Ralph Ellison--Invisible Man 看不见的人
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Won the national book award
Episodic Novel
Story is told in a series of incidents or events. The episodes succeed each other, with no
particular arrangement Protagonist experiences a string of occurrences
Understand Ralph Waldo Ellison
Focus on Invisible Man
Tennessee Williams Questions
What dose the title of the play stand for? What is Stanley and Stella's neighborhood
Ellison Quotes
Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come by. So much of it depends upon the individual's willingness to discover his true self, upon his defining himself -- for the time being at least -- against his background.
and events Characterized by a loosely connected string of
incidents Main character has no name: the nature of
these experiences and the cumulative effect on him is important
As a young man, in the late 1920s or early 1930s, the narrator lived in the South. Because he is a gifted public speaker, he is invited to give a speech to a group of important white men in his town. The men reward him with a briefcase containing a scholarship to a prestigious black college, but only after humiliating him by forcing him to see a naked girl, to fight in a “battle royal” against other young black men, all blindfolded, in a boxing ring. After the battle royal, the white men force the youths to scramble over an electrified rug in order to snatch at fake gold coins. The narrator has a dream that night in which he imagines that his scholarship is actually a piece of paper reading “To Whom It May Concern . . . Keep This Nigger-Boy Running.”
Invisible Man is the story of a man in New York City who, after his experiences growing up and living as a model black citizen, now lives in an underground hole and believes he is invisible to American society.
like? What's wrong with Blanche? What is Belle Reve? What does Stanley know about Blanche's
past? What would you find more disagreeable?
Blanche's upper class snobishness, or Stanley's working class vulgarity?
The narrator remains a voice and never emerges as an external and quantifiable presence. This obscurity emphasizes his status as an “invisible man.”
For much of the story, the narrator remains extremely innocent and inexperienced. He is prone to think the best of people even when he has reason not to, and he remains consistently respectful of authority. Ellison uses heavy irony to allow the reader to see things that the narrator misses. After the “battle royal” in Chapter 1, for instance, the narrator accepts his scholarship from the brutish white men with gladness and gratitude. Although he passes no judgment on the white men’s behavior, the men’s actions provide enough evidence for the reader to denounce the men as appalling racists. While the narrator can be somewhat unreliable in this regard, Ellison makes sure that the reader perceives the narrator’s blindness.
Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914-1994)
Named for Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ellison’s first and only novel, 7 years total to complete "Invisible Man" ,
The novel was immensely popular with both whites and blacks
Though the narrator is intelligent, deeply introspective, and highly gifted with language, the experiences that he relates demonstrate that he was naïve in his youth. As the novel progresses, the narrator’s illusions are gradually destroyed through his experiences as a student at college, as a worker at the Liberty Paints plant, and as a member of a political organization known as the Brotherhood. Shedding his blindness, he struggles to arrive at a conception of his identity that honors his complexity as an individual without sacrificing social responsibility.
Invisible Man is unique not only in the literature world, but also in the political world for adding a new voice to the discussion about blacks in America.
Universal Novel
Invisible Man is a quest to know oneself
Struggle for acceptance Although it concerns race, it is really about
our desire to succeed and be happy in lຫໍສະໝຸດ Baidufe. Events are in real settings, but settings
always stand for something beyond surface level
Invisible Man (1952)
First published in 1952 and immediately hailed as a masterpiece, Invisible Man is one of those rare novels that have changed the shape of American literature.
The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge of human life.
“I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fibre and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible because people refuse to see me…When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination- indeed, everything and anything except me.”
Bildungsroman Novel
A coming of age novel which chronicles a character’s development and maturation over the span of several years.
Main character begins as a bright high school student and matures to a man who understands the nature of the world.
American Literature Week 13
Ralph Ellison and Invisible Man
Prof. Zhou zhoufuqiang@gdufs.edu.cn
03/12/2013
Outline for Today
Review Tennessee Williams through dictation and questions.
The narrator begins telling his story with the claim that he is an “invisible man.” His invisibility, he says, is not a physical condition—he is not literally invisible—but is rather the result of the refusal of others to see him. He says that because of his invisibility, he has been hiding from the world, living underground and stealing electricity from a Light & Power Company. He burns 1,369 light bulbs simultaneously and listens to Louis Armstrong’s “(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue” on a phonograph. He says that he has gone underground in order to write the story of his life and invisibility.
