Chapter 2
- How does the statue of the founder fit into the sight imagery
begun in the Prologue? M
The statue is similar to the
imagery in the prologue because it talks about slavery, when he is trying to
decide if the veil is being lower or lifted. I found in a relation with the
background history of his father in the prologue, where he talks about how they
were told that they were going to be free but they couldn’t decide if they were
actually being free.
- Look at the “Maxims of Emerson” handout. Are Norton’s
comments ironic? Why or why not?
Handout?? Didn’t receive any handout
relating to this.
- Notice that Norton smokes a cigar. Does this connect him to
other men of power? Who?
The cigar does connect him to
the other men in power that were in chapter 1 at the Smoker. Cigars were expensive
back then and you would mostly see rich men with them, men who had power.
- Do you sense anything unnatural about Norton’s relationship
with his daughter? On p. 51.
Yes, he sounds obsessed about
her beauty because he exalts it when he speaks about her. When he talks about
her he says, “I could never believe her to be my own flesh and blood. “ This is
where I started to realize that this man was looking at his daughter with more
than a father should.
- Norton seems amazed that Trueblood has “looked upon chaos and
[is] not destroyed.” What do you make of this comment? I believe he is amazed at the
fact that he could get away with such thing and that people eventually
accepted him. He is amazed that the man could live with himself after
getting both his wife and daughter pregnant.
- How might the clock in Trueblood’s dream symbolize the modern
mechanized world?
The clock in Trueblood’s
dream could symbolize the modern mechanized world by representing the control
and organization that whites tend to have with time. Everything they do has to
be on time, in a certain time.
- Do you find any symbolism in Trueblood’s name?
I have some thought that his
name could have symbolism but I’m not sure how exactly. Could it be that it
could relate to the incest in the novel. How true blood could actually mean
blood as in family.
- Did you find the incest story disturbing? Why does Ellison
include it?
I do find the story
disturbing and strange. I believe he includes this story to pick back up on the
desire of people’s incest/ forbidding pleasure or desire. Ellison first brings
up incest in the scene where Mr. Norton talks about his daughter in a detailed and
exalting manner. Mr. Norton has a great desire to hear Trueblood’s story, which
reveals his incestuous desires with his daughter. He also keeps emphasizing on
her purity, her sexuality.
- Read the final paragraph on p. 67 that begins “Things got to
happenin’ right off.” What do you make of the White community’s
willingness to help Trueblood? How does this relate to the grandfather’s
deathbed speech?
The white community helps
Trueblood because unlike other Blacks he is an example of black inferiority and
is why Whites praise him and find him amusing. However, to the Blacks he is a
disgrace that is bringing them down instead of helping them.
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