Invisible Man

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

BIG IDEA: Identity and Invisibility

ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS

 The narrator’s perception of invisibility changes from the beginning of the novel to the end.
 Different characters represent different ideological struggles that the narrator faces in developing his identity.
 Ralph Ellison uses symbolism, juxtaposition, asyndeton, polysyndeton, syntax, and alliteration to develop the jazz motif in Invisible Man.
 Ralph Ellison draws on ideologies of jazz to develop key ideas about liberation, improvisation, freedom and mobility.
 Developing strong inquiry questions makes researching a topic more efficient and focused.
 The medium (e.g. podcast vs. written paper) affects the details and information a writer chooses to present in order to effectively explain a topic.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
These questions are discussed throughout the unit and ultimately provide a preliminary set of inquiry questions needed to gather information and complete the Performance Task.
 How does the narrator’s notion of invisibility relate to his search for identity?
 Is invisibility empowering or disempowering?
 How do the ideologies of jazz support Ellison’s discussion of identity in Invisible Man?
 How does conducting research deepen an understanding of a topic?
 How do different mediums, such as a podcast or a written essay, provide different opportunities and challenges for organizing ideas to explain a topic?

Literary Elements and Devices
motif,juxtaposition,asyndeton,polysyndeton,syntax,structure,alliteration,symbolism,metaphor,realism surrealism

Elements of Jazz: accent,staccato,syncopation,improvisation (ad lib),arrhythmic,blue notes,chase,inner and outer voice

  1. Words that describe a character and character traits: Invisible Man*,fastidious (pg. 25),dispossessed (pg. 278),indignant (pg. 293),brooding (pg. 296),automaton (pg. 95)
  2. Words that describe actions and motions: insolently (pg. 4),staccato (pg. 237),moiling (pg. 107),diminuendo (pg. 127),nonchalance (pg. 286),lethargically (pg. 287),arpeggios (pg. 303),ebbing (pg. 313)
  3. Words that describe emotions and attitudes: anguish (pg. 4),hysteria (pg. 14),nostalgia (pg. 262),fervor (pg. 30),wary (pg. 270),confounding (pg. 273),malicious (pg. 286),contempt

Summative Assessment:

By the end of this unit, students will engage in a Performance Based Assessment (PBA) to demonstrate their understanding of the skills and content addressed in this unit. For this PBA, students will produce two documents of publishable quality:

  1. an informative essay that explains how Ellison develops the theme of invisibility through jazz music, and
  2. a 5-10 minute podcast that turns the content of the paper into a presentation about how jazz music is used as a motif in the novel (http://www.wikihow.com/Record-a-Podcast-with-Audacity.)

To complete this PBA, students must first learn about the development of jazz in America and its connection to certain ideologies about identity and liberation, identify the elements that set this music genre apart from others, and then dissect how Ellison recreates those musical elements in written form in order to develop his theme of invisibility.

CCS

RL.11-12.1. Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain. (PBA, Formative 1)
RL.11-12.2. Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text. (PBA)
RL.11-12.3. Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed). (PBA, Formative 2)
RL.11-12.4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (PBA)

W.11-12.2. Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. (PBA, formative 1, 2)
W.11-12.4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

SL.11-12.1. Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

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Lesson 1: Introduction Prologue

Objectives: Students will be able to explore the role that music plays in the opening of Invisible Man.

Resource: an art that shows the “home” the narrator lives in

Do now: In what situation did you ever feel invisible? How did you feel about being “invisible”?

Mini Lesson:

Introduction:

Part I: Video introduction to Ralph Ellison: https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/amast/?topic_id=2109#.WRSZA1UrI1I

Part II: How did jazz influence Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man?
http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/jazz/home/

  • “How does the narrator define “invisibility”?”
  • How is a traditional narrative structured?
  • How does the Prologue challenge this traditional structure?
  • Close reading analysis: “What Did I Do, To Be So Black and Blue” by Louis Armstrong*
  • What themes emerge in Ellison’s “Battle Royale?” Close Reading Analysis: The Battle Royale (Ch. 1) *

Guiding Questions:

  • What role does this song play in the Prologue of the text?
  • What is the “new analytical way of listening to music” the narrator describes on page 8?

