Chapter 7
What do you make of the vet’s advice to the narrator?
Do you feel hopeful about the narrator or not?
Chapter 8
Is anything different for the narrator in New York?
On page 170, the narrator says he dreamed of his grandfather again. What would that foreshadow or imply?
Chapter 9
In this chapter the narrator has an interview with a Mr. Emerson.
What is your opinion of Emerson? What motivates him?
Has your opinion changed about any other characters?
What does Beldsoe’s letter remind you of? (It’s a neat resurrection of an earlier image….)
Is the narrator’s vengefulness justified?
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Chap.7: I really like the paralleliszm between the vet's first set of advice and what the narrator's grandfather said. Both of them talk about playing a game of sorts and fooling the white men by pretending. The vet's second set of advice is a bit harder to understand. He seems to be telling the narrator to look out for himself, rely on himself alone, be aware of what opportunities you can sieze, and, most importantly, leave the white men who meddle and wish to know much about the doings of the black race alone. Very good advice if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteChap.8: The dream about the grandfather foreshadows doom that is to come. :(
ReplyDeleteChap.9: Emerson seems to be a nervous and complex character. It seems that he wishes for the narrator to succeed and find a job that will help him. I believe he is motivated by his wish to see good done for the black race. He seems very honest in his attempts to help the narrator and it seems that he doesn't want the narrator to work for his father due to unknown reasons. I really love how Emerson tries to advise the narrator in the same way as the vet: look for things deeper than surface level, don't work for the "Nortons" (aka Emerson Sr.), recognize your freedom and take hold of it!
ReplyDeleteBreezyB has made some great points here. Anybody else got two cents?
ReplyDeleteWhen Emerson Jr "explains" things to the narrator like that, is that appropriate of him or condescending? Just a thought.
Chapter 7 Response:
ReplyDeleteI agree with BrezzyB (why is it that we know who these people are but we continue to refer to them with their handle names?). But yeah, the parallelism between the vet and the grandfather. I also find it ironic how the grandfather and the vet are the ones that are crazy because it seems as it they're the only ones that can actually see what is going on. Even the narrator looks down on the vet at first and tries to forget what his grandfather said, but I think that the narrator will take what they both advised him on later.
Chapter 8 Response:
ReplyDeleteIt seems like in New York every place the narrator goes he can not catch a break. He's always greeted by the same type of nice white girl with a smile but continually sent away with nothing. I think that every time he dreams of his grandfather a drastic change follows. (In agreement with Brooke)
Chapter 9 Response:
ReplyDeleteI like Emerson.
I think he's a cool cat.
Like Brooke said, he's like the vet (and I think also the Grandfather). What he says to the narrator are like the advice that the vet game him and I think that Emerson seems to know where he's going.
Bledsoe's letter makes me very irate. He talks about how he's going to give the narrator a second chance and then he goes and writes those letters basically assuring nobody will hire him. Grr..
Emerson seems to be a decent character. He seems like he wants help but so many characters have started off with those very intentions but have changed for the worse so I surious to if he will be the same type of character. The Bledsoe come back into the story with the letter that he sent to the narrator...what is his deal with pushing the narrator around like a rag doll? Odd... The vet and the Grandfather do seem to have similiar lotives and beliefs and Im hoping that they finally have a positive effect in the narrators life.
ReplyDeleteI like Emerson. However he does seem very unstable. I applaud him for trying to help the narrator with his honesty. It's rare in those times for whites to want blacks to succeed and I think that's what he really wanted.
ReplyDeleteChapter 7.
ReplyDeleteI think that the vets advice does the narrator some good. He tells him to look beneath the surface and see things for what they really are. The vet also tells him to play the game no matter what. This advice should fuel the narrator to succeed. He tries to warn him of the uglies and imperfections of NY. It's not as nice as he's heard and there's alot of things he should look out for.
Chapter 8.
There's alot of different things for the narrator in New York. He encounters tons of black people which is a surprise to him. He is anxious to get started with the letters so he delivers them but is upset after not receiving any replies.
Ch 7, Q2:
ReplyDeleteIt's not so much a question of hope for the narrator as other things. It is difficult to feel hopeful for him, in a way, because we already know from the prologue that he ends up as an elderly man still living in New York, spending his days stealing light and living in a basement. Instead of hope I think one just wants clarity for the narrator. We've come this far in the reading, and while it is obvious by the prologue that he doesn't achieve the dreams he originally held, it is essential that we clarify how the narrator wound up in the final predicament. What led to his doom? Obviously everything that has happened up to this point has played a role in it but what were the final straws to act as the determining factors?
