Chapter One Assignment for Invisible Man (Part 2)

Read this interview with Ellison and compose a response discussing how the article's content address issues in Chapter One of the text.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/20/specials/ellison-conversation.html

Chapter One Questions for Invisible Man

Chapter One Questions for Invisible Man.

1.       What has been going on for all of Ellison’s life?

2.       What was he looking for?

3.       What was the first thing Ellison had to discover?

4.       What makes Ellison ashamed?

5.       What does Ellison’s grandfather tell say as he lays on his deathbed?

6.       How does the family respond to the grandfather’s words? Why?

7.       What was a “triumph for our whole community”?

“Battle Royal”

1.       What does the narrator think of himself compared to the other participants in “Battle Royal”?

2.       What were the narrator’s expectations for the town’s leading citizens as he enters the hotel? Why might he have been alarmed by the school superintendent’s behavior?

3.       What does the dancer represent? How does the American flag tattoo on her belly serve as a symbol? Why are the boys so frightened of seeing her white nakedness?

4.       What does the Battle Royal represent? How does the fight represent a “divide and conquer” mentality (as in “Wright’s Five-Dollar Fight” story)? How does paying the fighters provide the townsmen an opportunity to humilitate the boys?

5.       How eager were the attendees to hear the narrator’s speech? Why did they become anxious when he said “social equality” for “social responsibility”? Why would they consider “socially equality” so threatening?

6.       How do the narrator and his family feel about his receiving the scholarship? Does the scholarship, to a certain extent, excuse the townsmen’s behavior toward the narrator and the other black boys? Or does it represent another gesture of humiliation and oppression? If so, why would they want to educate the narrator? Consider the superintendent’s words:

“…someday he’ll lead his people in the proper paths…Keep developing as you are and someday [this brief case] will be filled with important papers that will help shape the destiny of your people.”

Do you think they have plans to use the narrator for their own purposes after this graduation? What do you think the superintendent means by “proper paths”?

7.       The narrator does not understand his dream that night. He will in time. How do you interpret it? What does the message in the envelope mean, “Keep This Nigger-boy Running”?

4th Block!!!

I need to see the following students ASAP!!!
1. Vernon
2. Joi
3. Shenelle
4. Emoni
5. Alvin
6. Taaj
7. Marisol
8. Kennedy

3rd Block!!!

The following students need to see me ASAP!!!!

1. Nykeria
2. Ayo
3. Khariff
4. Darontez
5. Joseph
6. Jai
7. Breanna
8. Bridgette
9. Chavious
10. Andrew
11. Ashley
12. Jide
13. Melissa
14. Deion

INSPIRATION

http://thefiiix.com/2014/04/07/oakland-teenager-akintunde-ahmad-has-5-0-gpa-2100-sat-score-and-on-his-way-to-ivy-league/

Body Paragraph from 3rd Block!

Prompt: The significance of a title such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is easy to discover. However, in other works (for example, Measure for Measure) the full significance of the title becomes apparent to the reader only gradually.

Choose two works and show how the significance of their respective titles is developed through the authors’ use of devices such as contrast, repetition, and point of view.

4th Block:

      The character named in the title, Solomon, is a symbol of freedom and throughout the story Milkman is attempting to free himself materially. Yet like Solomon, he experiences a more spiritual flight. The mysterious Solomon, “cut across the sky and gone home.” He was one of the flying Africans who escaped slavery by magically taking off on his own accord. Milkman, however, on a quest for financial independence, goes on a journey to find his pot of gold. He is told by his father that if he finds gold, half of it would be his. Yet, the gold that he finds mirrors the freedom experienced by Solomon. In the novel Solomon’s flight symbolized freedom for all of the men. His flight symbolized freedom from social repression in order to seek a higher purpose.

 

 

The Tempest Online

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/tempest/full.html