In the newest development in the novel we find our narrator starting his newest career choice. The narrator has decided to join an organization simply known as "The Brotherhood." Said organization feels that their mission in life is to work towards a world where all people are equal. A seemingly well intentioned mission, although so was the prospect of education when the Narrator first joined the college in his home town. In that instance he made a speech which granted him audience with rich white men, and this time he's been offered a job for making one. Already we start to see parallels arise between his situation with the Brotherhood and his previous affiliation with the College.
Our Narrator is at first skeptical of taking the job, but eventually decides that he must accept the offer. He is picked up by brother Jack, who then drives him to a party at the Brotherhood's main building. Here he socializes with the other members of the organization, drinks some alcohol, and is eventually officially inducted into the brotherhood. With this acception into the organization, comes, instead of a shiny leather briefcase with a scholarship inside of it, a white envelope containing a large sum of money and his new identity. Again we see a parallel drawn between the Battle Royal and this party. In each event he's given an invitation into this new promising organization. Towards the end of the party, however our narrator is accosted by a brotherhood member who requests that the narrator lead them in song; "How about a spiritual, brother? Or one of those real good 'ole Negro work songs?" (312). Certainly an event that the narrator considers somewhat humiliating, but the party is certainly a bit of a step up from the Battle Royal.
Shortly after his experience at the party our narrator is again called upon by the Brotherhood. Brother Jack picks him up from his new house and he and several other members of the Brotherhood drive to a building in Harlem, which contains an old boxing ring, where the speeches are being made. Here we see a shockingly similar use of imagery between the Battle Royal and this building. At the Battle Royal he desperately delivers this speech for the entertainment of a few rich white men. Here he's giving a very heartfelt personal speech, again in a boxing ring, where afterwards he'll be evaluated by the leaders of the brotherhood. After this speech it's decided that, although he did a wonderful job, he needs training and is sent off to go study the Brotherhood's ideology.
Flash forward four months and our narrator has changed. For four months he's been studying the Brotherhood's arguments and now he knows them by heart. He claims, "Now I knew most of the Brotherhood arguments so well - those i doubted as well as those I believed- that I could repeat them in my sleep" (358). Again here we see a parallel between his college life and his life with the brotherhood. He spends so much time working vigorously to learn, understand, and be able to argue all these points that he thinks the Brotherhood wants him to. In college he worked diligently to understand how it was expected for him to act and to act that way. In both situations he working to understand and fulfill a role to please a group of people.
The new assignment that the Narrator is given, however, is a pretty big deal. He is assigned by Brother Jack to be the new spokesman for their Harlem branch. Clearly the narrator is excited, this is a big responsibility as well a big opportunity for him to move up. Immediately he shows promise, and indeed over the next few months his success sky rockets as well as the success of the Brotherhood in Harlem. In Chapter 18, however, things start to get messy for him. Starting with a letter from an anonymus friend he is warned that if he doesn't slow down his rate of success he'll be shot down; "Keep working for the people but remember that you are one of us and do not forget if you get too big that they will cut you down." (383). Unsurprisingly, two weeks later just this happens. When the narrator goes to a meeting for the Brotherhood he is brought before the committee and is publicly accused of using the Brotherhood to further himself as an individual. The narrator is flabbergasted. He cannot understand how his actions, meant only to further the Brotherhood, could be interpreted as self-serving. What's more, he's told at the end of the meeting that he's being taken out of Harlem and assigned to be the spokesman for the Woman Question. He's immediately confused, and upset at this turn in events. He's being punished for doing exactly what he thought he was supposed to do. Eerily similar to what we see his expulsion from the college being like. He felt that he was expelled for simply acting how he believed he was expected to act. To draw the final parallel between his current situation and his previous college situation simply observe how he reacts to his again being expelled from an organization; "no, despite my anger and disgust, my ambitions were too great to surrender so easily" (407). By the end of the chapter the narrator has decided that being shut out of Harlem isn't really so bad and that he'll preach the Woman Question anyways; "I had almost allowed an old, southern backwardness which I had thought dead to wreck my career" (408). Is this character really any different from the one that left the south on a train headed for work in New York? Has he really learned anything from his journey, or is he still as oblivious and naive as he was when he was evicted from college by Dr. Bledsoe?
