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Ralph Ellison




Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

Prejudice

Themes

Courage is a central theme in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee presents and contrasts two types of courage namely:

1. Real Courage - continuing with what you are doing even though you are fighting a losing battle, the most prominent example being Atticus Finch's decision to fight for Tom Robinson even though he will lose. Another example is Ms. Dubose's battle with her morphine addiction.

2. Fighting against ignorance and prejudice. The understanding of others is sometimes not enough; an act of bravery is demanded to try and prevent evil taking place and to subdue prejudice.

Another major theme is the destruction of beauty through selfishness, or circumstances beyond one's control. The title itself is derived from Atticus' warning to Jem that it is a sin to shoot mockingbirds, as all they do is create beauty.

Prejudice is another prominent theme in To Kill a Mockingbird. The most obvious one is racial prejudice. In chapter five; the mob wishes to prevent Tom Robinson getting a trial. Another form of prejudice is class prejudice. This is shown when Aunt Alexandra refuses Scouts request to invite the son of the farmer Cunningham saying "he is white trash".

The book was made into the well-received and Academy Award-winning film with the same title, To Kill a Mockingbird, in 1962.

This book has also been adapted as a play by Christopher Sergal.

Ralph Ellison (1913 –1994) was a scholar and writer. He was born Ralph Waldo Ellison in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, named by his father after Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ellison was best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953. He also wrote Shadow and Act (1964), a collection of political, social and critical essays, and Going to the Territory (1986). Research by Lawrence Jackson, Ellison's biographer, has established that he was born a year earlier than had been previously thought.

Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison, developed from a short story that formed the novel's initial "Battle Royal" chapter. It was Ellison's only novel to be published during his lifetime, and it won him the National Book Award in 1953. It addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing the post-civil-war American Black identity, including the relationship between this identity and Marxism, black nationalism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington.

Invisible Man is narrated in the first person by the protagonist, an unnamed African American man who considers himself socially invisible. His character may have been inspired by Ellison's own life. The narrator may be conscious of his audience, writing as a way to make himself visible to mainstream culture; the book is structured as if it were the narrator's autobiography although it begins in the middle of his life.

In the Prologue, Ellison's narrator tells readers, “I live rent-free in a building rented strictly to whites, in a section of the basement that was shut off and forgotten during the nineteenth century.” In this secret place, the narrator creates surroundings that are symbolically illuminated with 1,369 lights. He says, “My hole is warm and full of light. Yes, full of light. I doubt if there is a brighter spot in all New York than this hole of mine, and I do not exclude Broadway." The protagonist explains that light is an intellectual necessity for him since "the truth is the light and light is the truth." From this underground perspective, the narrator attempts to make sense out of his life, experiences, and position in American society.

When published in 1952, Invisible Man excited a new way of looking at racial tensions within America, one that was unapologetic of its racial stand and unconvinced that racial equality was emerging. Ralph Ellison’s prolific novel left a lasting effect on society, as seen in its traces from the Harlem Renaissance to the follow-up Black Arts Movement. The Harlem Renaissance sought to uplift the black race by offering a substantial amount of greatness in art and literature to the masses of America. Its primary goal was achieving social acceptance in society by building black unity, one grounded in expertise of sophisticated arts and literature. Though Ralph Ellison is seen as a Harlem Renaissance writer by many, the themes from Invisible Man break away from the movement's major theme of social acceptance and hope for the future. Invisible Man suggests that any foreseeable solution to race relations may not be as near as the dream has provided. On the same note, Invisible Man cannot entirely be viewed as black arts movement literature as its ideas about race aren't as militant and extreme as those of the 1960s and 70s black arts movement. Because of this Invisible Man is often seen as a transition between the two.

In the beginning of the book, the narrator lives in a small Southern town. He is a model black student, and is named his high school's valedictorian. Having written and delivered a successful speech about the requirement of humility for the black man's progress, he is invited to give his speech before a group of important white men. However, he is first forced to fight a humiliating "battle royal" with other blacks. The "battle royal" consists of the young black men from the community fighting in a boxing style ring while their white superiors watch in enjoyment. After finally giving his speech, he receives a briefcase containing a scholarship to a black college that is clearly modeled on Tuskegee Institute.

During his junior year at the college, the narrator is required to give Mr. Norton, a rich white trustee, a tour of the grounds. He accidentally drives to the house of Jim Trueblood, a black man living on the college's outskirts who accidentally impregnated his daughter while sleeping. Trueblood, though disgraced by his fellow blacks, has been supported by whites who wish to hold him up as an example of black inferiority. Mr. Norton wants to hear Trueblood's story, as the man disproves everything Norton once believed about the relationship between whites and blacks, and this experience causes Norton to faint, prompting the Invisible Man to take him to a local tavern in a misguided search for aid. At the Golden Day tavern, Norton passes in and out of consciousness as black veterans suffering from mental delusions occupy the bar and a fight breaks out among them. One of the veterans claims to be a doctor and tends to Mr. Norton. The dazed and confused Mr. Norton is not fully aware of what’s going on, as the veteran doctor chastises the actions of the trustee and the young black college student. Through all the chaos, the narrator manages to get the recovered Mr. Norton back to the campus after a day of unusual events.

