Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison was written in 1952. I started reading this book because my English teacher strongly recommended it to me.This book is really giving me new perspectives on race in America. Starting in the very first chapter there is so much racism. The narrator who is never named is a very scholarly school and is invited to read a speech in front of distinguished white men in the community. Before he reads his speech he is put in a boxing ring with a blindfold on and told to fight other brothers. The other boys leave the ring after awhile so the narrator is left alone in the ring with a massive man to duke it out for the prize money. After several minutes of fighting they are told to stop and their money is on a rug on the ground. This rug was electrified and when they tried grabbing the money...well you can imagine what happened.
Reading all of this shocked me. Not just because of the brutality and specific details of this ordeal but I knew that this happened all over the south and not just once but several times I'm sure.
Later in the novel he is in college and has a job as a driver. One day he is driving a trustee of the school, an older white rich man. This drive changed both of their lives forever. Mr. Norton the trustee told him to just drive and so he obeyed. The narrator took him through the slums of the town where the blacks lived and they stopped and talked to a man who had impregnated his daughter. Not a very joyous scene and this put Mr. Norton in shock! Then the narrator drove him to a bar to get some whiskey to stimulate him but he had to bring him into the bar and there were prostitutes and drunkenness and all sorts of things that an elderly white male from the north did not want to see. All of this was too much for Mr. Norton and he was left the school immediately that night. The next morning the Narrator was expelled and sent to New York. New York has been a disappointment to the Narrator but he has not given up hope. The Narrator just got a job at a paint factory and then promptly fired. And that is chapters 1-10. I recommend this book to anyone because has really given me new insights on racism in America. Thats another King Klamm blog done!
It is pretty horrifying what they did to Blacks down south. I feel like this book touches on every single thing that a poor young black man has to go through during life. Even now its pretty hard for black to get high paying jobs without being a super athlete. I think taking the Trustee to the "ghetto" was a great idea. Show someone who has everything he wanted in life how hard many black had to live just to survive. I also would recommend this book to anyone who just doesn't know about the hidden racism in America.
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