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.