The brotherhood didn’t like the speech, they
thought it was lacking the facts and needed less appeal to emotion.
Chapter 17
1.
How much
time has passed since the narrator’s speech?
4 months
2.
Describe
Brother Hambro.
"A
tall, friendly man, a lawyer and The Brotherhood's chief theoretician, he had
proved to be a hard taskmaker."
3.
What is Ras’
political doctrine and why is it in conflict with that of The Brotherhood?
Ras believes that blacks should stand as
their own force and the brotherhood thinks whites and blacks should join
together.
4.
Who is Tod
Clifton? Why do he and the narrator become friends? Note that “tod” means death
in German. Why does Ras spare Clifton’s
life?
Tod Clifton is the leader of the youth. The
narrator befriends Tod because he is a young black educated male. Tod’s life is
spared by Ras because Ras does not like black on black crime because he wants
them to join together.
5.
Ras pleads
with the narrator to become a part of black unity and leave The Brotherhood.
His arguments are similar to those of Black Panthers and others who came to the
political forefront in the 1960’s. The Communist Party did, in effect, betray
the Blacks who helped build the party in the 1930’s. What side do you believe
Ellison is supporting?
I believe Ellison is neutral because he shows
the brotherhood has great points and views but with Ras he also shows the negatives
of the brotherhood.
6.
What is
significant about the portrait of Douglass that hangs in Brother Tarp’s office?
How is Tarp like Douglass? Like the narrator’s grandfather?
Douglass is hanging on Tarp’s wall because he
feels that Douglass’ escape from oppression and becoming educated is a feat
that the blacks of that time are facing. He is like the grandfather because he
that blacks should stand against the white oppression.
Chapter 18
1.
Consider the
symbolism of the link of chain Tarp gives the narrator. It what ways does it
link the narrator to Tarp? To his past? Is it significant that Westrum rejects
that link?
The chain link is a symbol that even though
the chains of slavery are broke the oppression of that time can still be found.
2.
What seems
to cause the fight between Wrestrum and the narrator? What do you think is the
REAL reason for this fight?
Westrum thinks that the narrator is becoming
too powerful and is out for himself. Westrum is mad because the narrator is
getting more acknowledgement than he is.
3.
At the end
of the chapter, the narrator is sent out of Harlem. Why would The Brotherhood remove
a successful member of the party and send him off to lecture on a subject about
which he knows so little either by training or personal experience?
It is to show that the Brotherhood does not
want him to believe he has enough power and sends him out of Harlem so he can
start from the bottom again.
Chapter 19
Note that
chapter 19 is a transitional chapter like chapters 7 and 12.
This chapter
details the narrator’s seduction by the nameless “woman in red.”
1.
In what ways
is Ellison playing with the idea that white women are drawn to Black men?
The woman is inviting him in and is more
hospitable to the narrator.
2.
What
reaction does the woman give when her husband comes home?
The woman does not care.
3.
What is the
narrator’s action?
The narrator believes he is being set up and
leaves.
4.
Do you think
this chapter is humorous, or is it serious social commentary.
The chapter was humorous because the husband didn’t
react to the women being with another man like a normal man would.
Chapter 20
- The narrator
has been away from Harlem for several months. What “emergency” calls him back
downtown? The narrator feels the need to talk to
Brother Maceo.
- What changes have taken place in
the movement since he left. (Note how things have changed in the Jolly Dollar
Bar. People have
been disbanded from the brotherhood. The narrator uses the term brothers and
people disbanded become offended.
- What does Ellison mean when he
says that returning to Harlem was “like returning to the city of the dead?” The evidence
of the brotherhood is little to none and the city is no longer “home” for the
narrator.
- What is
Clifton selling? Sambo Doll
- How
does the Sambo doll relate to the Sambo bank? The Sambo Bank is a symbol of the negative stereotypes of blacks.
- What do
you think the doll symbolizes? Consider the fact that it is a puppet whose
strings are pulled. The doll is the black man and the puppet master will be the white
man who is controlling the black’s actions and decisions.
- How
does Tod Clifton die? What is the narrator’s reaction to his death? Clifton punched a cop and in response the cop shot him. The narrator is in disbelief by Clifton’s
death and actions.
Chapter 21
1. Why does the narrator feel guilt over Clifton’s death?
Because he did not tell Clifton the meaning behind the Sambo dolls and it lead to his death.
2. Look at the funeral speech. How many times does the narrator use Clifton’s name? Why so many?
Twenty-three times to show that Clifton was a person and not an item he had a life and a meaning for living.
Chapter 22
1. Why is the meeting with the Brotherhood described in terms of a dream?
The meeting doesn’t seem like it’s really happening.
2. On p. 463, the members are said to have “flowed in one channel too long and too deeply.” What does this mean?
Their thoughts have been to themselves for too long.
3. Why does the Brotherhood object to the phrase “personal responsibility?”
The only person that you are responsible for is yourself.
4. Contrast the reaction of the Brotherhood to the funeral speech to the audience’s reaction to the graduation speech. Has the narrator come full circle?
The brotherhood was appreciative of the graduation speech and the funeral speech was rejected because it showed the narrator’s views instead of the brotherhood’s.
5. What is the significance of Brother Jack’s glass eye? How does it develop the sight image that is throughout the book?
The glass eye shows blindness but also a false vision.
Chapter 23
1. What symbolism do you find in the narrator’s purchase of dark glasses?
He brought them to hide himself from Ras but was mistaken to be Rinehart.
2. What are Rinehart’s various identities?
Daddy, Reverend Rinehart, Rine the Runner, Rine the Number Man
3. Is there any symbolism in Rinehart’s name (Rind and heart)?
To be inside and outside at the same instant.
4. Has Rinehart learned to play an identity game?
Rinehart has many identities because of his invisibility.
Chapter 24
- Contrast the narrator’s encounter with Sybil with that of the woman in red whose husband came home early. They both wanted use the narrator for sex because they had the desires to have sex with a black man.
- What is the significance of the last line in the chapter? It shows that he is going back to Harlem because that is the city who made him who he is.
Chapter 25
1 What causes the riot?
The reason is not known but he got different assumptions.
2 Think about the Book of Revelations in the Bible. In what ways is Ras like one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse?
The horseman of Death because he calls himself Ras the Destroyer, he tries to kill the narrator and he is suspected to be the cause of Tod Clifton’s murder.
3 What drives the narrator underground?
He is running being from Ras the Destroyer and a group of whites.
4 What does the narrator do with the papers in his briefcase? How is this action symbolic?
He burns them to use as a torch it’s symbolic with because he is burning everything that held him back to help guide him forward.
Epilogue
1 In what ways has the novel come full circle?
The narrator started off in his “little hole” with 1,369 lights and at the end is in the manhole.
2 Is this a satisfactory ending for the novel? Why or why not?
No because I was expecting the narrator to have a clue who he was or could be but honestly I feel that he either has no identity or he was given another clean slate.