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Summer Reading: Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison) Beachwood High School Honors English 3 -American Literature Mr. Harvan Summer Reading: Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison) Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, is an extremely rich and complex work which requires a very close and focused reading. Before you begin, please be sure to read the background handouts with which you have been provided - especially the style sheet. This style handout will illuminate some of the difficult stylistic and structural elements of the novel that may otherwise confuse or elude you. I would also suggest you avoid waiting until the last minute to begin this assignment; it will require time and diligence if you are to fully appreciate and understand the novel. Suggestions Below are some suggestions you may want to consider in order to fully prepare for our Invisible Man activities and assignments during the first few weeks of year. These are not requirements, nor will I collect or evaluate them; they should, however, prove to be invaluable study tools. • In your notes or on note cards, briefly summarize each chapter, • List and define any unfamiliar vocabulary terms. • List and describe the various main characters. • Annotate your book: mark important concepts, ideas, images that will assist in your analysis. Pay special attention to information listed in the requirements below. Requirements Below are required assignments which will be collected on the first day ofclass. These assignments should enhance your understanding of the novel and will eventually serve as springboards for later study, discussion, and writing. 1. Create a one-page computer-generated chart that illustrates three 'mileposts' or important episodes of the narrator's journey or search. This chart should identify the following for each milepost: • what he specifically seeks • how he is shocked or surprised by what he actually discovers • how he is disillusioned by this discovery 2. Create a one-page computer-generated chart that lists the following: • a minimum of five important symbolic objects, places, or events • an explanation of what each specifically represents • an explanation of how each relates in some way to a possible theme ofthe novel 3. Create a one-page computer-generated chart that illustrates the motif of blindness and includes the following: • a minimum of five literal references to blindness or defects in sight • an explanation of the figurative meaning of each • an explanation of how each relates in some way to a possible theme of the novel 4. Write a typed, one to two page review of the novel. Your review should focus on the following: • brief summation of plot including the evolution of the main character • commentary on Ellison's stylistic techniques • your personal reaction, viewpoint, opinion to/of the novel PLEASE STAPLE THESE ASSIGNMENTS IN THE EXACT ORDER ABOVE WITH YOUR NAME ON THE FIRST PAGE. HAVE A GREAT SUMMER AND SEE YOU IN AUGUST. Beachwood High School Honors English 3 -American Literature Mr. Harvan THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL The "Great American Novel" is the concept of a novel that most perfectly represents the spirit of life in the United States at the time of its publication. It is presumed to be written by an American author who is knowledgeable about the state, culture, and perspective of the common American citizen. The phrase derives from the title of an essay by American Civil War novelist John William DeForest, published in The Nation on January 9, 1868. More broadly, however, it has its origins in American nationalism and the call for American counterparts to the "Great English Writers." It is an ideological call for American cultural distinctness. and identity. In modern usage. the term is often figurative and represents a Holy Grail of writing, an ideal to which all American authors strive, and is a source of inspiration. It is, presumably, the greatest American book ever written, or which could ever be written. Thus, "Great American Novel" is a metaphor for identity, a Platonic ideal that is not achieved in any specific texts, but whose aim writers strive to mirror in their work. An alternate usage is in reference to actual novels. Although the title is not a formal award, it is considered to be a prestigious title for a novel, and is thus seen as a worthwhile goal for writers to attempt to achieve. Though the term is singular, many novels have been given this title over time. In fact, few will claim there is one single Great American Novel. Two of the earliest contenders for this title are Herman Melville's Moby­ Dick and Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter has also been frequently cited as another example, while several 20th century works have recently emerged as worthwhile candidates (or the title, including such highly respected novels as William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!, John Dos Passos' U.S.A. trilogy, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, and J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. When referring to first-time writers, many people state that their ultimate goal is to write "the Great American Novel," illustrating the somewhat idealistic nature of the phrase. Wil\lpcdla Co11sitler how bwisible Man relates to tile abo•'e. Be prepm·ed to discuss. Invisible Man ~lpfi CE{{ison Written in the politically and socially turbulent 1940s, Invisible Man is one of the definitive novels of the African-American experience; it is also one of the definitive novels for all Americans. The issues Ellison so powerfully addresses are those that confront everyone who lives in the modem world: not only racism but the very question of personal identity, our frustrated impulse to assert ourselves in a world which is metaphorically blind. Ellison's hero is invisible within the larger culture because he is black, but his feelings can easily be understood by all those who experience the anonymity of modern life. Shortly before his death Ellison acknowledged the fact that his novel had expanded the very meaning of the word "invisible." Invisibility, he said, "touches anyone who lives in a big metropolis." (New Yorker, 5/2/94) The novel's nameless narrator (the Invisible Man) is representative of many intelligent young African­ Americans of his generation. Born and raised in the rural South, he is a star pupil at a college for black students. He dreams of racial uplift through humility and hard work, a doctrine preached by the school and the larger Southern culture. When his innocent idealism lands him in trouble, he comes to understand the hypocrisy behind the school's professed philosophy and heads t{)r the greater freedom ofNew York. The naive young man is "educated" by being slowly disabused of all his ideals. Despite this, in the end he chooses to reject cynicism and hatred and to embrace a philosophy of hope. Ellison wanted his novel to transcend the rage and hopelessness of the protest novel and assert a world of possibility, however remote. It is surreal because "life is surreal," and it is funny--often hilariously so- because "what else was there to sustain our will to persevere but laughter?" [p. xv]. The novel also reflects the rhetorical richness of the African­ American culture, using a wide range of idiomatic styles. Ellison's anti-realism stood out at a time when realism was the dominant fictional style, particularly in the protest novel. Through it he asserts the excitement of human experience in a world in which the unexpected is always happening. hii[): ·~ '!Y.WW.randomhousc.com Ralph Ellison by Anne Scidlit:r. In writing INVISIBLE MAN in the late 1940s, Ralph Ellison brought onto the scene a new kind ofblack protagonist. one at odds with the characters of the leading black novelist at the time, Richard Wright. If Wright's characters were angry. uneducated, and inarticulate-- the consequences of a society that oppressed them-- Ellison's Invisible Man was educated, articulate. and self-aware. Ellison's view was that the African-American culture and sensibility was far from the downtrodden. unsophisticated picture presented by writers, sociologists and politicians, both black and white. l-Ie posited instead that blacks had created their own traditions, rituals, and a history that formed a cohesive and complex cullure that was the source of a full sense of identity. When the protagonist in INVISIBLE MAN comes upon a yam seller (named Petie Wheatstraw, after the black folklore figure) on the streets of Harlem and remembers his childhood in a tlood of emotion. his proclamation "I yam what I yam!" is Ellison's expression of embracing one's culture as the way to freedom. If Wright's protest literature was a natural outcome of a brutal childhood spent in the deep South, Ellison's more affirming approach came out of a very diflerent background in Oklahoma. A "frontier" state with no legacy of slavery, Oklahoma in the 191 Os created the possibility of exploring a fluid ity between the races not possible even in the North. Although a contemporary recalled that the Ellisons were "among the poorest" in Oklahoma City, Ralph still had the mobility to go to a good school, and the motivation to find mentors, both black and white, from among the most accomplished people in the city. Ellison would later say that as a child he observed that there were two kinds of people, those "who wore their everyday clothes on Sunday, and those who wore their Sunday clothes every day. I wanted to wear Sunday clothes every day." Ellison's life-long receptivity to the variegated culture that surrounded him, beginning in Oklahoma City, served him well in creating a new take on literary modernism in INVISIBLE MAN.
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