Ch 8 Q1:
ReplyDeleteEverything is different in New York! It's the big apple and it's a hodge podge of everything out there in the rest of America to which the narrator has not yet been exposed. In Harlem it's as if the boy has had his eyes opened for the very first time and he doesn't know what, or who, to trust. As CDawg commented, the boy is greeted by white girls with smiling faces, but how is he supposed to take this? His whole life he's been instilled with the idea that this type of behavior is degrading toward him. He has been trained to scoff on that sort of treatment and now he finds himself questioning if it is genuine. He is so lost, and it is very reflective of his inner self because he is so lost within his own world and inner thoughts. It almost acts as a rite of passage: if the narrator can make it in Harlem and find his way by finding himself, he will become a man and really start to live, without feeling invisible.
Ch 9 Q1:
ReplyDeleteI really like Emerson. He may be a bit too skitzo-ish and a little too intense but overall he's a nice kid. As if all the minor metaphorical warnings and ominous details in the novel haven't been enough for the narrator, here is a man plainly saying "HEY! Look out for these people, they have power and opportunity for deception. They are not to be trusted." And still, the narrator is soooo hard headed and self inflicted he just can't see! Or rather he can, but just refuses to let himself. I understand he is distrusting of anyone, but I wonder if he is so confused because, while not trusting anyone else, he also doesn't trust himself? At times like this, when the narrator nearly creates his own self doom, it is easy to argue that he makes his ownself invisible!
Ch9 Q4
ReplyDeleteBledsoe's letter is just like the letter the narrator reads in his dream in Chapter One. Both letters tell the readers to keep him "running".
Ch9 Q3
ReplyDeleteMy opinion of the narrator really changes in this section. His comfortablitiy with going around begging these powerful white men is really disgusting to me. The narrator is too stubborn to recognize the truth about the letters and even when Emerson Jr. tells him the truth he has trouble believing Emerson. The narrator is so used to being a pawn is blind to reality.
Ch9 Q2
ReplyDeleteI think Emerson is a somewhat good guy. I think that he helps the narrator because he pities the narrator's position and feels guilty on being in on Bledsoe's lie. I think Emerson is motivated more by pity than compassion or the desire for equality.
Sammy Sosa points out that the narrator seems to end up in a position of flux, if not outright failure. But there is a sense in which he has learned something by the time he gets to the prologue; he has grown/developed into the light-stealing man, and therefore is something of a success....
ReplyDeleteChapter 7:
ReplyDeleteI think that the vet’s advice was very similar to what the narrator’s grandfather told him. Both said that he needed to keep his head down and look after himself instead of relying on others. The vet also said that people aren’t always who they seem, which is good advice considering that the narrator is too trusting of people.
Chapter 8:
ReplyDeleteNew York is like a whole new world in the eyes of the narrator. At first he thinks that he will have a chance at success because he sees so many bleack people fulfilling their dreams. But when he can’t find a job, reality sets in. The narrator realizes that living in the city might be harder than he thought.
Chapter 9:
ReplyDeleteI liked Mr. Emerson because he is one of the first characters to be up front with the narrator. Emerson seems genially interested in helping him. He’s honest and tells the narrator what he needs to hear….not what he wants to hear. It seems like the narrator is finally starting to see that not everyone is exactly who they seem to be. Maybe now he wont let others take advantage of him.
I agree with Heather. The fact that young Emerson is honest with the narrator makes me like him. He is the only one who takes the time to meet with the narrator and find out his story. Although the narrator gets upset with him, it is obvious that he does this because young Emerson is saying things that the narrator doesn't want to hear. Being in New York is a new world for the narrator and it's about time he gets a new perspective that's a bit more realistic about the world he's living in.