Track how jazz music developed over the course of the early 1900s. Ken Burns “Jazz” Episode 1 (available on Amazon & Netflix)

Student Independent Practice: Research the following elements about Jazz:

  1. Elements of jazz music
  2.  Development of jazz in America
  3.  Ideologies within jazz culture
  4.  Important jazz musicians and songs prior to 1952
  5.  Inquiry questions
  6.  Phases of research
  7.  Literary elements and devices that mirror jazz elements and devices

Lesson 2

5/15/2017

Objectives: Students will be able to analyze the important details and motifs in the Prologue and Chapter 1.

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1
    Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2
    Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3
    Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

Differentiation:

    • Students select details from various texts based on their individual reading experience and understanding of the text.
    • They are also given various options to respond to the task depending on their personal level of challenges or strengths.
    • Students can raise their own questions to probe into the implied meaning of the poem.
    • video clips and articles

Grouping Rationale: Students will be grouped based on personal choice with consideration of individual learning needs, styles, talents and personality to maximize their productivity. In each group, all participants are contributors; but they will take turns to be a timer, facilitator, recorder, or presenter.

Do Now: Understanding motif chart in the packet: what’s the purpose of the chart? What information goes in the chart?

Mini Lesson

  1. Review the Study Guide at a glance in the packet: Select one item from each category to focus and put a question mark to terms that are unfamiliar to you.
  2. Review the notes on Prologue and Chapter 1 in the packet: Interpret and discuss “ Invisibility”

Independent Practice:

After reading the Prologue and Chapter 1, respond to the Chapter by Chapter questions posted in the packet.

Invisible Man: Prologue and Chapter One

  1. Explain how the narrator views history, as expressed in the Prologue.
  2. What does it mean to be a “thinker-tinker”?
  3. Explain the following quote: “Responsibility rests upon recognition and recognition is a form of agreement.”
  4. What is the grandfather’s curse and how is it ironic?
  5. Chapter One, originally published before the rest of the novel as a short story called “Battle Royal,” can be seen as both a rite of passage and as an initiation. Explain.
  6. Relate the following quote from Ellison’s essay, “Richard Wright’s Blues,” to the story told in Chapter One:

“The Blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of brutal experience alive in one’s aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy, but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism.”

Homework: Read chapter 2 and write a reading journal that demonstrates tour understanding as well as your reflection on the chapter.

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Lesson 3 About Ellison

5/23/2017

Objectives: Students will be able to analyze the change in the narrator by reading closely Chapter 1 & Chapter 2.

  • ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1
    Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
  • ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2
    Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
  • ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3
    Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

Differentiation:

  • Students select details from various texts based on their individual reading experience and understanding of the text.
  • They are also given various options to respond to the task depending on their personal level of challenges or strengths.
  • Students can raise their own questions to probe into the implied meaning of the poem.
  • video clips and articles

Grouping Rationale: Students will be grouped based on personal choice with consideration of individual learning needs, styles, talents and personality to maximize their productivity. In each group, all participants are contributors; but they will take turns to be a timer, facilitator, recorder, or presenter.

Agenda

Do Now:

Relate the following quote from Ellison’s essay, “Richard Wright’s Blues,” to the story told in Chapter One:

“The Blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of brutal experience alive in one’s aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy, but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism.”

Mini Lesson:

  • Review the notes on chapter 1 & chapter 2 in the packet.
  • Analyze the passage on page 23 beginning with “ Everyone fought hysterically” to “ …the blood spattering upon my chest”.
    • How does the author use pacing to mimic the rhythm of boxing?
    • How does he use punctuations?
    • How is his language so vivid?
    • How does he create rhythm in this passage?

Student Independent Practice

Pick a motif from the motif chart from chapters 1 & 2 and flesh them out. Find a textual evidence that illuminates the motif(s).

Homework: Read chapter 4 and record your response in a reading journal.

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Lesson 4

Chapters 3 & 4

Objectives: Students will be able to analyze the change in the narrator by reading closely Chapter 3 & Chapter 4.

  • ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1
    Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
  • ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2
    Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
  • ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.3
    Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

Differentiation:

  • Students select details from various texts based on their individual reading experience and understanding of the text.
  • They are also given various options to respond to the task depending on their personal level of challenges or strengths.
  • Students can raise their own questions to probe into the implied meaning of the poem.
  • video clips and articles

Grouping Rationale: Students will be grouped based on personal choice with consideration of individual learning needs, styles, talents and personality to maximize their productivity. In each group, all participants are contributors; but they will take turns to be a timer, facilitator, recorder, or presenter.

Agenda

Do Now: From the motif chart, select one motif either from chapter 3 or 4, go to the chapter and identify the textual evidence that shed light on the motif. Share in small group.

