Invisible Man

The College Years (Chapters 1-6)

Part I: Answer the following questions regarding the Invisible Man’s college years (Chapters 1-6). (50 points)

  1. How does the Invisible Man characterize himself from the book’s Prologue? (15) List three (3) examples from his college experience that reinforce this characterization.(4 points)
  2. Create a visual that contrasts between the point of the grandfather’s words and the irony of his outward demeanor.(4 points)
  3. Why do the students and teachers at the college hate and fear Trueblood and the other "black belt" inhabitants?(2 points)
  4. In what ways is Booker T. Washington reflected in the Invisible Man’s college experience?(4 points)
  5. Ellison carefully lays out the geography of the state college for Negroes, with its whitewashed buildings, its black powerhouse, the barren road leading to the insane asylum, and the nearby shanties of the "black belt." How does this map symbolize the idealistic vision of the school and the hard realities of black life that the school's philosophy attempts to deny?(6 points)
  6. Re-read Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden”. In what ways is Mr. Norton "a bearer of the white man's burden," a "symbol of the Great Traditions" (37)?List two instances where he personifies the paternalistic ethos, for better and for worse?(8 points)
  7. How is the gift of the calfskin briefcase indicative of the oxymoron of the book (33)? Hint: symbolism of the gift.(3 points)
  8. In what way was the battle royal a learning experience for the Invisible Man? What blinded him? Create a chart listing at least three (3) other times when he was blind during his college experience. (8 points)
  9. In The Souls of Black Folk (1905), W.E.B. DuBois theorized that the black American has two selves. Listthree (3) examples from the text where Dr. Bledsoe exemplifies that principle.(3 points)
  10. How strong is the connection between the Invisible Man’s identity and his college experience? Exactly how did he idolize Bledsoe? How did Bledsoe disappoint him, thus rendering him invisible?(8 points)

Part II: Investigate the following allusions used in the section, and explain the author’s use of the allusion. (2 points each)= 12 points.

Invisible Man

Horatio Alger

Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Banneker

John D. Rockefeller

“Live a Humble”

Psalms 61:2 and 68:13