Week of April 15th–Invisible Man (Chapters 22 and 23)!

1. At the close of Chapter 22, how does the Brotherhood reveal itself as being racist and corrupt?

2. Why is “college boy” wearing a disguise?

3. Why does “college boy” get confused with a man named Rinehart? What is the significance?

(Use concrete details and specifics to support your suppositions)

Week of April 1st–Invisible Man!!

1. On pg. 454, “college boy” begins his funeral speech for Clifton, what is distinct or anti-climactic about his speech? What are your impressions of the tone and diction of the speech; what does this reflect about “college boy’s” persona at this point in the novel?

2. Why are the “white” brothers of the Brotherhood so disturbed by “college boy’s” organization of Clifton’s funeral procession? What are some distinct differences between the “white” brother’s perception of race at this point in the novel and “college boy’s” perception of his own race? What is your opinion? Who is right?

Week of March 25th–Invisible Man

1. In chapter 20, there is a lot of foreshadowing, please identify numerous moments of foreshadowing in this chapter.

Week of March 18th–Invisible Man!!

 

1. What does the coin-bank statue symbolize and what is the significance in “college boy’s” reticence to get rid of it?

2. Compare and contrast Brother Jack’s view of “college boy’s” speech with the view of the majority in the Brotherhood.

3. What do the roaches symbolize and why does “college boy” enjoy killing them?

4. Why is “college boy” glad to be in the Brotherhood at the end of chapter 17? Why does he finally feel human?

(be specific and detailed in your resposes)

Week of February 11th–Invisible Man!!

1. At the close of Chapter Ten, “college boy” expresses, “…that I had lost irrevocably an important victory”; what interpretations can you make in regard to this admission and what “victory” do you believe he is referencing?

2. It’s interesting that our understanding of Chapter Eleven comes from the “mind” and “perceptions” of the protagonoist (“college boy”); why does the reader feel trapped and confused, just like “college boy”; what is the auther’s intention in having the reader perceive his current predicament exactly how “college boy” perceives it?

3. How does “college boy” describe Mary and why is she so significant in his efforts to find order and logic in his life in New York City?

4. Why does “college boy” spend much of his time at the library or reading; how does this fact inform his persona at this point in the text?

Week of February 3rd–Invisible Man!

1.Why does “college boy” feel he owes it to his race to kill Dr. Bledsoe? How does his persona shift and why at the close of chapter nine?

2. At the start of Chapter ten, “college boy” arrives to work and notices the electrical sign “Keep America Pure with Liberty Paints”: what is the great paradox and implied metaphor imbued in this sign?

3. Describe some of the racism that “college boy” experiences while working at Liberty Paints.

4. Provide context and analysis of the following quote in Chapter Ten:

“White! It’s the purest white that can be found. Nobody makes a paint whiter. This batch here is heading for a national monument!” (202).

Week of January 7th–Invisible Man!

Provide context and analysis of the following quotes from Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison:

1. “’Rest, rest,’ fixing Mr. Norton with his eyes. ‘The clocks are all set back and the forces of destruction are rampant down below. They might suddenly realize that you are what you are, and then your life wouldn’t be worth a piece of bankrupt stock. You would be canceled, perforated, voided, become the recognized magnet attracting loose screws. Then what would you do? Such men are beyond money, and with Supercargo down, out like a felled ox, they know nothing of value. To some, you are the great white father, to others the lyncher of souls, but for all, your confusion come even into the Golden Day.’” (Ellison, 93)
2. “’You see,’ he said turning to Mr. Norton, ‘he has eyes and ears and a good distended African nose, but he fails to understand the simple facts of life. Understand.Understand? It’s worse than that. He registers with his senses but short-circuits his brain. Nothing has meaning. He takes it in but he doesn’t digest it. Already he is—well, bless my soul! Behold! A walking zombie! Already he’s learned to repress not only his emotions but his humanity. He’s invisible, a walking personification of the Negative, the most perfect achievement of your dreams, sir! The mechanical man!’” (Ellison, 94)
3. “’Damn what he wants,’ he said, climbing in the front seat beside me. ‘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.’” (Ellison, 102)
4. “But the words of the others were stronger than the strength of philanthropic dollars, deeper than shafts sunk in the earth for oil and gold, more awe-inspiring than the miracles fabricated in scientific laboratories. For their most innocent words were acts of violence to which we of the campus were hypersensitive though we endured them not. “ (Ellison, 112)

Week of December 3rd–Invisible Man!!

1. Contrast in specific and detailed language the persona of the narrator in Invisible Manand the “collective” persona of the “white” people during the battle royal?
2. Ellison implies in the first chapter that “degradation” becomes a form of white entertainment; white men create a medium in which to turn “black” man against “black” man using mediums of competition and greed. Why? What does the white man gain by turning “blacks” against each other?
3. Why is Trueblood considered a curiosity?
4. How does the narrator becomes a scapegoat for Trueblood’s transgression?

Week of November 12th–The Birth of Bigger Exegesis!!

~Richard Wright~

1. In the exegesis, the Birth of Bigger, written by the author Richard Wright, Wright discusses at length the making of his protagonist, Bigger Thomas; he reflects on his childhood all the way up to his adulthood, and outlines specific examples of when he met a Bigger and the informing aspect of each incident. Please discuss the many Biggers that Wright experienced in the course of his life, and what did they ALL have in common. Please use concrete details to support your analysis.

2.  Analyze the following quote from the exegesis, the Birth of Bigger, written by Richard Wright:

From these items I drew my first political conclusions about Bigger: I felt that Bigger, an American product, a native son of this land, carried within him the potentialities of either Communism or Fascism. I don’t mean to say that the Negro boy I depicted in Native Son is either a Communist or a Fascist. He is not either. But he is product of a dislocated society; he is a dispossessed or disinherited man; he is all of this, and he lives amid the greatest possible plenty on earth and he is looking and feeling for a way out.

3.  What is at the heart of Bigger’s fear?

Week of November 5th–Rose for Emily/Minister’s Black Veil!

 

~Visual representation showing the fear felt by the people in the short story by Elenore Abbott~

1. In a Rose for Emily, what does the setting tell us about Miss Emily?
2. In a Rose for Emily, is Miss Emily voluntarily isolated, involuntarily isolated, or both; explain your logic and rationale with textual support.
3. In a Rose for Emily, what is Miss Emily trying to repress and who is the symbol  of her repressed emotions?
4. In A Minister’s Black Veil, what does the black veil symbolize? explain your logic.
5. In A Minister’s Black Veil, what does the Earth’s black veil represent: “For the Earth too, had on her Black Veil.”