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Literature Analysis #3

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

1. Exposition
1. The narrator begins his story by talking about his grandfather, a freedman after the Civil War. He was noted to be live submissively, and showed regret for being so. The narrator himself is submissive and quiet. The narrator delivers a graduation speech and proves to be popular. He recites the same speech in a white men gathering, and is given the opportunity to go to college. He took a job as a driver for Mr. Norton and took him to various places that shocked the founder of his school.

Rising Action

1. After the narrator took Norton to the previous slave quarters, the president of the college Mr. Bledsoe heard and became mad for the narrator in taking Mr. Norton there. The narrator agrees to travel to New York to work and earn money for college tuition. He arrives at Harlem, only to find the he had been expelled by Bledsoe.

Climax

1. However, the narrator managed to get a job at Liberty Paints. Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong, including a boiler exploding from pressure. He wakes up at the factory hospital and is asked series of questions that he cannot correctly answer. He later realizes that he wants to be an activist for blacks after seeing all the racial injustice. He meets a kind woman named Mary who helped him. After some slur, the narrator is met by the Brotherhood, run by Jack. He joins the group to fight for black justice, and receives a new name. He gives a powerful speech using the metaphor of sight and blindness in racial justice at a old boxing ring.

Falling Action

1. After studying under the Brotherhood, the narrator became more prominent and began to shape his new identity. As the organization becomes more complex, the narrator is met by a traitor named Clifton who later dies from a shooting. Harlem has become chaotic with violence that the Brotherhood had planned from the beginning to suppress the rival Ras.  As buildings burned, the narrator escaped underground.

Resolution

1. The narrator decides to live underground and reflect on his life so far. He is invisible by analyzing society rather than ignoring it. He comes to realize his grandfather’s last words. In the end, he revisits the world with a resolution for social responsibility.

Theme

2. The theme revolves around identity. Throughout the story, the narrator did not reveal his real and organization name. He struggled to find his true identity while comparing his public figure to his private figure. The idea of a person’s identity is derived from what they do, and not who they are. The actions the narrator has done has shaped his identity, because actions express who you really are. Just being a certain race and type of person does not give identity, but rather a description of what that person could be.

Tone

3. The author’s tone is bitter and sardonical. Most of the events that occurred to the main character has been bitter and upsetting. Also, much of the vision that the narrator envisioned has crumbled due to the personal goals. The white men and Ras has constantly mocked the character in several ways.

Literary Elements/Techniques 1995 Edition

1. “I’m in New York, but New York ain’t in me” p.255 - example of antithesis
2. “Then I was awake and not awake, sitting bolt upright in bed” p.318- imagery
3. “I saw gray marks appearing where the old skin was flaking away beneath my digging nails.” p.318-imagery
4. “Black, black, black!Black people in blacker mourning”p.131 - repetition
5. “My name spread like smoke in an airless room” p.280 - simile
6. “Life was all pattern all pattern and discipline; and the beauty of discipline is when it works.” p.382 - foreshadow
7. “How would I explain the dolls?” p.447 - symbolism
8. “except now I recognized my invisibility” p.508 - symbolism
9. “The words struck like bullets fired close range, blasting my satisfaction to earth.” p.552 - simile
10. “an eerie slapping sounds followed by a precise and hallucinated cry” p.554 - imagery

Characterization

1. Direct characterization
1. “as I approached him I saw his drawn face and cottony white hair showing behind” p.207

Indirect Characterization

1. “Only a few men in the whole country possess the knowledge” p. 90

The author uses both approaches in characterization to give the reader enough information and inferences for us to analyze the main character.

2. The author’s syntax and diction do change as he focuses on the main character. Throughout the story, there is a shift between the african american dialogue and style, so the author adapts the diction and syntax to match it.
3. The narrator is definately round and dynamic. He reveals many of his traits and character as the story progresses. Also, he realizes what it means to be invisible. He has a deeper meaning of the racial society and aims to alleviate it by learning from his experiences.
4. I felt like I met a real person just because of how complex the narrator is.

