Holden becomes Uncle Nelson

Today in class we spent a good deal of time talking about Benji’s crazy uncle, Nelson. Throughout our discussion of his ideals and place in society, he began to sounds a lot like Holden. While in my semester project, I presented a path for Holden in which he could make a turnaround and become successful in life, but an equally probable outcome is that of Uncle Nelson.

The similarities that I have noticed are plentiful. They act in many of the same way. Holden talks about avoiding adulthood and does not enjoy talking with adults. Nelson is the same way, realizing he does not get along with other adults. The older generation seems to have a mentality that neither of these characters share. Because these actions generally do not go well, both of them are rejected by the respectable society. For Nelson, this is the family who refer to him with disgust, and for Holden this his school expelling him. Additionally, Holden spends some time talking to friends and Phoebe about his whimsical plans for going off and having fun, living life outside of traditional bounds. Well Nelson appears to have done just that (from what we hear from Benji). These adventures allow them to express their passions that do not fit with traditional society.

Beyond their actions, the feelings and values of these two characters are very similar. An example of this is when they identify with children. Nelson tells the boys that he is one of them while riding in the car. This reminds me of when Holden sees little kids with their parents and contemplates their life and admires them. Going along with that, they both have a connection to their childhood, For Holden, this takes the form of his sister who he spends time with and enjoys her company and enjoys her for being young. Because he is older, this takes a more nostalgic role in Nelson’s life. This is evident when he is staring at his old house and remembering growing up in Sag Harbor. These two characters both seem to cling to their memories of childhood.

With uncle Nelson as a possible trajectory for Holden to follow, would you consider this to be a failure on his part? Is uncle Nelson an inferior person because he did not follow the rules? Would you like Holden to follow this track? Here are some comment prompts to help you tonight.

One Car to Rule Them All

In Sag Harbor, Randy, Benji’s (sort of) friend, obtains a car, that changes their world. He thinks of this as an amazing improvement for their mobility and independence and facilitates adventures. However, I do not see this as a good thing for them and it does not mirror the benefits that the automobile brought to america as a whole.

The first reason that this car is bad, is that it is an isolated improvement. Whenever something happens to only one kid out of many among teenagers, things rarely end well. In this case, the car availability accentuates social strife in their group and creates an exclusive set of kids who are allowed in the car. This group is limited to 5 and Benji describes having to leave one kid out. This is part of some bigger social issues, as he points out. Additionally, this is making the kids suck up to Randy to get to one of the ones he drives, arguing over who is better friends..etc. Some of you are probably realizing that I was in Randy’s situation to a lesser degree, being one of the first to get a license. This process of deciding who to drive is uncomfortable for all parties. Lastly, I am not sure how much having the car is actually improving their life. They now do less wondering and more planned traveling. I think their exploratory missions, walking or biking, were more valuable.

One of the things that was the result of the acquisitions of cars in America resulted in was mobility for the common man. It made things run smoothly because everyone could travel and had great benefits. But in this case, with only one kid owning a car, it is not nearly as positive as it may appear.

The reverse hierarchy

The reverse hierarchy

As Jason descends the ladder of popularity in Maggot, he begins to describe the world of being bullied. It is evident that there are rules for those at the bottom, just like the ones Jason described as the beginning of the book from the top. The politics of middle school go on.

Like with being popular, Jason is also completely aware of the situation of bullying and he clearly already knows how to act. He knows the rules. He repeats the advice he picks up for the reader at various points. The way to be a good victim is the be passive and not react. he demonstrates this when they yell at him, give him the wedgie, and when Ross tries to talk to him. We all know this strategy, but the his level of awareness of it at this age is what is impressive. It is also representative of how everything Jason does is edited and is working towards his self image, even while at the bottom.

The other aspect of the beginning of the book that outlines the hierarchy of the school is when Jason outlines which group he is in. This is reflected in Maggot when he explicitly joins the table filled with “lepers”. These guys are just as cohesive as Spooks, and also have a set of requirements to join, albeit unfortunate requirements. The people that Jason joins at the bottom are just as refined as those at the top. For example, Dean is trained to not even flinch when hit with the chip. He has become a master of nonviolence.

