Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Essay on the Genius of Ralph Ellison - 2041 Words
The Genius of Ralph Ellison I am an invisible man. With these five words, Ralph Ellison ignited the literary world with a work that commanded the respect of scholars everywhere and opened the floodgates for dialogue about the role of African-Americans in American society, the blindness that drove the nation to prejudice, and racial pluralism as a forum for recognizing the interconnection between all members of society regardless of race. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. . . . That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact. A matter of the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through†¦show more content†¦He became a wartime correspondent and his literary works and articles were favorably reviewed. Jazz was still a major influence in his life and he used jazz themes and lyrics throughout his works. A voracious reader, Ellison became attuned to the stylistic nuances of Emerson, Kafka, Joyce, and T.S. Eliot and his works seem to reflect the melding of such literary giants with the rich heritage of music, language, and belief in the African-American culture. Invisible Man won the National Book Award in 1953, a year after its publication. The book was widely seen as the first great African-American work to completely penetrate literary circles without being condescendingly regarded as good black literature. The complexity of the characters, the events, and the symbolism of the book launched Ellison to a status enjoyed by his peers Faulkner, Joyce, and others. Ellisons ingenuity in constructing the invisible man, his world, and his interactions created an American masterwork that transcended race. To call Invisible Man great literature would be addressing only the intellectual and artistic value of the work. Invisible Man became a catalyst for a larger societal movement toward recognizing the value of African-Americans as an intrinsic part of American culture. Ellisons work also propelled discussion about racial pluralism. The nameless character was irrevocably humanShow MoreRelated The Distinguished Works of the Preeminent Black Author, Ralph Ellison2059 Words  | 9 PagesWorks of the Preeminent Black Author, Ralph Ellison Ralph Ellison is one of the most lauded yet misunderstood writers of the twentieth century. Ellison is considered a short-story writer and an essayist at heart, but his most distinguished work is the novel, Invisible Man. Ellison has been called everything from the greatest black American author (Brennan) to unnecessarily excessive in his writing style (Ralph Ellison: 1914-1994). 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While the companion of Huckleberry in the earlier work was Tom Sawyer who was the leading character in the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the one person who accompaniesRead MoreBrief Survey of American Literature3339 Words  | 14 Pagesliterature, usually called the Renaissance of American literature Early Romanticism Henry Wadsworth Longfellow James Russell Lowell John Greenleaf Whittier James Fenimore Cooper Washington Irving William Cullen Bryant New England Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Margaret Fuller High Romanticism Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Nathaniel Hawthorne Herman Melville Edgar Allan Poe Early romantic writers Washington Irving (1783-1859) The first American writer internationallyRead MoreThe Father Of Free Verse By Walt Whitman2965 Words  | 12 Pagesthese characteristics made Walt Whitman an unusually unique and famous poet. Whitman is greatly known for his invention of free verse, hence the nickname â€Å"Father of free verse’. 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