Episodic Novel
Story is told in a series of incidents or events. The episodes succeed each other, with no
particular arrangement Protagonist experiences a string of occurrences
Understand Ralph Waldo Ellison
Focus on Invisible Man
Tennessee Williams Questions
What dose the title of the play stand for? What is Stanley and Stella's neighborhood
Ellison Quotes
Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come by. So much of it depends upon the individual's willingness to discover his true self, upon his defining himself -- for the time being at least -- against his background.
and events Characterized by a loosely connected string of
incidents Main character has no name: the nature of
these experiences and the cumulative effect on him is important
As a young man, in the late 1920s or early 1930s, the narrator lived in the South. Because he is a gifted public speaker, he is invited to give a speech to a group of important white men in his town. The men reward him with a briefcase containing a scholarship to a prestigious black college, but only after humiliating him by forcing him to see a naked girl, to fight in a “battle royal” against other young black men, all blindfolded, in a boxing ring. After the battle royal, the white men force the youths to scramble over an electrified rug in order to snatch at fake gold coins. The narrator has a dream that night in which he imagines that his scholarship is actually a piece of paper reading “To Whom It May Concern . . . Keep This Nigger-Boy Running.”
Invisible Man is the story of a man in New York City who, after his experiences growing up and living as a model black citizen, now lives in an underground hole and believes he is invisible to American society.
like? What's wrong with Blanche? What is Belle Reve? What does Stanley know about Blanche's
past? What would you find more disagreeable?
Blanche's upper class snobishness, or Stanley's working class vulgarity?
The narrator remains a voice and never emerges as an external and quantifiable presence. This obscurity emphasizes his status as an “invisible man.”
For much of the story, the narrator remains extremely innocent and inexperienced. He is prone to think the best of people even when he has reason not to, and he remains consistently respectful of authority. Ellison uses heavy irony to allow the reader to see things that the narrator misses. After the “battle royal” in Chapter 1, for instance, the narrator accepts his scholarship from the brutish white men with gladness and gratitude. Although he passes no judgment on the white men’s behavior, the men’s actions provide enough evidence for the reader to denounce the men as appalling racists. While the narrator can be somewhat unreliable in this regard, Ellison makes sure that the reader perceives the narrator’s blindness.
Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914-1994)
Named for Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ellison’s first and only novel, 7 years total to complete "Invisible Man" ,
The novel was immensely popular with both whites and blacks
Though the narrator is intelligent, deeply introspective, and highly gifted with language, the experiences that he relates demonstrate that he was naïve in his youth. As the novel progresses, the narrator’s illusions are gradually destroyed through his experiences as a student at college, as a worker at the Liberty Paints plant, and as a member of a political organization known as the Brotherhood. Shedding his blindness, he struggles to arrive at a conception of his identity that honors his complexity as an individual without sacrificing social responsibility.
Invisible Man is unique not only in the literature world, but also in the political world for adding a new voice to the discussion about blacks in America.
Universal Novel
Invisible Man is a quest to know oneself
Struggle for acceptance Although it concerns race, it is really about
our desire to succeed and be happy in lຫໍສະໝຸດ Baidufe. Events are in real settings, but settings
always stand for something beyond surface level
Invisible Man (1952)
First published in 1952 and immediately hailed as a masterpiece, Invisible Man is one of those rare novels that have changed the shape of American literature.
The understanding of art depends finally upon one's willingness to extend one's humanity and one's knowledge of human life.
“I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fibre and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible because people refuse to see me…When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination- indeed, everything and anything except me.”
Bildungsroman Novel
A coming of age novel which chronicles a character’s development and maturation over the span of several years.
Main character begins as a bright high school student and matures to a man who understands the nature of the world.
American Literature Week 13
Ralph Ellison and Invisible Man
Prof. Zhou zhoufuqiang@gdufs.edu.cn
03/12/2013
Outline for Today
Review Tennessee Williams through dictation and questions.
The narrator begins telling his story with the claim that he is an “invisible man.” His invisibility, he says, is not a physical condition—he is not literally invisible—but is rather the result of the refusal of others to see him. He says that because of his invisibility, he has been hiding from the world, living underground and stealing electricity from a Light & Power Company. He burns 1,369 light bulbs simultaneously and listens to Louis Armstrong’s “(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue” on a phonograph. He says that he has gone underground in order to write the story of his life and invisibility.