“There is, by the way, and area in which a man’s feelings are more rational than his mind, and it is precisely in that area that his will is pulled in several direction at the same time. “

The narrator reflects on himself like a real person, and makes it seem as if you can talk to this person about your own concerns or feelings.

Poetry Essay

Out Beyond Ideas by Rumi and Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein are beautifully written poems that both encompass valuable themes. Both poems revolve around similar themes, such as following the heart and how it is important to escape the rigidness of society to free your mind at times. Just as how these poems are unique, Out Beyond Ideas differs from Where the Sidewalk Ends in several ways. Rumi emphasizes how there is no right or wrong within your conscience if you can discover your inner self. In Shel Silverstein’s poem, the importance of not losing your creativity is one theme that differs from Out Beyond Ideas.

The theme of following the trail of your heart is common between the two poems. Children have big dreams, and Silverstein’s poem talks about how it is important not to lose your vision as you grow older. The “chalk-white arrows” can literally symbolize the direction that the children take to follow their heart. The sidewalk represents the safe path that people guide through as children to do what their heart wishes. In Out Beyond Ideas, a similar theme is expressed. “Out beyond ideas of rightdoing and wrongdoing, there is a field.” The soul that “lies down in that grass” is one who has listened to their hearts. Another common theme is that freeing yourself in moderation from your daily routine is important. The end of the sidewalk depicts the end of structured thinking. Most of are told to do this and that on a daily basis. We see hundreds of advertisements from wake to sleep, telling us what society demands. Yet, there is always that voice inside our heads wanting to fully express our individuality and retaliate the accepted norms. It is a good thing to “leave this place where the smoke blows black” and free our soul. Rumi also values this idea in her poem. On the literal level, there is a place where no one can tell you if you are right or wrong, but there is a place where you can free yourself from the right or wrongness and simply be where you can accept yourself as who you are.

While the two poems have similar themes, differences are evident. In Where the Sidewalk Ends, the value of creativity is emphasized. “For the children, they mark, and the children, they know the place where the sidewalk ends.” Many kids have a large degree of creativity, and this line symbolizes how the children who grew up reminisces on the power of creativity. Walking in the footsteps of your heart and empowering your creativity is such a value because people who grow up retaining these qualities can achieve the unattainable. As one grows older, our container for flushing out our creative self can weaken. We have other things to worry about, and too little time to think back on our free childhood. Yet, Where the Sidewalk Ends reminds us the gravity of losing this quality.

In Out Beyond Ideas, Rumi expresses the unknown force that can bring us to the “field”. There is a place, an ideal place, that words cannot describe. Unwrapping yourself to knowing who you really are is one step to getting there. “When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about.” There is something out there, or in us that connects us in a way that we cannot even imagine. After all, people are not born to live alone, but rather in unison. Even then, people always conform to the idea of being right or wrong. It is not if your are incorrect or correct, but rather if you are true to who you really are on both the conscience and unconscious level.

Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends  and Rumi’s Out Beyond Ideas have similarities and differences regarding the theme. Both point to the significance of being honest to your heart’s desire. They also express the one should free their mind from the rigid structure of living in today’s society. However, the two poems cover different aspects, such as Rumi’s poem talking about enlightenment of self.

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Poetry Remix

INTRO TO POETRY

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

1. What is the significance of the title?
• The "sidewalk" in the title symbolizes the path that people take as they grow older. 
2. What is the tone of the poem?
• The tone is neutral. The author reminds us of the path the we go through as we grow up, and how being a child is very different from being an adult. 
3. What is your mood as you read it?
• My mood is somewhat reminiscent of my childhood. Becoming a adult can be stressing at times, and being reminded of my childhood made me realize how easy it was back then. 
4. Is there a Shift? Where? From what to what?
• There is a shift between the first and second stanza. The first stanza has a light and happy tone whereas the second stanza becomes less bright. 
5. What is the theme of the poem?
1. The theme of this poem involves the transition from childhood to adulthood, or any big transition that all people go through in life. 

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