ReplyDeleteWell in Chapter 7, I must admit I was giving Dr. Bledsoe the benefit of the doubt. I knew he was a bad guy, but I was still hoping that he would at least help the narrator get a job after expelling him from school. I guess I should have been warned by the comments of Supercargo on the train and understood that they were meant to warn the narrator about how different New York would be. I guess I, like the narrator, was simply being too optimistic about the situation. I think that Dr. Bledsoe's letters however were just outrageous. I mean, would it have been so terrible to just cut the boy loose instead of providing him with the tools to never get a job? I guess having to find a job by his own means helps the narrator to develop his character and learn a valuable life lesson about people, especially those of his own race.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that the narrator's vengefulness is justified. I mean, hello, Dr. Bledsoe completlely ruined any chance he had of getting a job with seven, I repeat SEVEN firms, in New York. To me, that was simply uncalled for behavior. I mean, okay we get that Dr. Bledsoe is mad and doesn't want the narrator to come back to his school, but couldn't he have just expelled him like a normal school would? Although I agree that the narrator should be a little vengeful, I really don't think he should want to kill Dr. Bledsoe. Really I think Dr. Bledsoe has provided the narrator with the motivation he will need to be successful in New York. At this point he must rely solely on himself, not the letters of some man at some college.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that in these three chapters there were many symbols of invisibility. In Chapter 7 the vet tell the narrator to come out of the fog and that he [the narrator] is “hidden right out in the open” (p.153-154.) My favorite symbol is used in Chapter 8 when the narrator describes the Statue of Liberty being covered by fog (p.165) which symbolizes that the black man doesn’t really have any freedoms and even so they aren’t what they seem to be. In Chapter 9 Emerson tells the narrator that ambition can be blinding (p.184): ambition- Bledsoe, blindness- Barbee…. Then Emerson continues on to say that he must disillusion the narrator (p.187.) All of these help define the title of “Invisible Man.”
ReplyDeleteChapter 8: Now that he’s in Harlem the narrator sees what kind of “freedom” he can have. He’s astonished that he can touch a white woman on the train, that there is a black police officer, and that there is a riot of black men on the side walk and the white man doesn’t give a crap. Yet in the midst of all this the narrator passes all of his letters out without receiving any contact whatsoever from any of Bledsoe’s contacts….. So at what cost does freedom come?
ReplyDeleteChapter 9: (Okay first of all I think it’s funny that Neil’s first entry on here is hi.) I actually have to say that I’m scared for the narrator at the moment. He is so mad and torn up at the moment that he actually wants to kill Bledsoe now. Whether or not he does it (which I think he will) this idea of revenge is going to tear him up. He has always tried his best and hard work has got him to where he was before he was expelled. I think the expulsion, the letters, and now revenge are just the beginning of the narrator’s downfall and eventually his invisibility (which he will bring on himself.)
ReplyDeletech. 7:
ReplyDeleteI get the feeling that the vet isn't really suffering from PTSD like the other vets from the Golden Day were. They just stuck him there because he sees things for what they really are and is not afraid to point it out to anyone willing to listen. I really like his advice to the narrator before he gets off the bus although I don't think the narrator understood what the vet was trying to tell him. By "be your own father" he means to not rely so much on what other people advise you to do but to follow your instincts. And by "leave the Mr. Nortons alone" he meant to stay away from people who only want to help you if it will benefit themselves in some way because they don't really have your best interests in mind.
ch. 9:
ReplyDeleteI liked the Mr. Emerson (the son). I thought that he was scared of saying the wrong thing and offending the narrator so he stumbled on his words. But, he was actually trying to help the narrator. The narrator was kind of rude when he left and should have considered taking Emerson up on his offer of attending the party.
ch.9:
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why the "finality of his expulsion" from the school has to be kept from him. He would have to figure it out eventually. What if he got enough money to cover tuition costs and was able to return to the school? Bledsoe wouldn't have let him back in and the narrator would have been just as mad as before if that's what he was afraid of.
Also, Bledsoe seems a little melodramatic about the severity of the narrator's infraction. I can understand Bledsoe's motives for being mad and taking his character into consideration it makes sense that he would expell him. But he talks like the world will fall apart because of what the narrator did.
I feel slgihty hopeful for the narrator , but i thinkj that the letters that Bledsoe will end up heuting and not helping him. I think that he will pprobably find a job or something becasue people in the morth do not discriminate like people on the south do.
ReplyDeleteFirst sorry for the grammer errors in my last comment
ReplyDeleteYes their are many different things for the narrator in New York. In New York he can find a somewhat decent job that he would not be able to get in the south. Also while in NY the balcks and whites are not seperated so he can meet many different poeple.
Emerson seems like a really good guy that is trying to look out for the narrator. During the interview he is honest with the narrator and tells him what is in the "recomendation letters" that Bledsoe wrote for him. Also through Emerson telling him about the letters he realized that he will never be able to go back to school, and will have to find a new goal.
