Adit's Blog

Reading Invisible Man  up until now, I cannot help but notice that Ralph Ellison puts an emphasis on the representation of his characters rather than their development. He is methodical about his characters' traits and seems to have an obsession with putting the reader through a gauntlet of metaphors. For example, we recently discussed how Wright subtly refers to Odysseus through Brother Jack and the description of a blonde girl the Narrator happens to glimpse on the street. As Jack's eyeball falls into the glass of water, the word cyclopean gets thrown around. The blonde serves as the personification of the Greek Sirens Odysseus encounters on one of his adventures. Noticing these little references to other works changed the way I read the words on the page. And these allusions are only half of the way Ellison constructed these individuals. He also has his characters serve as a symbol of the racial and societal ideologies present at the time. The fetishization of Tod Clifton...

As we see from a pivotal Chapter 11, the Narrator undergoes a dramatic change in character and outlook on life. He goes from this docile, and 'always following instructions' kinda guy to an almost rebellious character. After undergoing a Lobotomy procedure and getting electrocuted several times, the narrator wakes up forgetting key details about who he is. He forgets his name, why he was in New York, and most of his upbringing. He is vaguely able to remember Dr. Bledsoe and Mr. Norton but again, no details. It's as if he was respawned in a video game, reborn in a way. The doctors gave him a new identity and he was set free. The narrator leaves the hospital feeling alien in his own body. It's as if something was taking over his persona. Forgetting his childhood and parents is crucial because it invokes the memory of the veteran's words stating "You should be your own father". He takes this advice and now looks to form his own identity, not do what he is t...

All throughout Native Son we are given two different versions of Bigger Thomas, both of which could not be any more different from each other. We have the aggressive one who's capable of holding his friend at knifepoint and the other who must second guess trivial actions such as picking up a fallen object or responding to a simple question. However, if we look closer, both of these actions come from the same source, his deeply rooted fear. When Thomas took part of the conflict in the pool room, it wasn't out of hatred or strong feelings against Gus but to ultimately save face. The Gang had planned an armed robbery against a white store owner prior to the incident and Bigger was having serious doubts about going through. He was never strong enough to voice these opinions, instead, thrusting his cowardice onto Gus who publicly voiced his 'no' to the planned course of action. In order to save face, Thomas would threaten Gus in an attempt to hide his own fear and in a way...