All of this shows how the hierarchy is not triangular, but rather a diamond that has rules governing throughout and how you act determines is always important.

Jason is not the first to visit the doctor

I have talked about the mental health of the protagonists of the books before because it serves for an interesting comparison. However, with the start of Black Swan, another protagonists is identified as having a condition; in this case, it’s Jason’s stammer. This blog post can serve as an addition to a previous one. The timing and the way it is presented offer a different view.

Jason identifies this issue and presents it to the reader at a much younger age than the other characters. It is interesting from a child about to enter the coming of age process and doing so with a known mental hindrance is even more intriguing. Even though he is younger, the timing is a bit different because hangman has been fully realized by Jason and it is easy for him to present to the reader. Jason presents many practical implications of what hangman is doing and this makes it more real for me. However, he also gets treatment from the doctor like Esther does, also without much of a noticeable change. He still has more to learn about this stammer, though. Keeping it hidden among other kids is not going to remain feasible, especially as they grow older.

I am interested to see how his concept of this speech impediment grows with him throughout the novel, because understanding these things is a huge part of coming of age.

Helen the Ice Figure

I know there is a chance that some of you looked at this passage for the notebook prompt last week, but this particular thought by Ruth really stood out to me when out with Silvie:

If there had been snow I would have made a statue, a woman to stand along the path, among the trees. The children would have come close, to look at her. Lot's wife was salt and barren, because she was full of loss and mourning, and looked back. But here rare flowers would gleam in her hair, and on her breast, and in her hands, and there would be children all around her, to love and marvel at her for her beauty, and to laugh at her extravagant adornments, as if they had set the flowers in her hair and thrown down all the flowers at her feet, and they would forgive her, eagerly and lavishly, for turning away, though she never asked to be forgiven. Though her hands were ice and did not touch them, she would be more than mother to them, she so calm, so still, and they such wild and orphan things.

This description of the statue is a great illusion to Ruth’s ideas and ideals of motherhood. This passage does three things: tells about how Helen was and what Ruth has wanted from Helen as well as demonstrate Ruth’s maturity as a part of the coming of age proces.

What we can learn about Helen is that she turned away from them in the eyes of Ruth. I believe this is Ruth’s interpretation of the suicide. She feels abandoned. And at that moment of turning away, she is frozen in Ruth’s mind, thus the statute imagery. However,

However, Ruth shows many things she wishes that Helen had done. She depicts the mother looking back. She imagines and idealizes regret in her mother. She talks about the kids forgiving which shows how she would have forgiven her mother if she got to talk to her again.

Continuing on the ‘what ifs’, Ruth talks about the flowers that cover the figure to show how even if her mother was this cold wanderer, she would still have beautiful qualities. She would have done well for them.

Unfortunately, they did not touch, as Ruth points out, but this passage is still very significant. It shows a her maturity to contemplate all of these abstract concepts about her mother who has been shrouded in mystery up to this point. It is very difficult to think about a suicidal parent, much less articulate it, so this large metaphor demonstrates a step in the coming of age process.

There are so many nuances and symbols in this passage that I could not begin to talk about them all. What did you see in it?

Stuck with Glue

I was reading through the poem Daddy and these lines really stuck out to me:

But they pulled me out of the sack

And they stuck me together with glue

There is a lot more to say about this poem, but I would like to just focus on these lines. They seem to be a direct description of the events in The Bell Jar and therefore I will use this as a representation of her sentiment in the novel. The imagery of putting someone back together with glue has a lot of power aspects to it.

The first of these is the utter passivity of these lines. THEY pulled me out and THEY stuck me together with glue, ect. However, it goes beyond being passive and a bit bitter. There is no sense of them helping her or her being grateful. She seems to be resistant of the whole process. Additionally, glue is never perfect. I get the image of a person awkwardly put back together in a messy way, and she does not expect to work perfectly ever again. This is increased by the artificial nature of the glue. Glue is something you add to a broken object, not a natural part of something. It seems to be an unsightly and unfortunate addition to Esther, especially since the breaking was intentional.