Mini Lesson: Theme and Style

  • Review class notes on chapters 3 and 4.
  • Discuss the style of the following passages-

Model:

Sample:  The following sentence from page 71 is graphed below.  Note that there are alternative ways to graph this same sentence.

“Up ahead I saw the one who thought he was a drum major strutting in front, giving orders as he moved energetically in long, hip-swinging strides, a cane held above his head, rising and falling as though in time to music.”

            Up ahead

      I saw the one

            who thought he was a drum majoR

                   strutting in front,  

                   giving orders

                             as he moved energetically

                                      in long, hip-swinging strides,  

                   a cane held above his head,  

                             rising and falling  

                                      as though in time to music.  

  •  Passage 1: It was a beautiful college . . . where the road turned off to the insane asylum. (Page 34)
  • Passage Two:  I always come this far and open my eyes . . . but recall only the drunken laughter of sad, sad whores. (Page 35)
  • Passage Three:  His voice was mellow and with more meaning than I could fathom . . . with the rich man reminiscing on the rear seat. (Page 39)

 

Independent Practice:

Read out loud chapter 3 & 4.

  1. Share your critical summary of chapter 3 with a partner. Did you notice the difference between your summaries? Why?
  2. Identify one quotation fro chapter 3 that you want to discuss with your partner. Why does it stand out to you?

Identify themes implied in the following passages:

Models:

  1. “There is something unusual in the way that the patients have been completely abandoned by their attendant. Their freedom in the Golden Day is a sign of society’s neglect, as well as an indication of the men’s power when left to their own devices.”

Themes: racism, dream, unconsciousness

2.” All of the speech of the patients has an element of truth to it, a reflection of the old idea that men who seem crazy often have insightful things to say in a fundamentally crazy society. Mr. Norton is indeed like Thomas Jefferson, a noble “founder” who conceals his injustice and sexual desire (just as Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, kept and slept with his slaves).”

Theme: racism, dream, unconsciousness, identity and invisibility

Student Practice:

  1. Mr. Norton has been brought to a bar that could not be farther away from his idea of the black community. The speeches of the mental patients confirm how much of the world lies outside of Mr. Norton’s “destiny.”
  2. Supercargo only briefly appears before he is attacked, and it is clear that he is not able to control the unbridled energy of all of his patients. Free of any pretensions, the patients seek to destroy the man who controls them.( Power, self-interest, disillusionment)
  3. The patients’ beating of Supercargo has elements of the feeling of overthrowing any oppressor, and the narrator feels the patients’ excitement immediately. The energies of the disenfranchised young men will no longer be kept in check.
  4. In the heat of the overthrow, there are still mental patients who are sane enough to warn the narrator to leave—not everything is as it seems. As the narrator comes into close proximity with Mr. Norton, it seems to break another taboo of normal race relations. The ex-doctor reminds the narrator of the falsity of this idea: Mr. Norton’s whiteness doesn’t make him untouchable.
  5. The ex-doctor is another example of a skilled professional who has been marginalized due to his skin color and his experience in the war. As the girls talk about Mr. Norton’s sex life, they also emphasize the strange mythology of sex in race relations.
  6. The ex-doctor is a patient among the rowdy members of the Golden Day, but he is also a unique individual with both a history and fully formed thoughts. He is as skilled as any white physician, a fact that surprises Mr. Norton.

Chapter 4:

Pick a theme to match the scene summary-

Power/Self Interest, race/racism, identity/invisibility, ambition/disillusionment

  1. The college only seemed perfectly beautiful to the narrator as long as it was the scene of his advancement. Facing expulsion, it seems far more threatening. The narrator apologizes to Mr. Norton in order to claim that he isn’t part of the culture Mr. Norton saw through the day.
  2. After the day’s long detour, the narrator is far more worried by Mr. Norton’s displeasure than he is by the genuinely disturbing things that he has seen. He tries to blame Trueblood instead of himself, though he is the only one with something to lose.
  3. Dr. Bledsoe’s cynical words shock the narrator, who has taken everything he has learned at college so far at face value. It was unthinkable to the narrator that he might have influenced Mr. Norton or guided him to stay away from Trueblood—to do anything but do as Norton asked. The narrator can no longer assume that Dr. Bledsoe’s message represents simply humbleness and cooperation with whites.
  4. Dr. Bledsoe’s behavior in front of Mr. Norton is a sharp contrast with his earlier anger at the narrator. It is clear that Bledsoe presents one face to white men and another to his black students. Mr. Norton says that he will explain, but it is doubtful that he has really understood the day’s experience.
  5. For the narrator, the girl’s message is a painful reminder of the rhythms of college life. The narrator realizes that he will no longer to be able to stay within the college’s atmosphere of innocence.
  6. The narrator’s roommate is another example of the familiar, comfortable environment that the narrator will soon be leaving.
  7. The narrator is temporarily relieved by Mr. Norton’s assurance. However, the narrator forgets the way in which Dr. Bledsoe easily disregarded Mr. Norton’s desires when they spoke earlier. The narrator still believes completely in the wisdom of Dr. Bledsoe.

