AfAmariano

     Why is it that Ellison chose to have the narrator reveal the truth of the story at the very end? Well I figure it’s because it’s not supposed to be a great revelation, the narrator’s actually showed us the whole time. I think what makes this novel particularly interesting after reading “Native Son” is the contrast between third and first person. Unlike “Native Son” the narrator chooses specific moments to share with the reader. Like Mr. Mitchell said in class, the narrator writes with an audience in mind. To me that means his accumulative revelations that he shows us are meant to be seen through a lens of current understanding. That might not make sense right away but here’s what I’m trying to say. The story is a first person frame narrative, so there are two layers. In the lens most zoomed in we are just following the narrators actions. In the second lens, we see the big picture. It’s in the second lens that we are meant to view the story because the narrator is t...

     I can feel the narrator evolving, and I think you can to. In class we mentioned how the prologue narrator is beginning to shine through. This is especially in the scene with brother Tobitt and Brother Jack. In past scenes where his reality is contradicted, he doesn’t confront the people in charge, instead he tended to grow angry at himself for not expecting something wrong. Although he might’ve questioned Bledsoe and Emerson jr. he kept his thoughts internal. With Brother jack, the narrator asks directly “…isn’t the shooting of an unarmed man of more importsnce politically than the fact that he sold obscene dolls?” A charged question to Brother Jack is more than looking for an answer, the narrator is publicly challenging Jack’s motives. Jack goes a step further when he later starts to make jokes.      It’s interesting that the idea of humor as a tool is brought up again. I remember many people noticing that the vet reminded them of the prologue nar...

For most of the book so far, our narrator has denied his grandfather’s message. Yet the narrator can’t deny he’s been kept running for all his life. As reader’s we first see the narrator on the treadmill during the battle royale scene. The narrator is riding a kayak in the middle of a tsunami. The order of events seem to make no sense, but he flows from one to the next with no question. Only when he figures the blindfold trick does he seem to have some control. That doesn’t last for very long because he still has to face the big guy with whom he can’t cooperate. The narrator doesn’t realize he’s being kept running because this is life as he knows it. At college he’s kept running again by administration. Bledsoe is using the narrator in an attempt to show the “founders” what they want to see. Weirdly enough, Bledsoe is the one running the narrator. Once the narrator is revealed the truth, he grows angry at himself for not realizing and acting in the way he was expected to act. Even ...

            It’s interesting that Wright chose to write his Native Son in the third person style. The interpretation that we get is one that comes from Wright himself, meaning that no one really knows what drives Bigger’s actions. This lack of insight makes the relationship with Wright and Bigger that much more important. In class, Mr. Mitchell asked what we thought of Wright’s relationship with Bigger Thomas. While many good comments were made, my takeaway is that Bigger is Wright’s expression of who he could’ve been, had his life given him the same obstacles. This touches on another topic from our class discussion which deals with the idea of Naturalism. The idea of naturalism implies that each person isn’t really their own person rather a person that reacts to their environment around them. Bigger is a character that embodies a thoughtless person. Not entirely thoughtless of course, he s till feels uncomfortable, powerful, an...