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
15.
Based on the passage, Ellison's ███████ █████ ████ ██████ ████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████████ ███ ██ ██ ███
a
created a positive ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████
This is supported by the first criticism. Critics didn’t like how Invisible Man wasn’t directed toward political action demanded by the era’s social and political state of affairs. So critics probably would have liked Invisible Man more if it did help make the social/political state of affairs better.
b
provided a historical ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ █████████
Not supported, because the failure to document the troubles experienced by African Americans isn’t one of the things the critics criticize.
c
contained a tribute ██ ███ █████████ █████████████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████████████
Not supported, because the failure to acknowledge the political contributions of other African Americans isn’t one of the things the critics criticize. The critics wanted the book to spur people to political action to correct the injustices of the time. This is unrelated to providing a tribute to the contributions people made before the book was published.
d
prompted a necessary ███ ███████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██████████ ████ ████████ ████████ █████
Not supported, because although the critics wanted the development of an African-American novelistic style, this doesn’t imply they believed American literature (as opposed to African-American literature) needed to be separated from European literary styles. It’s not even clear that “necessary” applies here — they may have wanted Ellison to use European styles less, but this doesn’t imply they think that American literature “needs” to use European styles less. There’s a difference between thinking something should be done less and that something “needs” to be done less.
e
generated a large ████████ ████ ██ ██ ███████████ ████ ████ ████████ ███████████
Not supported, because the critics never criticize Ellison for failure to generate a large, diverse audience.