Ras

The character Ras has always stood out to me from the rest of the characters in the novel due to the fact that he is very independent, bold, and not easily pressured into conforming towards the group standard.Yet I also find it very sad when we hit the scene between Ras and Clifton fighting. Ironically, this is due to the fact that Ras is unable to kill Clifton and actually spares his life because he is unable to kill someone with the same ethnicity as himself. He makes it quite clear by saying "I ought to kill you. Godahm, I ought to kill you, and the world be better off. But you black mann. Why you be black, mann? i swear i ought to kill you." This illustrated the division between Ras and the narrator as well as Clifton. It's depressing how Ras says that he wouldn't kill Clifton or the narrator because of their blood ties, and even reminds both men to think back to their roots as we he says "We sons of Mama Africa, you done forgot? You black, BLACK! You--Godahm, mann!...You got bahd hair! You got thick lips. They say you stink. They hate you, mann. You African. AFRICAN! Why you with them. Leave that shit, mann. They sell you out. That shit is old-fashioned. They enslave us--you fogey that? How can they mean a black mann any good? How they going to be your brother?" Yet despite Ras's attempt, he is unable to convince either Clifton or the narrator to join his sides. Instead, the narrator "had reached him now and brought the pipe down hard, seeing the knife fly and I raised the pipe again, suddenly hot with fear and hate." This selection reminds me when the narrator fights with Lucius Brockway in order and ends up knocking his teeth out. Both these accounts are equally significant, however, due to the fact that when juxtaposed to the narrator and the Brotherhood, Bledsoe or Norton. He would never hit any of these men or feel such burning hate as he does with Ras because they are white men. Ras then goes on to remind the narrator where his allegiance actually ought to lie as he says "where you think you from, going with the white folks? i know, godahm; don't i know it! You from down South! You from Trinidad! You from Barbados! Jamaica, South Africa,and the white man's food in your ass all the way down to the hip. What you trying to deny by betraying the black people? Why you fight against us? Why you go over to the enslaver? What kind of education is that? What kind of black mann is that who betray his own mama?" I also enjoy the connotation of the word "mama" and the numerous allusions that it could be significant for such as mama as in Mary from the Bible, or Mary, who the narrator abandoned and lied to in Invisible Man. "Mama" could also be referencing "Mother Africa" mentioned earlier but it also be meant simply as mother itself.

Invisible Man Connections

I found it extremely interesting how the speaker is constantly forced into conformity as can be illustrated by the numerous times that he is forced to become "submissive" under several authority figures. For instance, many times the narrator folds under not only his grandfather's constant request that visit him through numerous subliminal messages such as dreams, flashbacks, illusions, and even freudian slips but also the demands that are pressured upon him by nearly everyone that the narrator encounters whether it be Bledsoe, Mr. Norton or the Brotherhood itself. Such can be illustrated by the fact that Brother Jack tells the narrator "This is your new identity" (309), commanding him to erase his name, and therefore, his past by deleting the most central means of identification. Furthermore, more instructional and didactic tones are used against the narrator once he finished giving his speech in front of the crowd, such can be illustrated by the reprimand, "it was the antithesis of the scientific approach. Ours is a reasonable point of view. We are champions of a scientific approach to society, and such a speech as we've identified ourselves with tonight destroys everything that has been said before" (350). This condemnation of the narrator's sentimental speech techniques is juxtaposed against the scientific and reasoning structure that the Brotherhood advocates, therefore further accentuating the fact that the narrator is not only forced to mask his identity by sacrificing his name but also must forsake his own characteristic mannerisms and behavior in order to gain acknowledgment by the brotherhood. Such can be illustrated by the fact that the brother hood then suggests that the narrator "must be trained...there's hope that our wild but effective speaker may be tamed" (351). In fact, the narrator is forced to "stay completely out of Harlem" (351) until he is to "be guilty of no further unscientific speeches to upset our brothers' scientific tranquillity" (351). Hence such depicts the fact that the narrator is forced to not reveal himself until he is able to fall into the "communistic" behavior that has been prescribed by the Brotherhood; any actions that are unwelcoming will result in exile or permanent disregard. However, despite the fact that the narrator realizes that he "was someone new," it is ironic how he reverts back to the mannerisms that he describes "spoken in a very old-fashioned way," while simultaneously believing he had been transformed. He goes on to extrapolate, saying how "even his technique had been different; no one who had known me at college would have recognized the speech." Yet, he also begins to say that he would "not only represent my own group but one that was much larger." There are layers upon layers of ironic commentary in this section. Although the narrator had just emerged "reborn" from the paint explosion from Liberty Paints he still believes that he has become a completely changed man just because of his new name but is still ambivalent about where his change comes from. He believes that internally he has changed to become a different person, but couldn't he simply be returning to his roots? When the narrator says "spoken in a very old-fashioned" way couldn't he simply be speaking of his grandfather and his black heritage. How can the narrator claim that he is completely reborn when he is unable to have his own identity, but is instead manufactured one by being given a "mechanical" birth, a predestined 'destiny', and handed down a name as well as job that he has no control over. even the narrator seems to grapple with this question as he "sat there in the dark" thinking "of the speech" as "already it seemed the expression of someone else...yet i knew that it was mine and mine alone."