However, maybe I am being too negative. Glue shows how things can be mended strongly and easily and allows her life to go on. This is something to be greatful of. How do you interpret this? Yup, easy comment prompt for a thursday night.

The Meaning of Medicine

I am discussing medical experiences before the suicide attempt.

When thinking about The Bell Jar, it is almost impossible to not draw connections to the other two books that we have read. With all of the characters not quite fitting in with the system, their reactions and strategies to cope are very interesting. Esther is the first of these characters to actually get medical consideration and help, although she is not the first to need it, probably. The treatment has a lot of significance in the progression of her insanity, but none of which is actual help.

Stephen reaches a level of anxiety about his sinning that would be cause for medical attention. In Holden’s case, we discussed in class about his bipolar nature that was less self-destructive than the other two but also could have been diagnosed. We have now begun to see Esther develop a condition of her own. However, unlike the other protagonists, she sort of seeks out medical help and has multiple experiences with a psychiatrist.

The first thing that the medical treatment represents is the solidification of the craziness for Esther. It is not easy to identify mental illness in oneself. The turning point often comes when medical attention is called upon. Avoiding such treatment is a typical form of denial so this is a big step for her. Second, seeking the help of the doctor represents a way for Esther's mother to help her daughter. Watching one’s chile go insane is rather difficult, I would imagine. Therefore, I think this will give her mother hope, which is very important. Finally, after the horrible shock “treatment”, she thinks of the entire experience as a punishment, not a help. The idea of punishment holds a lot of weight in her increasingly irrational thoughts and fears.

The medical treatment that Esther seeks is certainly unique to the protagonists. It is very significant and shows a lot about her battle with the illness. However, the one think it definitely did not do: treat her.

A narrator for YOU

One thing that I have really enjoyed about Catcher in the Rye is the ways in which the narrative style is able to Break the wall between Holden and the reader. Typically, the narration in a novel is the platform upon which the story is laid. However, in Catcher, the words describing the event are part of the story. The unique qualities that Salinger gives Holden as a narrator are able to accomplish this.

The first of these comes in the first sentence of novel. You may have noticed it: the second person. The ‘you’ is never identified as someone listening (in the format of a frame narrative). Therefore, Holden is able to draw in the reader by developing a conversational tone. We also discussed in class about how this leads us to believe he likes us, providing a gratifying reading experience. This serves to make the narration important through a personal connection to the reader.

The next thing that Salinger uses to give us Holden’s character simply through narrating is his informal style, specifically the repetition that Holden uses. Paragraphs are not clearly thought out and two sentences are likely to repeat each other. This would generally be an annoying  and immature writing style, but Salinger is able to pull this off as conversational and real, rather than paragraphs carefully constructed.

I am not sure how unique this point is to this book, but I really noticed when a character would say something and the narrator would be disgusted by the language used in the novel. For example, Sally says “‘I’d Love to. Grand.’” and holden tell us: “Grand. If there is one word I hate, it’s grand” (page 106). I was struck by how Salinger made his narrator hate his own word choice. This does a lot to pull the narrator away from the author, who is creating it. The fact that the story mocks itself is very powerful.

How did Holden’s voice make an impact for you?

Stephen and his Mom

In Portrait of the artist as a young man, Stephen evolves in many ways as he grows up. His mother represents the mold that he is breaking. I found her few appearances to be very telling of Stephen's character. Her first real involvement is at the dinner when the argument breaks out. She largely acts as the arbiter and tries to retain order. I believe this is one of the things Stephen internalizes and it definitely sets a precedence for he order-driven motives in the novel.

Later on, we get descriptions of how Mrs. Dedalus is the strict catholic that has hopes for Stephen to enter priest hood when she sends him to the boarding schools. We see this reinforced when she appears disappointed with his interest in college. This provides a perfect opportunity for Stephen to grow as a person beyond what his mother expects, expressing his individuality. By the time he refuses to go to church, he is far from the devoted boy from the beginning. Cranley points out how Stephen is now beyond acting under his mother's love, another symbol of independence. I think she is important, as both a static character and one of the only women exclusively portrayed realistically.

