*How is repetition used at the bottom of page 335 to express the change the narrator feels in his identity?
*What is the metaphorical value of the policemen that the narrator sees when he ducks out into the street before his speech?
*What is the significance of the narrator's daydream about the bullfrog?
*How does the description of the stage contribute to the narrator's sense of isolation?
*Why do some members of the Brotherhood object to the narrator's speech? Do you agree/disagree?
*How is paradox used to express the contradictory constraints placed on the narrator?
*How might Tod Clifton serve as a more effective spokesman than the narrator, at least according to Emma?
*How is humor used in the intoduction to Ras the Exhorter?
*Why do you think the author chooses to have Ras speak the dialect of a native African learning English?
*What does Tod Clifton mean when he says that "sometimes a man has to plunge outside history?"
*How is alliteration used to reflect the instantaneous paradox that memories of the narrator's grandfather bring to mind?
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The narrator seems to have changed a lot compared to when he was at college, and he is starting to notice and embrace it. On page 335 right before his speach he talks about his legs being the same legs his had all his life, but they were new because he was becoming someone new. I really liked the part on page 381 where he compares himself to Douglass and Columbus. Douglass coming to the north to be a boatwright but instead changed his name and became an important leader through that name. And how Columbus journeyed out to find red people in a new world and he did, but now how he expected. It's just like the narrator, he changed his name and is becoming famous through it. He wanted to make imortant speeches to become a leader and he is just not how he expected. I just really liked that part.
The author gives Ras a native African dialect to emphasize his pride in being black and his distaste of blacks associating with whites. Ras reveals his strong sense of bondage with other blacks when he refuses to kill Clifton because he feels he is his brother. Ras even refers to those who hail from Africa as “my people.” By using African dialect, he keeps his heritage alive. Ras possesses a very negative stereotype of all white people and is portrayed as violent, but I think he truly wants the best for the blacks and believes the only way his race will advance is by banding together.
In chapter sixteen the narrator implies that blindness is oppression throughout his speech at the rally. It's ironic that the narrator would use the metaphor of blindness and oppression in this speech because he stands in front of a boxing ring in which a man was knocked blind by the other fighter. Blindness has been a sign of oppression throughout the novel with blindness to idealology, such as Bledsoe, the brotherhood, and Trueblood.
It says that when the narrator walked out onto the stage he could not see his audience. so the whole time he speaks he is a "blind leader" of a blind audience. its ironic that the stage is a boxing ring where a man had become blind from a fight. it's also ironic that the narrator stumbles of the stage, because he cannot see, just as the blind Reverend Barbee (the college speaker) did when he left the stage.
The repititon on 335 is to emphasize the narrator's new path in life. He has gone from being a college student and then going through all the hardships of trying to find a decent job and then becoming a member of the Brotherhood. The interesting part about him joining the Brotherhood is that he kind of joined without really knowing what he was getting into. He knew he wanted to do something important in his life and liked making speeches and the job turned out to be perfect for him. The passage at the bottom of 335 repeats the word "newness" to show how much of a new start this is in the character's life.
Some members of the Brotherhood find the narrator's speech unsatisfactory. Some of the brothers thought the speech was wild, hysterical, politically irresponsible, dangerous and incorrect. I do not agree with the fraction of the Brotherhood who did not like the speech. I found his speech well done, especially for someone who pretty much winged it once he got on stage; at one point he even lost his flow of words and almost ‘lost’ the crowd he was giving his speech to. By the end the narrator’s speech he had the whole crowed applauding him and “waiting to be told what to do.” If anyone can get that reaction from so many people after a speech then I’ve got to say that the speech was defiantly not unsatisfactory.
The narrator has really changed in character since his boxing match depicted at the beginning of the novel. He started as a man who loves light but feels invisible, which is ironic because of his later blindness that he faces when giving his speech. The blindness symbolizes that he has changed from a man who can see all and has correct views of race to a blurred or limited view of the racial issues at hand. One example of this is the tussle with Ras when they are supposed to be fighting for the same thing. The narrator begins to lose perspective on what he is really fighting for like many of the civil rights leaders.
The narrator was isolated while giving his speech because he was blinded and not able to really see the audience, which is ironic because it was like one blind man leading a mass of metaphoricaly blind people. It also reminded me of the preacher at the college, and how he literly blindly led the congregation in his sermon about the infalibility of the college
Blindness or being blind is a big thing throughout this novel. Like in the begining when the Narrator was blind-folded in the ring. And like Danielle said about the blind man preaching to the congregation of "blind" students. And now again with the poster of the boxer being blinded in the ring. Blindness is ignorance, and I think the Narrator is begining to lose his ignorance to how the situation actually is for the black people. I think the Narrator is actually getting what "game" Dr. Bledsoe was referring to before he left college.
I think that when Tod Clifton says, "sometimes a man has to plunge outside history," he means that sometimes a person needs to get out on top instead of fading away gradually. He also means that one should do something completely different than hs been done in the past.
When the narrator is about to begin his speech on the bottom of 335 he talks about how the suit has changed him. He feels "new" and almost like a totally differnt person. He felt like he had a new pair of legs even though these were the same pair of legs he has had forever. The suit to him was like a new begenning he felt like he had become a completely differnt person than what he was in the begenning of the novel.
Before the narrator is about to give his speech, he begins to think about everything he has overcome up to this point. This speech is the start of a new beginning for him that he has earned on his own. Everything appears new to him: his new suit, new legs, the new name, and it all seems to lead to a new life.
When the narrator repeats himself on the bottom of page 335 it's like he is comparing his past life to his new life that he is beginning. When he states, "no more flying apart at the seams, no more remembering forgotten pains," he is refering to his past (even just a few days before) at the school, with Dr. Bledsoe and at the Liberty Paints factory. It's like he is closing the door to his past life, and opening up the door in front of him toward his new beginning. I think this makes the narrator think of himself as more free. I believe he feels like this is a new sense of freedom and is not tied down to his past which sometimes haunts him.
When Tod Clifton says, "sometimes a man has to punge outside of history," I think he means that Ras will eventually come to the other side (the side of the Brotherhood). Ras lives in "history" where the black people were considered slaves and they were hated by the whites and were also mistreated. Clifton also says Ras is "stronger on the inside," and that if he got on the "inside" he would, "consider himself a traitor." This leads me to believe that deep down Ras wants to be helped by the whites and wants them to be on their side but he is afraid to join the Brotherhood (or the Brotherhood side) because he is afraid that the whites will turn on him just as he tells the narrator and Clifton. And so when Clifton says he might "plunge outside history," I think it means that Ras has to live out of the past because things change and right now in the present, the whites are willing to help but I think Ras is afraid of white might happen if he trusted them.
(This is in agreeance to Michelle and her views)
I think that the narrator might have Ras speak as a Native American learning English because it might be more effective in his public speaking. The people might think of it as he wants to be more like his own race than the whites, because he strongly dislikes the whites. He believes in keeping his customs and dialect apart of him and it will help him bond with the people and keep alive his race. It might also be because he wants the reader to realize the pride Ras has in his heritage and background. You also get a sense of that feeling when Ras decides not to kill Clifton because it's his black brother.
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