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Taking out the trash
As chapter fifteen opens we find the narrator being rudely awakened from his peaceful slumber by a neighbor in his building banging on their heat pipes. Highly agitated by being awoken in such a manner the narrator casts his gaze around the room and lights upon a small figurine sitting by his door; "the cast-iron figure of a very black, red-lipped and wide-mouthed Negro, whose white eyes stared up at me from the floor"(319). Supposedly he's never seen this small bank, even though he's been living in this room for many months. The narrator then, in a fit of rage, dashes across the room, grabs the figurine and starts pounding on the pipe with it. Eventually he hits the pipe so violently that the bank breaks and shatters. In desperation to hide what he's done the narrator gathers up all of the broken pieces, puts them in a bag, and shoves them into his brief-case.
Even before breakfast Ellison has already worked a number of events into the chapter that are rife with symbolism for the picking. For starters there's the matter of his finding this small item in his room in the first place. He's been living in this room for several months, but for some reason this is the first time he's seen it. Before now it's almost as if this small figurine was invisible to him, or somehow hidden. At a very important time in the narrator's life it seems that such a piece of imagery could not simply be coincidence. Only as he is leaving this life to enter a new one where he will be very visible to the public does he see this nic-nac that represents the harsh stereotypes that were forced upon African-Americans. This is an item that the Narrator feels is "self-mocking" (319), it represents the stereotypes that the narrator hates having forced upon him.
But, wait! There's more! As the narrator leaves Mary's house for the final time he decides that he has to dispose of the remains of this small bank he has smashed. He doesn't feel comfortable doing so in Mary's house, however, so he simply decides to toss it at the first trashcan he sees. He does just this, and the trashcan he chooses is one outside of a privately owned house. The response is instantaneous and rather shocking. As soon as he tosses the bag with the trash in it into the can, a door opens from one of the houses and the narrator is accosted by the flaming wrath of a small white woman. Said woman is outraged that the narrator would throw his garbage into their garbage can and orders him to fetch out the garbage as well as saying some rather shockingly hateful and racist things, especially about black people from the south; "I'm sick and tired of having you southern Negroes mess up things for the rest of us" (328). The narrator is shocked and angered by the woman's statements, but complies and fishes the bank out of the stinking trashcan.
A few blocks later, after his anger from the previous encounter has died down some, he decides to attempt to dispose of his garbage once more. This time he simply lets it fall out of his hand while he's waiting at a stop light. He only makes it a couple of blocks, however, before he is stopped again. This time he's accosted by a man who saw him drop the bag and wishes to return the bag back to him. When the narrator attempts to feign ignorance about the bag the man freaks out. He jumps to the conclusion that the narrator must be involved in some illegal activity, and that the bag contains some very dangerous and illegal item. Thrusting the bag back into the narrators arms he runs off, but not before saying "I know what kind of garbage it is.You young New York Negroes is a blip" (330). The narrator decides after this that he will simply throw his garbage into the street, but when he sees the man gesturing wildly at him he decides he'll just have to dispose of it later before the police are called. Before this section ends he decides to shove the contents into his beloved suitcase which is all he has with him.
In this second part of the morning the narrator has these encounters with random inhabitants of New York who literally force him to accept this item, that for him represents the stereotypes of African-Americans that he despises being put under. In addition to simply being forced to accept this humiliating item, the people accosting him keep classifying him under these harsh stereotypes. The woman who yells at him from her house sees him as a disgusting "Southern Negro", and the man who stops him on the street assumes that he's been peddling drugs and that he's involved in some illegal activity. Both people are actually forcing him to take this item that represents racial stereotypes, while at the same time are assigning harsh stereotypes of their own on him. All this time the narrator is leaving his home with Mary to go work for the Brotherhood. By doing so he's trying to escape from a life where he's assigned hateful stereotypes, but can't even escape from this small bank, let alone from the racial stereotypes assigned to him. Eventually he just gives him up and puts this symbol of racism into his precious brief case, which is the only thing he still has that symbolized his original goal in life. An item that he received from the battle royal, which was an incredibly humiliating event where he was working to show off to powerful white men and please them by making a speech. To see him put this broken bank, a symbol of racism and stereotyping which he can't escape, into this brief case that represents his being controlled by the white men, shows a definite connection between the two. Perhaps the narrator still doesn't realize that he's not really escaping from racism and stereotyping, but is just merely hiding it more affectively with his new life.
