Blogging Instructions

Welcome to the Invisible Man blog.  Based on the questions you chose last class, respond to two of the Socratic seminar questions in at least 10 thoughtful sentences.  Then, choose three peers to respond to in 5-10 sentences.  When responding to a peer, begin the post with the @ symbol and your peer's username (Example: @Chaka Smart, I agree with your statement that…).   You can disagree with your peers, but be considerate with any criticism.

Have fun!

Ms. Burton

Question 10

What is the significance of ending the novel with a question?

Question 9

How are women as a group treated in the novel?  Give examples of women and Ellison's portrayal of them as evidence to support your argument.

Question 8

Discuss the character of Ras the Exhorter.  Could he be considered a foil to the narrator?  Did you consider his philosophy truthful, repugnant, or both?

Question 7

Discuss the character of Tod Clifton.  "Tod" in German means "quiet death."  Is this a symbolically appropriate or inappropriate name for Clifton?

Question 6

Discuss the symbolic significance of Liberty Paint Company.  Consider the following: why it is called "Liberty" paints, the motto "Keep America Pure," the trademark of the screaming eagle, what Optic White is used for, the 10 drops of black dope to make the paint whiter.

Question 5

What is the significance of the battle royal?  What pattern does it set up for the remaining events of the novel?  Why is the narrator chosen to "represent his race"?  Discuss the prominent white men who choose the narrator for battle and the speech, is there any real benevolence in them?  What roles do battle royals/fights/violence play later in the novel?

Question 4

Describe the main conflict of the novel.  Is it person vs. person, person vs. society, or person vs. self?

Question 3

What makes Ellison's narrator invisible?  What is the relationship between his invisibility and other people's blindness--both involuntary and willful?  Is the protagonist's invisibility due solely to his skin color?  Is it only the novel's white characters who refuse to see him?

Question 2

Where in Invisible Man does Ellison--who was trained as a musician--use language to musical effect?  (For example, compare the description of the college campus on pages 34-37 to Trueblood's confession on 51-68, to the chapel scene on 110-135, and Tod Clifton's funeral on 450-461.)  What different sorts of language does Ellison employ in these and other passages?  How does the "music" of these sections--their rhythm, assonance, and alliteration--heighten their meaning or play against it?

Question 1

Is the reader meant to identify with the narrator?  To sympathize with him?  How doe you think Ellison himself sees his protagonist?  Did your perception judgment of the narrator change throughout the course of the novel?  How so?