1. Warming up by collecting objects from the Prologue and Chapter 1
- Skim through the Prologue and Chapter 1 and make a quick list of important objects.
- Jot down (or highlight) an intriguing quotation to describe each one.
- With a partner, try to find connections between the objects...what do they have in common? Can you find any connections between these objects and the stereotypes from Ethnic Notions?
2. Enjoying our first Socratic seminar of 2019: The Prologue and Chapter 1 of Invisible Man
3. Wrapping up with kudos, epiphanies, and lingering questions
HW:
1. For MONDAY (not Tuesday): Please read Chapter 2 and prepare a Socratic ticket.
2. ONGOING: Peruse Academic Vocabulary, Unit 1; we will have our first assessment next Wednesday.
Are the electric rug and the stripper historically relevant?
ReplyDeleteRug and woman reinforce the stereotypes that the audience believes (exposed, dancing)
The Woman
Why does the narrator feels drawn in and threatened by the woman?
Men are expected to both desire the woman and ignore her
Time
Book published in 1952
Grandfather lives during the reconstruction
Louis armstrong song “Black and Blue” came out in 1929
Chapter 1 takes place during the 1930s-ish
The Color Blue
Page 14, page 12, page 22
Are blue and black the same?
Blue= emotion, bruises
Why is “Black and Blue” alluded to?
The young narrator feels a need to fit in
Louis Armstrong met white entertainment standards even in his protest
“I’m white inside”, “My only sin is my skin”, the narrator feel a lack of personal identity
How much is our identity shaped by those around us?
Italics in the Prologue
The narrator smokes weed and enters a period of transcendence
Is he dreaming?
Why is the creation story told with missing parts?
Music
Recurring theme
Music is described in words that are traditionally used to describe visible things
Book as a whole is structured on the basis of a jazz song- repetitive scenes with slight variations
The Battle Royale: Blindfold
Comparison to Oedipus- the narrator is blindfolded as opposed to blinding himself
He is eventually able to see through his blindness and succeed
Relationship between the boys’ blindness and the audiences blindness
Made of white cloth- using whiteness to cover up black eyes
Lack of understanding led to inability to succeed
Metaphor for the reconstruction- forced to live in a “white way”
Loss of physical sight leads to loss of perspective/morals/identity
Invisibility
Invisibility frees the narrator to make his own choices
Narrator copies Booker T Washington speech about slow progress towards social equality