of disorientation?
*What is the rhetorical effect of the syntax on page 256, as the narrator returns to Men's House?*What purpose does Mary serve for the narrator?
*How is alliteration used to express the anxiety that the narrator feels on page 259?*Yumminess aside, what is the metaphorical value of the sweet potatoes?
*What is the pupose of the emancipation letter among the old couple's belongings?
*Why is the narrator ambivalent about attacking the men who are evicting the old couple?
*What is the narrator's rhetorical argument as he addresses the crowd?
*How does the man in the cafe interpret the narrator's sentiments incorrectly?
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Edith Wharton
John Steinbeck
Mark Twain
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Ralph Ellison
Alice Walker
4 comments:
Mary gave the narrator a sense of direction in which she believed he should live his life. She strongly felt that the narrator should become a leader in the black community. "It's you young folks what's going to make the changes." However, with or without Mary's help, the narrator started to feel the urge to take action. The urge became even greater after the narrator encountered a man selling yams on the street. The sight and odor of the yams created a home-sick feeling for the narrator. After buying three yams the narrator walked down the street eating while "overcome with an intense feeling of freedom." By simply eating the yams on the street it made him realize that he should not have to be ashamed of the things he loved. The narrator began to feel that he should be able to do the things he wished to do, not what others expected of him.
I like these chapters, they are rather nice. Lets answer some questions!
O.k, the purpose of the emancipation letter in the old couples belongings. The narrator tells himself that "It has been longer that that, further removed in time", but knowns that it hasn't been that long. He is talking about slavery. He notices that it really hasn't been all that long since the slaves were "freed" and they are still not entirely free.
Slavery is also the tie that binds him together with these folks, and it instills him with enough emotions to make a speech. The bond of slavery connects his parents, him, and these old folks in his mind, so he then delivers a rousing speech to protest the injustice (and get rid of all that anger inside)
Also, a quick note. The speech the narrator gives uses a LOT of repetition- "We are all law-abiding, slow-to-anger people"
Owch, the irony.
At the begining of chapter twelve the narrator just came out of the hospital. So he uses weird, jumbled words and sentences. This is just used to show his disorientation from coming from the hospital. It all seems like a faint dream to him. He can't really understand whats going on. He is having trouble breathing and standing up, let alone make sentences.
When the narrator comes across the old couple being evicted he also finds a mob of people ready to attack. So he gives a speach to try to stop them from attacking. They misconstrue this and the speach only spurs them on. The man at the cafe thinks the speach was trying to get them angry. When on the contrary, the narrator was trying to stop the crowd from attacking
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