Self-study
P1
Published in 1952, Invisible Man featured a protagonist whose activities enabled the novel's author, Ralph Ellison, to explore and to blend themes specifically tied to the history and plight of African Americans with themes, also explored by many European writers with whose works Ellison was familiar, about the fractured, evanescent quality of individual identity and character. ███
Intro topic ·
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
Novel blended themes tied to African American experience with themes about individual identity, which were explored by European writers.
Other people's perspective ·
Two related criticisms of Invisible Man
It wasn't political enough, and didn't contribute to a distinct African American style.
P2
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Ellison's response ·
The two criticisms make unwarranted assumptions
They assume that some historical circumstances require cultural segregation in the arts, that artists can't see world in unique ways, and that readers can only see the world from their own perspectives.
P3
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Perspective ·
Jazz music is a better model for understanding Invisible Man
Jazz musicians can play music influenced by Europe, but that explore African American themes.
P4
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Additional benefit of jazz model ·
Individual's relationship to community
Jazz solos involve individualistic playing rooted in broader context of the band. That relationship is like the one between Invisible Man's protagonist and the wider context of community.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Spotlight
17.
The primary purpose of the █████ █████████ ██ ██
a
summarize the thematic ████████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██████ ███ ██████████
P3 doesn’t summarize Ellison’s concerns in relation to other novelists’ concerns. We don’t get any comparison of Ellison to other novelists.
b
affirm the importance ██ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████
P3 isn’t directed toward affirming the importance of jazz and novels. Rather, the author brings up jazz as a way of understanding Ellison’s novel. But the underlying point of P3 isn’t to show that both jazz and novels are important.
c
identify the source ██ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████
The author never suggests that the source of Ellison’s themes is jazz. Rather, the author points out that the way jazz incorporates European influences is similar to the way Ellison does in Invisible Man. But we have no idea whether Ellison actually had jazz in mind when he thought about the concerns underlying Invisible Man. The fact that Ellison loved and celebrated jazz does not imply that jazz was the source of his thematic concerns.
d
celebrate one artistic ██████████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ ██ ██████ ████ ███████ ██████████
The purpose of P3 isn’t to “celebrate” jazz or novels. It’s to provide a way of understanding Invisible Man. In addition, although the author does note that Ellison loved and celebrated jazz, the rest of the paragraph doesn’t give us Ellison’s view of jazz. Rather, it gives us the author’s view of jazz and how it can be a model for understanding Ellison’s work.
e
introduce a context ██████ █████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ████ █████ ███████████
This is the best answer. The author provides jazz as as