Burial Rights In India Essays - Invisible Man, Ellison, Metaphor

Burial Rights In India Ellison gracefully weaves together several extended metaphors of invisibility, blindness, and enslavement throughout the novel. His training as a jazz musician surfaces in the intricate, nuanced developments of these metaphors. The rich symbolism of Invisible Man demonstrates Ellison's effort to never allow his reader to decide on one meaning for a particular symbol. Instead, he presents dozens of possible meanings, each one harmonizing with the rest. Multiple layers of meaning arise from almos t every portion of the novel. The careful, attentive reader is rewarded with complex themes that drive the development of the narrative on several levels. The narrative techniques of extended metaphors and symbolism are used to develop the problem of freedom in American society for the black citizen. Ellison resists literalism in his exploration of this problem. He addresses the existential crisis of the victim of both overt and implicit racism. He explores the legacy of slavery in American culture, not as a dead past, but as a living present. His narrative travels from the Southern experience to the Northern experience, from the rural to the urban. Most of all, he tries to represent the diverse elements of American race politics along side the multifaceted contributions of the black experience to American culture. Invisible Man is not a book to be read haphazardly or quickly. Careful, studious reading is necessary in order to understand and appreciate its depth. Religion