Term Paper on "Ralph Ellison Invisible Man"

Term Paper 5 pages (1450 words) Sources: 4 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Invisible Man

Musically-Inspired or Inflected Narration, Description, Motif Use and Structural Arrangement within Invisible Man (1953) by Ralph Ellison

Ralph Ellison, the African-American musician-turned-author, and best-known of his first novel Invisible Man published initially in 1953, was classically trained in musical composition at the Tuskegee Institute. Still, Ralph Ellison is much better-known, and remembered almost entirely today for his groundbreaking first novel. Within this work, whose storylines are, arguably at least, as beautifully; intricately, and complicatedly-yet-invisibly [double-meaning intended] blended as might perhaps be the instrumental/melodic mix within a deftly and delicately-composed symphony (see Heise, 2003).

Within Invisible Man (1994), a young, black, nameless (the author's lack of name for his novel's main character underscores his 'invisibility') ex-college senior is seen coming-of-age (uneasily, unevenly); after being transplanted, due not to his wishes but because he suspended (expelled, it turns out) from college. Arriving in the Harlem of Ellison's mid-1930's/early 1940's setting, the young man at first savors his new freedom, as described in sensual detail, to go where he wants; eat how much he pleases, and be himself (he thinks).

But in almost no time he starts to realize, taking his first of a series of increasingly hard and ever-surprising knocks Harlem itself gives him. Successive, escalating blows to his current non-initiated self-hood begin when he learns from a prospective boss's son who, taking what pity he can, informs him that the supposedly glowing recommendations he carries actually say not to hire him. In 1952, Saul Bellow stated, of Ellison's then-new Invisible Man, that this novel describes, uniquely:

the vast mass of phenomena, the seething, swarming body of appearances, facts, and details. From this harassment and threatened dissolution by details, writer tries to rescue what is important. Even when he is most bitter, he makes by his tone a declaration of values and he says, in effect: There is something nevertheless that a man may hope to be. This tone [is]... The tone of the very strongest sort of creative intelligence... [I]n a time modern imaginative writers make the... quest is for... middle-of-consciousness for everyone. What language is it... we...speak... The stature we can... claim the main address of consciousness? ("Man Underground")

Ellison's hero's prospects improve when the same boss's son points him toward a first job. But the first day at this new, physically demanding work, the barely-ex-college senior is knocked unconscious and wakes up in a hospital bed, imaginary musical sounds and peculiar accompanying images seeming to pipe their way through IV tubes at some point stuck inside him: "I saw a military band arrayed decorously in concert, each musician with well-oiled hair, heard a sweet-voiced trumpet rendering "The Holy City" as from an echoing distance, buoyed by a choir of muted horns; and above the mocking obligato of a mocking bird. (p. 230).

The latter is hardly the whistling (or other sound) of a happy tune. From here, moreover, heavier counterpoints to all he anticipates and first hopes to experience appear, fade, and then revisit him. This is his funhouse-like coming-of-age - off-kilter, out of sequence, off-key: all confounding but real.

It is the asynchronous; discordant sotto voce of Harlem. But now, half-waking, alone and confused; to anesthesia-induced sound-images, Ellison's protagonist resolves to re-start his progress toward... he knows not what anymore. This portion of Invisible Man especially is the first to suggest the extensiveness or influence on his later fiction of Ellison's musical background: descriptively; structurally, in imagistic ways, and atmospherically at once. More overt references to musical instruments, song lyrics, classical compositions, and jazz and blues performers will from here on also appear within and throughout the story (see Heise, 2003)

In ways like these, then, musical sounds; references, and motifs, implicit or explicit, underscore continually the nameless Invisible Man's actions, emotions, plans, and at times crazily-shifting moods. This is how Invisible Man seems to possess an intricate, tightly woven but always surprising (e.g., pretty melody followed by cacophony followed by a shrieking falsetto pitch; and then by percussion punctuation (running from place to place; being let down (emotionally and/or physically); dropping finally beneath the earth) (Heise, 2003).

Such varied sounds juxtaposed against intervals of silence could be compared to orchestra pieces. i.e., for instance, a lengthy but straightforward overture or prelude; succeeded by livelier, more dense and deep yet mainly sad-sounding, slowed-down movements that, in staccato notes; pauses, and trebling… READ MORE

How to Reference "Ralph Ellison Invisible Man" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

Invisible Man Term Paper

Invisible Man

RAPLH ELLISON- INVISIBLE MAN

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man (1952) is a genuine commentary on the psyche of black minority that finds itself in the midst of a cultural… read more

Term Paper 7 pages (1784 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison and Racism Term Paper

Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison & Racism

The first chapter of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is set in a segregated town, where the hero, a young unnamed black man, graduates… read more

Term Paper 2 pages (613 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man Essay

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man As Bildungsroman

Ralph Ellison's novel, Invisible Man, demonstrates the characteristics a "coming of age" story through the narrator's attempt to discover who he is in a… read more

Essay 3 pages (948 words) Sources: 3 Style: MLA Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

In Search for Identity Term Paper

Ellison's Invisible Man

The classic American novel, Invisible Man is a demonstrative example of the power of black American literature to transform the ideas of the separation of the outward… read more

Term Paper 8 pages (2272 words) Sources: 2 Style: MLA Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Book Battle Royal From Ralph Ellison Book Review

RALPH ELLISON'S BATTLE ROYALE

Ralph Ellison's Battle Royal (1952) is a story about mid-20th century racism and the initiation of his protagonist whose experiences in connection with his involvement in… read more

Book Review 2 pages (626 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>