Upon returning to the school he is fearful of the reaction of the day's incidents from college president Dr. Bledsoe. At any rate, insight into Dr. Bledsoe's knowledge of the events and the narrator's future at the campus is somewhat prolonged as an important visitor arrives. The narrator views a sermon by the highly respected Reverend Homer A. Barbee. Barbee, who is blind, delivers a speech about the legacy of the college's founder, with such passion and resonance that he comes vividly alive to the narrator; his voice makes up for his blindness. The narrator is so inspired by the speech that he feels impassioned like never before to contribute to the college's legacy. However, all his dreams are shattered as a meeting with Bledsoe reveals his fate. Fearing that the college's funds will be jeopardized by the incidents that occurred, college president Dr. Bledsoe immediately expels the narrator. While the Invisible Man once aspired to be like Bledsoe, he realizes that the man has portrayed himself as a black stereotype in order to succeed in the white-dominated society. This serves as the first epiphany among many in the narrator realizing his invisibility. This epiphany is not yet complete when Bledsoe gives him several letters of recommendation to help him find work in the north. Upon arriving in New York, the narrator learns that these letters instruct various friends of the school to assist Dr. Bledsoe in keeping the narrator deceived about his chances at returning to school - that is, help employ him, keep him otherwise occupied and away from the university.

He eventually gets a job in the boiler room of a paint factory in a company renowned for its white paints (an obvious racial reference). The man in charge of the boiler room, Lucius Brockway, is extremely paranoid and thinks that the narrator has come to take his job. He is also extremely loyal to the company's owner, who once paid him a personal visit. When the narrator tells him about a union meeting he happened upon, Brockway is outraged, and attacks him. They fight, not realizing that the boilers are about to explode. Brockway escapes, but the narrator is hospitalized after the blast. While hospitalized, the narrator overhears doctors discussing him as a mental health patient (or as the book suggests, simply a lab rat for their experiments). He learns through their discussion that shock treatment has been performed on him.

After the shock treatments the narrator attempts to return to his residence when he feels overwhelmed by a certain dizziness and faints on the streets of Harlem. He is taken to the residence of a kind, old-fashioned woman by the name of Mary. Mary is down-to-earth and reminds the narrator of his relatives in the South and friends at the college. Mary somewhat serves as a mother figure for the narrator.

No longer able to work at the factory, the narrator wanders the streets of New York. Eventually, he comes across an elderly couple being evicted from their apartment and gives an impromptu speech rallying by passers to their cause. The onlookers, angry at the marshal in charge of the eviction, charge past him and start a riot. His otherwise powerful speech brings him to the attention of the Brotherhood, an equality-minded organization with obvious communist undertones. Their leader, Brother Jack, who witnessed the speech and the riot, recruits him and begins training him as an orator, with the intention of uniting New York's black community.

The narrator is at first happy to be making a difference in the world, "making history," in his new job. He gives several successful speeches and is soon promoted to head the Brotherhood's work in Harlem. While for the most part his rallies go smoothly, he soon encounters trouble from Ras the Exhorter, a fanatical black nationalist who believes that the Brotherhood is controlled by whites. Ras tells this to the narrator and Tod Clifton, a youth leader of the Brotherhood, neither of whom seem to be swayed by his words.

Soon the narrator's name is all over Harlem, and a magazine calls to interview him. Though he tries to convince them to interview Tod Clifton instead, they insist upon him. When the article comes out, one brother criticizes him for taking personal credit for the work, instead of emphasizing the whole of the Brotherhood. Though his work has been impeccable, the Brotherhood's ruling committee decides to take him out of Harlem and set him to work in a new part of town.

When he returns to Harlem, Tod Clifton has disappeared. When the narrator finds him, he realizes that Clifton has succumbed to Ras' point of view, and has quit the brotherhood in order to sell dancing Sambo dolls on the street, mocking the organization he once believed in. He is shot to death by a police officer in a scuffle. At Clifton's funeral, the narrator rallies crowds to win back his former widespread Harlem support and delivers a rousing speech, but he is censured by the Brotherhood for praising a man who would sell such dolls.

Walking along the street one day, the narrator is spotted by Ras and roughed up by his men. He buys sunglasses and a hat as a disguise, and is mistaken for a man named Rinehart in a number of different scenarios: first as a lover, then a hipster, a gambler, a briber, and at last a reverend. He sees that Rinehart has adapted to white society, at the cost of his own identity. This causes the narrator to see that his own identity is not of importance to the Brotherhood, but only his blackness. He decides to take his grandfather's dying advice and "yes" the Brotherhood to death, by making it appear that the Harlem membership is thriving when in reality it is crumbling.

The novel ends with a massive Harlem race riot, fueled by anger over Clifton's death and the tension between the Brotherhood and the followers of Ras. Riding a horse in full tribal regalia, Ras orders the narrator hanged and throws a spear at him. The narrator hurls the spear back, piercing Ras' cheek. He now realizes that even in trying to subvert the Brotherhood, he has only aided its white-controlled interests in helping to start a race riot that will generate sympathy and propaganda for the organization. Blinded by his epiphany, the narrator runs away, and is soon accosted by a group of men for his briefcase. He once again flees and the narrator falls down a manhole, where he is taunted by his pursuers. Rather than try to escape, he decides to make a new life for himself underground, invisible. As mentioned at the beginning of the story, he taps an electric wire running into the building so he can power his collection of 1,369 bulbs in the basement, hidden from the power company. His theft of power from a white-controlled company, and new rent-free residence under a white-only building, are symbols of his invisible rebellion against white society.




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