ReplyDeletesee!see! i said it wasnt good, and what was it? NOT GOOD. the letters were crap. crapola even! Emerson Jr. seems to be a good guy. hes trying to help and he definatly needs a hug after all that "daddy prison" thing. what i noticed (A+ for me) is that the first time he talked to Norton, Norton mentioned Ralf Waldo EMERSON who had a hand in the blacks destiny. this Emerson seems to be doin the same thing.
ReplyDeleteThe vet made a comment similar to that of grandpa and Bledsoe(i think the author did this on purpose) he said play the game but dont believe it. trick the whites into thinking they order you around. cool huh? he said to do it even if it lands you in a padded cell. it seems like that could be how the vet got where he is.
ReplyDeletei like the comments about the fog causing blindness and the one about fog w/ statue of liberty is a symbol of the lack of freedom he has. i was thinkin about those exotic birds and i think they have the same purpose b/c they are a great symbol of freedom but they are imprisoned in a cage. later the song about the robin is another bird restrained from freedom. is it bad that i want him to kill bledsoe...i would laugh a little...inside.
ReplyDeleteBledsoe really angers me. My prediction that his letter would be filled with hate and disapproval for the narrator was correct, but it was a lot meaner than I imagined. The narrator won't even be able to attend that college ever again, and Bledsoe didn't even inform him of that. That is so hateful. Bledsoe is so wrapped up in his own power and his own ambition that he is growing racist against his own kind. In many ways he is worse than the cruel white people that taunted the narrator at the Battle Royal. At least then openly insult him, plus those people were ignorant. It was natural for them to do so. Bledsoe goes behind his back and is ultimately rude to a student, while he is the leader of the college. His job is to encourage, forgive, and lead students in the right direction. Instead, Bledsoe keeps the narrator "running," which was mentioned in the letter in the narrator's dream in the first chapter. Both the letter in the first chapter and the letter in this chapter parallel, as Bledsoe do keep the narrator running. I already didn't like Bledsoe, but now I despise him. The narrator has every right to feel vengeance for him. I hope he ends up getting his revenge.
ReplyDeleteEmerson is a by strange man; at first I thought he was crazy. He is the first person to actually sit down and talk to the narrator, even though Bledsoe's letter said awful things. Emerson is kind to the narrator and respects him as if he were a white man. He keeps wanting to talk "normally" with the narrator, as if the two were friends. I'd imagine that Emerson doesn't have very many friends, so maybe he sees the narrator's misfortune as a way to earn a friend and someone to talk to by helping the narrator and earning his trust. Another reason he may want to help the narrator is because he is so miserable with his job. He mentions that his father is the real Mr. Emerson that Dr. Bledsoe wrote the letter to, so maybe Emerson's father is forcing him to work under him. Emerson says,"I'm still his prisoner. You have been freed." Emerson may be warning the narrator about his father and the job he wanted to take. Emerson is implying that his father is like all the white men, and even like Dr. Bledsoe, cruel and selfish. Emerson knows his father won't give the narrator the time of day because he's black and because he has an awful recommendation letter. He even tells the narrator that, which goes to show that he really is his friend and is looking out for him. This is the first type of character like that to be mentioned in the novel thus far. That quote is also ironic because the narrator is the black person, who isn't really freed due to his race, but is freed because he is saved from working for the awful white bosses. It is ironic that Emerson is white, yet he is the prisoner. Maybe there is a connection between being freed and grandfather's letter saying for him to "keep on running." Also, Emerson warns the narrator not to "blind himself" to the truth. This motif keeps on being mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThe vet tells the narrator to "be your own father." Furthermore, he reveals that he is his own father as well. I see this as referring to the narrator's life at the college. There, Dr. Bledsoe was everyone's "father," and he acted in very anti-paternal ways. The narrator depended on Dr. Bledsoe to give him direction, as a father might, to tell him what to do. Similarly, the narrator expected the something from the white people, as if they were his father too. The vet is trying to impart the same idea that he told the narrator at the Golden Day--to believe in himself and his rights, not the wishes of others. The vet also tells the narrator to avoid the Mr. Nortons. The vet, the grandfather, and so many other signs are all telling the narrator the same thing, which he doesn't appear to grasp quite yet. The vet says, "the world is possibility if only you'll discover it." The narrator doesn't see that, and even after he realized the letters were bad he didn't realize it. Yet, just as Emerson said, the narrator is free. Furthermore, he is educated and ambitious, and with that he can succeed as long as he can realize the possibilities in the world. The advice the narrator is given throughout the novel is to try to uncover the blindness that is holding him back, yet the narrator isn't even aware of.
