Invisible Man Journal 2

The scene at the Golden Day was very interesting. I found it odd that the Invisible Man decided to take him to that bar/brothel. I feel the shock from the story that he was told probably would not have been lessened from going to the bar. I find that the Invisible Man is unable to think rationally in “in the moment” situations. I feel bad for the Invisible Man at what happened in Chapter 6. His naïve attitude caused him to do something dumb, which causes him to be sent away. I feel that the director of the school was not very nice to the protagonist during that exchange. I feel that he was downright rude and bitter towards him, for just doing what he was asked to do. I do, however, feel that he deserved what he got. It doesn’t take that much wisdom to know not to chauffeur somebody to places like the Golden Day.

            My questions for you are twofold. My first question is, what did you think about the sermon, and how do you think that will tie in to the journey of our protagonist? My second question is, do you think the narrator deserved his fate at the college?

Ralph Ellison's Beginning

Jason Armer

Mrs. Disher

3/16/2016

LA Period 1

            In my opinion, stream-of-consciousness stories are great because of the unique way we get to see into the protagonist. As the story starts in the prologue, you see that the narrator feels very passionately about being called a racial slur. When you see him in the first couple of chapters, however, he seems very naïve to the situation. As the spectators jeer him on watching him make his speech, he seems oblivious to what is going on. In addition, during the boxing match, he is unable to put two and two together to figure out that the reason they are in this laughable predicament are because they are African-American. Having read this story before, and knowing what is going to happen, I am trying to focus more on the character development of the narrator. So far, there doesn’t seem to be anything overly special about him, so it seems interesting that he is the main character of the story. He seems overly naïve, and he doesn’t seem to understand the bigger picture of the situations he finds himself in. However, it does seem quite interesting that the people that allowed him to make the speech did give him the opportunity to go to college. One would think that people that hate the race that much would want a man of his race to be uneducated. My question for you is, what does Ralph Ellison say about society through the actions and reactions of the white people so far in the story? Ralph Ellison is clearly painting a picture of the shortcomings of society through everyone involved.