I do not envy Stephen's complete detachment from his mother, but I think it is a very significant detain.

Coming of Age is More than Just You

While the concept of coming of age is an inherently personal concept, much of our life is defined by our relationship with others. Therefore, I believe our social interactions can do a lot to display this process.

The first aspect of coming of age that often comes up in discussion is memory. We said in class that we do not see ourselves as coming of age at a certain time, but rather we view our coa process through a collection of memories. I have noticed that sharing memories with others whether they were there or not is very powerful for building one’s self image. Additionally, a meaningful way to view one’s past is through the context of friends  and experiences with those around you. Lastly, the another defining characteristic of coa is maturity, and this is most clearly expressed through relationships with others. These evolve over time from playful or submissive (to parents) to professional or romantic. This process is crucial to coa and requires others to be intimately involved in one’s development

Are there any other ways your coa is represented or shared with others? Or do you think this is a purely individual journey?

Fire Addendum

Jack presented a really neat poem titled Detroit Addendum on Friday about the power of poetry in an industrialized Detroit.  The stanza that stood out to me and was a central point of discussion was the fourth one that had frequent references to fire. It was especially interesting because the fire can interpreted in many different ways:

From fiery epicenters, black faces,

white faces, glow red. We stare through words

into fire until our eyes are also fire.

One widespread symbol is of passion. It is very fitting in this stanza as passion of the poetry, referenced elsewhere in the poem. The word “stare”, singularly italicized, shows a focus. This is channeled by the “words” that are present as a part of the fire. This fire eventually consumes them, with their “eyes also fire”. The faces “glow red” with passion”. This could be a way to escape a restrictive society.

Fire can be a representation of the industrial society as well. This connects to the themes earlier in the poem where vehicles are listed as the industry of the city. The fire can be seen as a chaotic force that spreads through everyone. “Fiery epicenters” would represent the factories with the workers’ faces seaming to “glow red”. The “through words” could be taken as going beyond the words of the people; the industrial world was not part of pure humanity.

Lastly, the fire might simply be showing a force that unifies the people. These people, as Chris pointed out, are physically separated, but the fire is able to shine on all of them. This is shown by the strong sense of black and “white faces” transcending racial bounds. This interpretation is reinforced by the use of “we” in the second line of the stanza when referring to multiple races. The fire appears to stand in for something in the city that is able to affect everyone.

In class, this fire imagery sparked a previously smouldering discussion with fuel forged from ambiguity. I was able to stoke the glowing embers and an inferno of possibilities blazed in my mind. I hope you were warmed by this idea set ablaze. How did you read this smoking stanza?

The Neurological Significance of Beloved

When we were looking at the passage that has the description of memory, I noticed some very real parallels with neuroscience among the various supernatural elements.

Memory is described as being tied to a place, namely 124; it will never die as long as that place exists. WE took this as a supernatural quality of 124 to be able to retain memories. However, this is very similar to recent studies of classroom dynamics. They suggest that what you learn is tied to the space that you learned them and you remember them best in that place. This is a part of memory by association. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_%28psychology%29) Therefore, the house is not haunted, but the characters are being haunted by this familiar place.

Sethe takes this a step further and romanticizes the relationship with the memory. This makes the process more spiritual, but founded on similar neurological concepts. The reader gets the impression of a memory that is animate and evolving. This directly relates to studies of memory reconstruction. Science has shown that your memories are rebuilt from scratch each time you access them and evolve each time they are reconstructed, having been saturated with the experience of the experience of the memory. Re-memory is an illustration of this concept. This information comes from a mind blowing radiolab documentary that has stuck with me (http://www.radiolab.org/story/91569-memory-and-forgetting/ I would definitely recommend listening to this).

In conclusion, the complexity of the plot is reflective of the nuances of the brain and the 

processes of memory. Much of the weird dealings with memory in Beloved are founded in science.