Even before breakfast Ellison has already worked a number of events into the chapter that are rife with symbolism for the picking. For starters there's the matter of his finding this small item in his room in the first place. He's been living in this room for several months, but for some reason this is the first time he's seen it. Before now it's almost as if this small figurine was invisible to him, or somehow hidden. At a very important time in the narrator's life it seems that such a piece of imagery could not simply be coincidence. Only as he is leaving this life to enter a new one where he will be very visible to the public does he see this nic-nac that represents the harsh stereotypes that were forced upon African-Americans. This is an item that the Narrator feels is "self-mocking" (319), it represents the stereotypes that the narrator hates having forced upon him.
But, wait! There's more! As the narrator leaves Mary's house for the final time he decides that he has to dispose of the remains of this small bank he has smashed. He doesn't feel comfortable doing so in Mary's house, however, so he simply decides to toss it at the first trashcan he sees. He does just this, and the trashcan he chooses is one outside of a privately owned house. The response is instantaneous and rather shocking. As soon as he tosses the bag with the trash in it into the can, a door opens from one of the houses and the narrator is accosted by the flaming wrath of a small white woman. Said woman is outraged that the narrator would throw his garbage into their garbage can and orders him to fetch out the garbage as well as saying some rather shockingly hateful and racist things, especially about black people from the south; "I'm sick and tired of having you southern Negroes mess up things for the rest of us" (328). The narrator is shocked and angered by the woman's statements, but complies and fishes the bank out of the stinking trashcan.
A few blocks later, after his anger from the previous encounter has died down some, he decides to attempt to dispose of his garbage once more. This time he simply lets it fall out of his hand while he's waiting at a stop light. He only makes it a couple of blocks, however, before he is stopped again. This time he's accosted by a man who saw him drop the bag and wishes to return the bag back to him. When the narrator attempts to feign ignorance about the bag the man freaks out. He jumps to the conclusion that the narrator must be involved in some illegal activity, and that the bag contains some very dangerous and illegal item. Thrusting the bag back into the narrators arms he runs off, but not before saying "I know what kind of garbage it is.You young New York Negroes is a blip" (330). The narrator decides after this that he will simply throw his garbage into the street, but when he sees the man gesturing wildly at him he decides he'll just have to dispose of it later before the police are called. Before this section ends he decides to shove the contents into his beloved suitcase which is all he has with him.
In this second part of the morning the narrator has these encounters with random inhabitants of New York who literally force him to accept this item, that for him represents the stereotypes of African-Americans that he despises being put under. In addition to simply being forced to accept this humiliating item, the people accosting him keep classifying him under these harsh stereotypes. The woman who yells at him from her house sees him as a disgusting "Southern Negro", and the man who stops him on the street assumes that he's been peddling drugs and that he's involved in some illegal activity. Both people are actually forcing him to take this item that represents racial stereotypes, while at the same time are assigning harsh stereotypes of their own on him. All this time the narrator is leaving his home with Mary to go work for the Brotherhood. By doing so he's trying to escape from a life where he's assigned hateful stereotypes, but can't even escape from this small bank, let alone from the racial stereotypes assigned to him. Eventually he just gives him up and puts this symbol of racism into his precious brief case, which is the only thing he still has that symbolized his original goal in life. An item that he received from the battle royal, which was an incredibly humiliating event where he was working to show off to powerful white men and please them by making a speech. To see him put this broken bank, a symbol of racism and stereotyping which he can't escape, into this brief case that represents his being controlled by the white men, shows a definite connection between the two. Perhaps the narrator still doesn't realize that he's not really escaping from racism and stereotyping, but is just merely hiding it more affectively with his new life.
Enlightened or still hidden?
From the very start of this novel the question that's intrigued me the most has always been whether Ellison wishes to portray his character at the end of the book as having come to an enlightened state, and if so what that means about the identity of the other characters in the story. What I mean by this is that in the prologue it's clear that the narrator has reached a point in his life where he feels he has recognized his invisibility and has come to realize he can use this perception of invisibility to his advantage. Clearly after the novel has run its course the narrator himself feels as though he's reached a point in his life at where he has come to a great realization which other people have not, and thus is enlightened past them. My question, however, is whether this is really the message that Ellison wants to send to his readers, or if perhaps he's just toying with us and that he feels that the narrator is no less disillusioned than he was at the beginning of the book. In a book that is so dense and has so much symbolism and so many questions about identity it seems like there could be many different ways to interpret what Ellison wants to say on the matter through his creation of various characters.
