Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Invisible Man: Chapters 3-5 Reading Questions

Chapter 3

1.     Look carefully at the descriptions of the Golden Day. What is it? What has it been in the past? Is there any symbolism in the description?
The golden day is a bar/ mental asylum. There are prostitutes that satisfy the patients that used to be people with professional jobs like doctors, lawyers, etc.
The Golden day used to be a church but then it went to being a restaurant, and then a place to gamble.
2.     Describe the veterans at the Golden Day.
They are referred to as patients. They all were people with important and high roles in society and they are all Black men. They were seen as children. Most of them have a different story of why they are there.
3.     Read p. 81 carefully and comment on the ways that the normal rules of society are reversed at the Golden Day.
They don’t respect whit people or people of authority. They talk to Mr. Norton in an equal way, which in society would not be seen. The patients stand up to people of authority like Supercargo.
4.     The vet who had been a doctor gives the narrator a warning. What is it?
He tells him that he is invisible. He tells him that although he believes he is helping himself, he is really helping Mr. Norton’s destiny. He tells him he needs to wake up from reality and stop trying to impress people that are just human like him. That he is blind to reality.
5.     The vet is the first to introduce the narrator to the concept of invisibility (pp. 94-94) and blindness. How do his comments tie into the statements the narrator makes in the Prologue?
The comments of the vet are similar and enhance the idea of being invisible and how they see each other as a an object rather than a human being. In the book, whites like Mr. Norton, they believe that Blacks like the narrator is some sort of achievement rather than a human being.

Chapter 4

  1. Look at the description of the campus. How does it contrast with the Golden Day?
It campus contrasts the Golden day because it is not chaotic and unorganized. The students are not acting up or standing up to authority. There is some sort of piece and the campus is clean. The patients seem to have been acting like animals without discipline.
  1. Why does the narrator call the campus “ a flower-studded wasteland?”
The narrator calls the campus “a flower-studded wasteland” because it is actually a nice, clean, organized school but the prettiness of the campus is only used to capture the attention of the rich donors. The school is made to look perfect in the outside but the campus is a “wasteland” in the inside full of self-interested people.
  1. List as many images (with page numbers) as you can find in this chapter of black against white.
Description of Bledsoe: “While black and bald…he has achieved power and authority…while black and wrinkle-headed, made himself of more importance in the world than most southern white men…”  (P.79)
Bledsoe to Narrator: “…he stopped and looked at me with exasperation, as though I’d suddenly told him black was white.”  (P. 80)
Bledsoe to Narrator: "Haven't you the sense God gave a dog? We take these white folks where we want them to go, we show them what we want them to see. Don't you know that? I thought you had some sense." (p.80)

  1. List all the images you can find (with page numbers) of masks and veils in this chapter.
-       “Above a spacious fireplace an oil portrait of the Founder looked down at me remotely, benign, sad, and in that hot instant, profoundly disillusioned. Then a veil seemed to fall.” (p.81)
-       “As we approached a mirror Dr. Bledsoe stopped and composed his angry face like a sculptor, making it a bland mask, leaving only the sparkle of his eyes to betray the emotion that I had seen only a moment before.” (p. 81)
5.     How does the scene in Bledsoe’s office parallel the Battle Royal scene?
The office is parallel to the Battle Royal because they both had a woman in the beginning. After, comes the battle where in the Royal Battle it’s physically and in the office it’s verbally and once again the narrator is forced to having to go through it in order to get what he wants.

Chapter 5

  1. Retell briefly the story of the founder. How does it parallel the story of the narrator?
The founder was a poor man who educated himself by reading the bible. The founder had to leave his home because he was advised/ warned by an unknown man. The founder is parallel to the narrator because they are both advised of their destiny/ future.
  1. In what ways has Bledsoe perverted the founder’s dream?
Bledsoe has perverted the founder’s dream and legacy by not focusing on what the founder really designed the school for. The founder wanted to educate his students and prepare them for life. However, Bledsoe does the opposite, he lowers the veil of “ignorance” instead of lifting it, which was the founder’s purpose.

  1. Is there any symbolism in Bledsoe’s name?
His name could symbolize how he “bleeds” on his own to gain acceptance of white men.
  1. Consider Rev. Homer Barbee’s name and blindness. Is there a classical allusion?
Rev. Homer reminds me of the story about Homer who wrote The Odyssey that is about the Trojan War. He was a blind poet and storyteller.
  1. Does the revelation of Barbee’s blindness force the narrator to reevaluate Barbee’s statements? Why?
Yes, the narrator reevaluates Barbee’s statement because he believes that he is unaware of his true audience. The narrator is unsure to completely trust Barbee because he sounds like Bledsoe, like if he were to be under his command.
  1. Examine the images of rebirth on p. 110. Why do you feel Ellison included them?

I feel like Ellison included these images to emphasize on the fact that people can be “re-born”, they can be first-born poor but then re-born when they achieve success and become greater educated people.

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