Graffiti: Controversial Art Form Goes Beyond Art

   The documentary Style Wars was very interesting because it showed the viewer graffiti from many angles that most are not aware of. The personal interviews with the "writers" were especially powerful. One of the main things that many of us took out of the movie was that Graffiti was a true art form that deserved more recognition as such. I completely agree with this; much of graffiti is very beautiful and powerful and I think it has made a generally positive impact on cities visually. 

    However, after thinking about the dynamic between the writers and the administration that was at times comical and ironic, I realized that there were much more powerful motives than the debate of its legitimacy as art. I found this issue of graffiti in this time period as a power struggle. The "writers", while creating art for sure, were mostly expressing their power to leave a mark on the city. When the boy in kitchen with his mom first pointed this out, I thought it referred to his personal power. However, I later identified this to be representative of a movement to defy the authority of the city that was seen as oppressing these teens. I do not see this as a bad thing because this a relatively harmless outlet for such feelings of resentment. Someone asked why they did not all just use canvas for their artistic endeavors. It would just not have been rebellious enough to write one's name on a canvas repeatedly.

    On the other side, we spent a lot of time making fun of the city officials who were opposing the graffiti and declaring it to be making people feel unsafe. I think a lot of their motives were to maintain order (as any governing body does), so it was imperative to cover up the rebellious acts, whether they were art or not. This is reinforced by the fact that the graffiti inspired art was so successful among a similar group. It is too bad they were forced to clear off such great pieces of art. 

   Graffiti is a great form of art to have come from teens who would otherwise be restricted in this creative regard. However, it is important to acknowledge the power struggle that went along with it. 

From Grotesque Caricatures to Twisted Racism

After watching the documentary last week, I realized that racism in the media has progressed, not extinguished. In Ethnic Notions, we see television displaying blatant racism without any worry because it was the norm. There were many examples of belittling, emasculation, minstrelsy (and on and on) that the modern audience is horrified by. This is because white Americans, as depicted in White Boy Shuffle, have gone through a phase of exaggerated color blindness. This made for a situation where people were pointedly displaying how they ostensibly did not care. On the outside, this may seem to be a positive development to avoid racist behavior, but it created a new dynamic of racism that is well depicted by Beatty. This translated to the media where everyone went out of their way to avoid the mention of race. However, this has progressed further as the colorblind behavior was found to not be the best solution to the problem as is evident from the description by Gunnar. Many people have identified the problems with a colorblind approach and have become increasingly paranoid about how to correctly approach the topic of race. This makes for many awkward conversations as people try not to ignore the issue but to find a politically correct way to say it. The documentary also points out how the portrayal of racism in the popular media can have an impressive impact on how the audience views the world and acts. Therefore, this obsession over not being offensive has spread to be a very pervasive issue, even when we do not think about it. In class, we often mention stand up comedy to illustrate our point so I wanted to throw in a very explicit example of this dynamic although it does not involve exclusively black racism. This is from popular 2014 tv series Silicon Valley. I thought of this scene when we watched the documentary and decided to investigate how what was depicted in the documentary related to modern television.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0q9PjM4FCU

This is a very broad topic that I have only scraped the surface on. Any thoughts on our modern racism in the media?

What Does It Mean To Be Blind?

When we were reading Invisible Man, we realized that every use of words related to sight and invisibility and color were always very significant sources of symbolism, no matter their context. Therefore, the descriptions of colorblindness in White Boy Shuffle immediately caught my eye. Looking back on Native son, blindness is something that Bigger grapples with throughout the book. There is a huge difference in what these descriptions represent, but they are very racially charged and make up part of the identity of the character involved.

Invisible Man explores "invisibility" throughout the novel and the characters’ traits’ relation to sight is never fully defined. However, we have concluded that it involves flying under the radar and generally being ignored by society. Invisible men are those who are not fully engaged in society as a way to avoid the social burden of their race. As far as we are aware, the invisibility is not acknowledged by any white characters.

Native Son utilizes the word "blind" as a descriptor commonly used by Bigger when looking on various other characters in the novel. He uses it to label people as being ignorant to what was going on in the world around him. Bigger labels his family, Bessie, Jan, and even himself as blind during his adventures. He often utilized it when frustrated, but it always carried a connotation of not understanding the way the world worked.

