1. Using your artistic skills to unravel a few symbolic scenes from Invisible Man's early chapters
- Battle Royal (22-26)
- The road from the college to Trueblood's cabin (34-37)
- The narrator driving around Mr. Norton (37-40, and top of 44)
- Reviving Mr. Norton at the Golden Day (79-81)
- Supercargo takes charge (82-85)
2. Enjoying a Socratic seminar on Invisible Man, Chapters 3-6
3. Wrapping up
HW:
1. Read Chapters 7, 8, and 9; please pick one image/scene that has symbolic purpose to it. Type the passage, illustrate it, and label what the different pieces of your illustration symbolize (just as we did in class today). You will be given 30 minutes of reading time on Monday to read Chapter 10.
2. By next Wednesday, compose a list of about five poems that intrigue you and seem worthy of intensive study. Time period does not matter, but difficulty does.
College always shone in moonlight
ReplyDelete-Facade→ Not real light
-Looks nice but it really isn’t
-Not much of a difference between the college and Trueblood’s cabin
Significance of character’s names?
-Trueblood
--Symbol of the black man, yet he has the “truest blood”
-The narrator has no name
-The “Founder” has no name
Use of colors throughout the book
-White usually symbolizes purity, but Ellison finds other uses
--Uses it to describe pigeon poop
--Also uses white to describe death
-Trueblood and Bledsoe
--Both names involve blood→ Red is symbolic
Speech in chapter 5
-Speaker (Homer A. Barbee)→ What stood out?
--White band around his neck
--Cage with his fingers
--Dark lensed glasses
--Black little Buddha
--Rhythmic
-Glorious story of the founder
-At the beginning, he describes the founder as Jesus and a savior
--Elevating him above everyone else
--“Let my people go!” is something Jesus actually said
-Contrasts between a dark land and a bright paradise
-Why is the speaker ridiculed?
--Contributes to the facade of the college
--Founder isn’t really the savior he’s portrayed to be
When speech is over, what stood out?
-Speaker is blind→ Foster would’ve said he’s blind for a reason
--He can’t see the differences in people
--He’s portraying the founder as this amazing person
---Making other people blinded by the facade
-Mockingbird on statue
What’s changing in the narrator?
Starting to see through the facade and realizing that the college is not so great
Still crushed when he gets expelled
View of grandfather’s curse is changing slightly
--Can no longer suck up to the white people
--Has to fulfill curse in different way
Turning point: When Dr. Bledsoe tells him he doesn’t exist
-Starting to realize that he’s invisible
Images of blindness
-Statue with empty eyes
-Narrator
-Whole college is blind
Page 142: Something terrifying about Dr. Bledsoe
He thinks he’s powerful, but he’s actually not
Since he thinks he has power, he will not push for it
Well educated Sambo