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”?