White Boy Shuffle, as of chapter two, displays a white construct of "colorblindness". Gunner grows up with the white school system pointedly preaching that everyone has to look past race. This is an interesting contrast to the other instances because it represents being so aware of race that they need to try redefine it.

This difference could demonstrate a shift in the problems facing blacks in America between the two time periods. I have barely stepped into this topic and have not come close to doing it justice; how do you incorporate this motif of obsessing over symbolic vision?

Their Eyes Were Watching Guns

The title of the book, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is written out on page 160 when they are watching the hurricane’s approach. They are described as feeling “puny” (160) against Him. Janie and Tea Cake sit helplessly as they watch the storm building strength. This expectant powerlessness is a powerful theme of the novel, evident from the title. I noticed this dynamic repeated in the most dramatic scene of the novel. Tensions peak as Tea Cake is overwhelmed by his illness and takes up arms against Janie. Guns inherently hold lots of power, deciding between life and death. Janie watches it as it is aimed at her with no power over Tea Cake whose mind has been radically twisted. This is very similar to the scene anticipating the hurricane.

Additionally, in both cases, action is taken to secure safety with ultimate failure. Tea Cake and Janie are actually able to escape death during the hurricane by making their way to high ground. However, power of God manages to take down Tea Cake with the bite of a crazed dog. In the same way, Janie believes she has dodged a bullet when she takes out 3 of the shells from the pistol. However, as she looks on, he clicks through them all and fires the gun. She is forced to fire back to protect herself. This an important motif to that helps to define the story of Janie that dominates this novel.

Distilling a Poem

“The House of Falling Leaves” was presented by Elissa last week, and I was very intrigued. During the discussion I made a comment about all of the capitalized and I thought I should revisit it. I was intrigued by the seemingly random capitalization throughout the poem. After further inspection, I realized that I could pull out these words and get the following:

House Falling Leaves

Room

Time

Autumn

Time

Winter

Memory

This represents a distilled version of the poem that manages to maintain a lot of meaning. The first interpretation of this set of words is as a description of the life of a leaf as mentioned in the title. Time is the biggest factor for change for a leaf so this selection of words accurately describes the passing of the seasons and how the leaf eventually becomes a memory. This can be taken in a number of directions symbolically as is true for this whole poem. these words show a clear sense of inevitability due to the emphases on time and passing of seasons. That is intriguing when talking about the people separating or passing away into a memory. We want our life to be meaningful, but similar to Native Son, it all appears to be just as predictable as the passing seasons (shown here). The seasons metaphor is also similar to the discussion we had about Their Eyes Were Watching God and the passing of time for Jamie. We described the phases of her life in seasons as well. Jody could be the ‘he’ in this poem that passes from her as her life passes out of Autumn. It is every interesting to see these parallels emerge from these writers. There is so much more that could be said about the poem itself, but I wanted to take a moment to look at a conscious choice by the author to highlight some key words.

What do you see as their significance?

Invisible Sons and Native Men

We have done a lot in class to compare Native Son and Invisible Man. We have highlighted many differences in the attitudes and themes of the authors. These themes are summarized very well by the contrasting titles. Ellison, writing 12 years later, chooses a title that clearly mimics Wright’s for his response novel. The construction of adjective then person is visible in both, but the connotations for the words are much different.

The first word (“Invisible” and “Native”) represents a great deal of significance to the theme of the novel in both cases. Furthermore, it displays the final judgement and world views of a character in the end of the novel. In Native Son, “Native” is the basis for Max’s argument of the inevitability of Bigger’s crime. He talks about how Bigger is a crime himself due to the environment that he was brought up in. He is native to this society and it is what defines him. Alternatively, Ellison chooses to present a more complex world view with the narrator's realization of the concept of invisibility. This main theme of the novel is very hard to pin down and is never truly defined. That is why invisibility is the perfect term because invisibility is inherently mysterious. It shows a sense of free will associated with flying under the radar. The contrast of these terms in very interesting because their definitions do not show any relation at all, but in the context of the novel, they both carry strong connotations of relative freedom.

