ralphellisonblog-blog

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Ellison was after the famous poet, Ralph Waldo Ellison. His father loved reading and so he named his child Ralph Waldo Ellison.

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When I discover who I am, I'll be free.

Ralph Ellison

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Invisible Man Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVTv3ilp4LA&t=278s

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Invisible Man Ch 1 Summary

The unnamed, narrator of the story is a young, black man who is obedient and a model student. He starts the story by giving some background about his grandparents. They were slaves who were freed after the Civil War and believed they were living separate but equal with the whites. The narrator is guilty of having felt ashamed of his grandparents. He goes on to recall delivering his high school graduation speech which was centered around submission for the advancement of black Americans. He was invited to deliver his speech again to the white town leaders. Once he was at the place he was told to go to, he was instructed to participate in the “battle royal”. He and the other black students that were there were changed into boxing clothes, blind folded, and but into a boxing ring as the entertainment for the whites. They all fought each other and all the narrator could think about as he was getting beat was his speech and how he would have to deliver it drenched in blood and sweat. He wins the first round but loses the second one against another young man named Tatlock. After the fight the men lead the boys to a rug that is covered with coins and dollar bills. When the boys lunge for the money, they discover an electric current runs through the rug. When it is time for the narrator to give his speech the men laugh and ignore him. He is told to repeat the phrase “social responsibility” over and over by the drunken men and accidentally says “social equality” instead. The men demand that he explain himself and he says that is was a mistake because he was just swallowing the blood that was in his mouth from the fighting. When he finishes his speech, he is handed a brief case with a scholarship for the college for black youth. Later that night, the narrator has a dream where he is a a circus with his grandfather and his grandfather hands him a brief case with a letter inside of it. When he opens the letter he reads, “To whom it may concern... keep this nigger-boy running”. He wakes up to the sound of his grandfather’s laughter ringing in his ears. 

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It took Ralph Ellison 7 years to write and publish his famous novel Invisible Man. “When I was a kid, I read novels and always, I was the hero. I identified with the hero. Literature is integrated. And I’m not just talking about color, race. I’m talking about the power of literature to make us recognize again and again the wholeness of human experience.” -Ralph Ellison

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I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

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Ralph Ellison was born in Oklahoma in 1914. He studied music for three years in Tuskegee to become a symphony composer before moving to New York City. There he met Richard Wright who encouraged him to pursue writing. He wrote short storied, essays, and reviews for periodicals. Following World War 2, he published Invisible Man.