Sonnet Analysis

With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb'st the skies! How silently, and with how wan a face! What, may it be that even in heavenly place That busy archer his sharp arrows tries? Sure, if that long-with-love-acquainted eyes Can judge of love, thou feel'st a lover's case. I read it in thy looks; thy languished grace, To me, that feel the like, thy state descries. Then, even of fellowship, O Moon, tell me, Is constant love deemed there but want of wit? Are beauties there as proud as here they be? Do they above love to be loved, and yet Those lovers scorn whom that love doth possess? Do they call virtue there ungratefulness? ----------------------------------------------- The speaker reflects his somber mood onto the moon by questioning the earthly and heavenly integrities of a fickle woman’s love. This can be illustrated by the tone shift of the sonnet as well as numerous characteristics which contribute to its melancholy tenor. Throughout the sonnet, the moon is personified to have several human characteristics as the speaker not only gives the moon physical features but also human emotions as the speaker carefully observes when he describes, “how wan a face!” The speaker further personifies the moon by illustrating that it is able of physical exertions such as “sad steps,” and “climb’st the skies.” He even metaphorically describes the moon as a “busy archer,” in order to allude towards a cupid figure for the speaker says the moon “Can judge of love.” However, it is obvious that the speaker is simply projecting his own emotions onto the moon itself, for he seems to be looking towards the moon for answers as illustrated by the fact that he seeks confidence and answers from the moon as illustrated by the rhetorical question, “What, may it be that even in heavenly place/ That busy archer his sharp arrow tries?” Hence, the speaker is confiding in the moon by asking a question to an inanimate being about the pangs of “a lover’s case,” for it seems that he is describing his lover as he describes in great detail the “languished grace” which his lover expresses. Yet it also seems that the speaker is in turmoil, for he say that though his lover “feel the like” as her “state descries” he is still unable to have her as illustrated by the significant tone shift that occurs by the marked direction as the speaker trails off, beginning with “Then…” as the poet switches from the quatrain to the sestet. Throughout the sestet, the speaker poses several rhetorical questions, all singled towards the topic of non-reciprocal love, and the many qualities that seem to prevent his lover from accepting his affection as illustrated by the questioning that “Are beauties there as proud as here they be?”

Invisible Man

After reading through Invisible Man I couldn't help but wonder at the number of allusions, historical, religious, and literary which Ralph Ellison drew upon. I found it extremely interesting how the narrator considers himself to be invisible due to the fact that he is "black" illustrating the significance that black culture played upon the author through the essence of his grandfather, Booker T. Washington, and other men like Marcus Garvey and Fredrick Douglass simply to name a few. This was even evident throughout all of the symbolic color imagery that was demonstrated throughout the novel. Gold is a reoccurring color scheme that is constantly referred to throughout the bulk of the novel. Moreover, other colors such as red was also incredibly significant in that not only did it represent the frustration, anger or anxiety that the narrator was feeling but it also served as a warning signal to the narrator several times. The colors of black and white were commonly referred to, but black was given a negative connotation whereas white was given a positive connotation in order to illustrate that the narrator was constantly trying to become white and escape his black skin. Yet the color black wasn't negatively used to describe simply the narrator but it always described something negative such as when the narrator observed that Brockway gave him "a long, black stare." Furthermore the positivity of the color white can be even more illustrated by the slogan that Brockway devises, "If it's Optic White, It's the Right White." There are also many musical motifs throughout the novel, including the very famous Beethoven's Fifth which the narrator hears after the optic white paint explosion. Beethoven's Fifth serves as a foreboding element that foreshadows the state of the author as illustrated by the narrator's response, "i kept hearing the opening motif of Beethoven's Fifth, three short and one long buzz, repeated again and again in varying volume, and I was trudging and breaking through, rising up, to find myself lying on my back with two pink-faced men laughing down." Beethoven's Fifth is again referred to when the narrator says, "I wanted to call him, but the Fifth Symphony rhythm racked me, and he seemed too serene and too far away." Hence, this music which alludes to doom and terror illustrates the frantic and also, depressed manner that the narrator is experiencing, since he is unaware of where he is or what to do after becoming caged inside 'a kind of glass and nickel box, the lid of which was propped open." When I read this scene my first reaction was that the narrator had been reborn again: he had fallen from ruins and was starting anew. I also thought that this description of the narrator awaking from the glass casket like he was Snow White, herself. Yet, I then saw another parallel that this instance could be referring to a religious allusion, something along the lines of Jesus rising again and hence, the narrator was becoming resurrected and his sins cleansed because the white paint had exploded, but also poured over him again, hence wiping the crimson stain of sin with the purity of a lamb's flesh.