The second word supports the themes discussed of the first. “Son” shows Bigger’s existence as a direct result of his society and demonstrates a clear path of origin for the character. It also immediately defines him as a son of something bigger (no pun intended, although that could be deliberate symbolism) rather than an individual. “Man”, on the other hand, is a completely anonymous, which is how the narrator describes himself at the end. It is the term that would be used on a news headline where the identity of the person is not important. It is also much more individual than “Son” and is a successful contrast to Wright’s novel.

In conclusion, I read through both books without even noticing Ellison's homage to Native Son in the title. This represent the endless symbolism in Invisible Man that I have acknowledged that I will never fully grasp. The symbolism found in almost every line is what makes this book powerful for me and worth another read.

What has he got in his pocketses?

In chapter 23, the narrator is wondering the streets and uses glasses and a hat as a disguise. After putting the glasses away, he remarks that his “pocket was getting overloaded” (489). He describes that the pocket was being filled with the “leg chain and Clifton’s doll” (489). This line stuck out to me because all three of these objects carry such deep emotional significance. I interpreted them to represent three different levels of freedom (and racism) that he has experienced. However, the pocket serves to conceal them from others. These objects are a physical and emotional burden just like the bank earlier in the book.

The first thing he received while at the brotherhood was the ankle chain from Tarp. This represents maximum physical racial repression that he endured with a weight chained to his leg. The narrator has not experienced something this brutal, but his emotional connection--including a sense of protection--to what it represents is evident (did I use the em dash correctly?). There is clearly no free represented here. The second item is the doll that Clifton was selling before he got shot. This dolls, as discussed in class, carries many metaphors including a parallel to his work in the brotherhood as being controlled by invisible strings. This character demonstrates a little more freedom, and even appears to dance. However its brutal racism is still blatant. The most recent item to be added to his picket are the glasses that he is using as a disguise on the street. These glasses go beyond disguise, however; the narrator begins to realize that they provide to him the power of invisibility. He immediately is recognized as a man who is succeeding at being invisible. This invisibility, not yet clearly defined by the narrator, is very hard to pin down, but the role of theses glasses give the reader some indication in this chapter. The invisibility gained by donning the glasses is far beyond that represented by the other objects. The narrator carries all of these parts of him everywhere he goes and he is starting to become “overloaded” (489).

Two bosses, Lots of Hate

In chapter 10 of Invisible Man, an important chapter for a variety of reasons, there is a definite turning point in the narrator’s treatment of authority. Up to this point, he has been very subservient and excepting with his first major outrage coming from the realization falsification of the letter in the previous chapter.

He has very similar feelings about the two bosses that are assigned to him in the chapter, however, his actions are very different. His mental abuse of Kimbro and later physical abuse of Brockway both show the transition in his character.

The first man who assumes power of the narrator in the pain factory is Kimbro, who in initially described to the narrator as “terrible” (194) by a co-worker and the narrator’s opinion gets steadily worse.. Throughout his time with Kimbro, the narrator thinks very poorly of the man. He quickly questions the motives of this man, wondering if he was “trying to kid me?” (195). The anger felt toward Kimbro is deeper than his anger with Bledsoe in their confrontation. The narrator curses Kibro with words like: “flunkey, a northern redneck, a Yankee cracker” (196). His contempt for the authority is evident when he considers “writing the owners” (202) to complain about his treatment.

After being given a new boss, the narrator immediately appears to have no respect for the man. His first confrontation with the man resulted in him turning up the stairs. He goes on to continually be wary of Brockway and wonders how such a figure could earn such power. What sets apart the narrator’s reaction with Brockway from that of Kimbro is the physical actions of the narrator. When threatened, the narrator, “throwing myself forward” (221), fought instead of running out of the basement.

The beating up of this frail man shows a strong connection to the scene in the prologue where the narrator beats up a random man in the street. The progression from submissiveness to ‘invisibility’ is very evident with two steps in his rejection of authority being indicated in this chapter.