My best example of a character who's identity can be looked at in different ways is Doctor Bledsoe. The president of the university certainly provides a character worth looking at and considering what his character might say about what Ellison thinks invisibility and identity mean. For instance we first see Bledsoe in action, when he completely transforms himself into a mask of concern for Mr. Norton, "As we approached a mirror Dr. Bledsoe stopped and composed his angry face like a sculptor, making it a bland mask" (102). It immediately struck me that Bledsoe could be considered someone who has come to terms with his invisibility and now uses it to further himself in life. He recognizes that by acting a certain role he can appear to be a certain type of man, when in reality he is hiding a huge part of his personality. What this does for him is that he can use this notion to manipulate men who he wants to underestimate him, such as Mr. Norton. For me this was the first instance of what I thought the narrator would refer to as having invisibility and using it. Clearly he's at least succeeding with his mask of deception as noted by his powerful position and wealth.
Since it's clear that Bledsoe is privy to an understanding of his identity that others are not, the next question to ask is whether Ellison means for Bledsoe to be viewed as an individual who is enlightened, or is Bledsoe really still very disillusioned. Perhaps he is truly happy with his position in life and feels that what he wants in life is simply to have power. An alternative option, however, is that Bledsoe is trapped by his identity and the fact that he has to pretend for such a large portion of his life to be a different person. Perhaps he's not enlightened at all. Both cases could be made and supported.
Another interesting example of a character who could be perceived as both enlightened or trapped is the veteran that the narrator encounters in the Golden Day, and then again as he's boarding his train. On both occasions the vet imparts a wealth of information and advice upon the narrator. For instance, "He has eyes and ears and a good distended African nose, but he fails to understand the facts of life [...] He's invisible, a walking personification of the Negative, the most perfect achievement of your dreams sir!" (94). In many ways it feels as though we're talking to a version of the narrator we see in the prologue. This is someone clearly feels as though he understands things that both of them do not. He is enlightened to "the facts of life" where the Narrator is still clueless. Still we wonder if this is really a man who can be considered to be enlightened and wise in the ways of the world. For all his wisdom he's still locked up in an insane asylum, and Bledsoe can have control of him by making a phone call. On the other hand, however, he does seem much more at peace and in control of himself than the narrator certainly. This suggests that perhaps the vet is in fact enlightened and more aware than others. Bledsoe and the Vet represent two opposite sides of the spectrum. The Vet understands what invisibility means and seems at peace with himself. Bledsoe, however, understands it and uses it for his own devices. The question I've been asking myself is this: Are either of these men to be considered enlightened, and if so what does that say about Ellison's perception of identity and invisibility?
Another interesting example of a character who could be perceived as both enlightened or trapped is the veteran that the narrator encounters in the Golden Day, and then again as he's boarding his train. On both occasions the vet imparts a wealth of information and advice upon the narrator. For instance, "He has eyes and ears and a good distended African nose, but he fails to understand the facts of life [...] He's invisible, a walking personification of the Negative, the most perfect achievement of your dreams sir!" (94). In many ways it feels as though we're talking to a version of the narrator we see in the prologue. This is someone clearly feels as though he understands things that both of them do not. He is enlightened to "the facts of life" where the Narrator is still clueless. Still we wonder if this is really a man who can be considered to be enlightened and wise in the ways of the world. For all his wisdom he's still locked up in an insane asylum, and Bledsoe can have control of him by making a phone call. On the other hand, however, he does seem much more at peace and in control of himself than the narrator certainly. This suggests that perhaps the vet is in fact enlightened and more aware than others. Bledsoe and the Vet represent two opposite sides of the spectrum. The Vet understands what invisibility means and seems at peace with himself. Bledsoe, however, understands it and uses it for his own devices. The question I've been asking myself is this: Are either of these men to be considered enlightened, and if so what does that say about Ellison's perception of identity and invisibility?
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