Homework: Read chapter 5 and record your understanding in a reading log.

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http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/20/specials/ellison-lives.html

https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/amast/?topic_id=2109#.WRJhFNLytPZ

https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/aml15.ela.lit.invisible-man/invisible-man-plot-summary/#.WRJgmNLytPY

For discussion

1. What makes Ellison’s narrator invisible? What is the relationship between his invisibility and other people’s blindness—both involuntary and willful? Is the protagonist’s invisibility due solely to his skin color? Is it only the novel’s white characters who refuse to see him?

2. One drawback of invisibility is that “you ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world” [p. 4]. How does the narrator try to prove that he exists? Does this sentence provide a clue to the behavior of other characters in the book?

3. What are the narrator’s dreams and goals? How are these variously fulfilled or thwarted in the course of the book?

4. Is the reader meant to identify with the narrator? To sympathize with him? How do you think Ellison himself sees his protagonist?

5. What is the significance of the grandfather’s deathbed speech [p.16]? Whom or what has he betrayed? What other characters in this book resort to the same strategy of smiling betrayal?

6. Throughout the novel the narrator gives speeches, or tries to give them, to audiences both black and white, at venues that range from a whites-only “smoker” to the funeral of a black street vendor murdered by the police. What role does oratory—and, more broadly, the spoken word—play in Invisible Man?

7. The “battle royal” sequence portrays black men fighting each other for the entertainment of whites. Does Ellison ever portray similar combats between blacks and whites? To what end?

8. Throughout the book the narrator encounters a number of white benefactors, including a millionaire college trustee, an amiable playboy, and the professional agitator Brother Jack. What does the outcome of these relationships suggest about the possibility of friendship or cooperation between the races?

9. What black men does the protagonist choose as mentors or role models? Do they prove to be any more trustworthy than his white “benefactors”? What about those figures whose authority and advice the narrator rejects—for example, the vet in The Golden Day and the separatist Ras the Exhorter? What characters in Invisible Man, if any, represent sources of moral authority and stability?

10. What cultural tendencies or phenomena does Ellison hold up for satire in this novel? For example, what were the real-life models for the Founder, the Brotherhood, and Ras the Exhorter? How does the author convey the failures and shortcomings of these people and movements?

11. Why might Tod Clifton have left the Brotherhood to peddle demeaning dancing Sambo dolls? What does the narrator mean when he says: “It was as though he [Clifton] had chosen…to fall outside of history”? How would you describe Ellison’s vision of history and the role that African-Americans play within it?

12. Invisible Man may be said to exemplify the paranoid style of American literature. How does Ellison establish an atmosphere of paranoia in his novel, as though the reader, along with the narrator, “had waded out into a shallow pool only to have the bottom drop out and the water close over my head” [p.432]? Why is this style particularly appropriate to Ellison’s subject matter?

13. Where in Invisible Man does Ellison—who was trained as a musician—use language to musical effect? (For example, compare the description of the college campus on pages 34-7 to Trueblood’s confession on 51-68, to the chapel scene on 110-135, and Tod Clifton’s funeral on 450-461.) What different sorts of language does Ellison employ in these and other passages? How does the “music” of these sections—their rhythm, assonance, and alliteration—heighten their meaning or play against it?

14. More than forty years after it was first published, Invisible Man is still one of the most widely read and widely taught books in the African-American literary canon. Why do you think this is so? How true is this novel to the lives of black Americans in the 1990s?

15. In spite of its vast success (or perhaps because of it), Ellison’s novel—and the author himself—were fiercely criticized in some circles for being insufficiently “Afrocentric.” Do you think this is true? Do you think Ellison made artistic compromises in order to make Invisible Man accessible to white readers?