ReplyDeleteWhat's different for the narrator in New York? I think the better question would be what isn't different in New York for the narrator. I found myself being happy for the narrator when I heard where he was going just because I remember things from history about how people were more equal. It seems like the narrator has so many opportunities now that he couldn't have even imagined in the south. Even though the jobs that he had originally went up there for turned out to be out of his reach, he still has so many things that he can do in the north that he couldn't have dreamed up in the south, not just in the world of jobs but just with his life in general.
ReplyDeleteI'll be honest, I was a little confused. I thought he was talking to the man in charge until about a page into the interview. But I really liked Emerson and felt sorry for him. And I thought the narrator was stupid to be frank. I mean here is a white man who is genuinely being nice to him and trying to be nice, and he doesn't take him up on any of his offers. Well I guess he kinda does because he uses the Emerson name to get him a job at the paint place but still he was being stubborn. I guess I could see him being suspicious after what happened and focusing on revenge, but here is a white man who's family name is obviously pretty well known and you don't take him up on his offers when he's just trying to help you? I really did think the narrator was a little dumb for not listening to Emerson for that chapter.
ReplyDeleteHey! Page 236 theres a vocab. Word in the book! I know this doesn't really count as a blog but I just wanted to point that's out...
ReplyDeleteI think that the vet is telling the narrator to stop trying to be part of the world that Mr. Norton lives in and rather discover the world himself. I think this is good advice and the narrator should follow it.
ReplyDeleteI think the narrator is going to have a hard time in New York because it is much different from what he is used to and what he expected.
His life in New York seems no different from his life in the south because he is treated with the same disrespect and inequality in both locations.
ReplyDeleteI think that the dream foreshadows the true contents of the sealed letters.
I like Emerson; he seems like an honest person who only wants to help the narrator. I think his motivation is his desire to help the black race just as he is trying to do with the narrator.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the content of the letters is shocking, I expected as much from Bledsoe and I still feel that he is a bad person.
Although Bledsoe deserves some punishment for his cruel actions, I think the narrator’s plans to kill Bledsoe are a bit drastic.
I feel like the vet is being realistic. He seems to know about the world, and the narrator is blind to the subtle truths of reality. The narrator comes to Harlem with great hopefulness. I am afraid that he will find only hardship whist in Harlem. The cops attitude towards the end of chapter seven make me feel like, should something happen to the narrator, nothing will be done to assist him. I do like the narrators optimism though. It may or may not serve him well.
ReplyDeleteI should have seen what the letters from Bledsoe contained but I was still surprised. Since Bledsoe was from the school I just assumed that he actually cared for black people. He doesn't though and is a terrible person for what he does to the narrator. He is just pretending to be a good person that he will looked up to and regarded as an important person.
ReplyDeleteHis life in New York is different in the aspect he is now in a city instead of the countr so he sees different like protests and such. The narrator is still however mistreated because of race and is shown disrespect by the white people of the north. The only one that seems to want to help him Emerson.
ReplyDeleteI think the vet gives good advice to the narrator. He tells him to be his own father. This could mean that he should only look up to himself to live in the world he wants to live in not Mr. Norton or anyone else. I think he is trying to warn the narrator of what is to come.
ReplyDeleteI think that Emerson was looking our for the best interests of the narrator. His father may have been a horrible man. I appreciated the honesty of Emerson. I'm not surprised by what Bledsoe said in his letter. I did not expect the narrator to return to the school at all. I feel that the narrator's vengefulness is justified. He honestly felt that he would return to the school, and had done everything that he had been told to do. I feel pity for the poor narrator.
ReplyDeleteIn New York, the narrator is enjoying a much better life. He is no longer afraid of being near whites, and he sees his fellow blacks running around as couriers and performing other tasks. He feels that he has an opportunity to do more than he has before, and I feel that he will eventually become somebody.
ReplyDeleteHere's something: extra "points" for the first to find whom Ellison is named for. And how that might be significant....
ReplyDeleteNarrator's Dream?
ReplyDeleteAs the narrator is reminded of his granfather, he awakes depressed and feels that he plays a part in a scheme he did not understand. The narrator's prediction is correct, in that he learns of Bledsoe's true intentions. This reminds me of the narrator's dream of the cruel letter within his new briefcase.
PRalph Waldo Ellison is named after Ralph Emerson. Both authors wrote of independent lifestyles and self-reliance, along with human equality. Emerson also published essays against slavery and favored President Lincoln and other abolitionists, which put him in favor with many African Americans.
ReplyDelete