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About Me
- Todd's 110 Garage
- Born and raised near signs of Lewis and Clark's Missouri River portage, I now live in Auburn, WA and teach at Green River CC and Muckleshoot Tribal College. I have an M.A. in English literature from The University of Montana. I'm married and have no kids.
17 comments:
How come he doesn't feel any anger when the other people insulted him? He basically took those insults like punches to the face.
In regards to the stripper, why does the lead want to "caress her and destroy her, to love her and murder her"? (Pg. 237, bottom of the second paragraph)
In response to the question posed by Danny; I think the lead doesn't feel any anger because he is so focused on his one goal of the night, to present his speech. Every action and reaction he chooses is in an effort to maximize the respect of the men in the room in hopes that they will listen carefully and give him honest feedback. Being so single minded makes him impervious to the insults and injuries inflicted.
The narrator of the story felt pressured to fight.Why did the other boys fight? Did they know that they were going to fight, or were they brought there for another reason?
To answer Ahnnak's question the author wants to" caress her and destroy her, to lover her and murder her" because her beauty to him is so captivating that he finds he wants to react in a passionate rage.
To answer Savannah's question, I think the others fought because they also felt pressured to fight, and may have needed the money. I'm sure back then ten dollars was a good amount of money.
My question is why would the white raciest men care, or even want to bother with trying to get him a schlorship? Why do they care?
Perhaps they were encouraged by the way he spoke and the writing he did so they thought it would be a good idea to encourage "his kind" to better themselves and get a better education.
My question is what does it mean when he says he has to discover he is an invisable man?
To answer Brooks question I believe when he says he has to be an invisible man he means that he needs to be there and get the things that need to be done, done with out any question or opinion about the task or his place.
My question is why is he still focused on giving his speach when he realizes he has to fight?
To respond to heather's question, I believe that he still feels obliged to give his speech because he thinks there are wonderful things in store for him. He wants the other people to realize his intuition and will do anything for people to see that, even if it involves getting in a fight.
What I can't understand is why he kept trying to get the coins even though he was being electrocuted? I mean, I understand they might have pushed him back in, but even he said that he got used to the electricity.
My question is about the invisible man quote. He continues to replay the words of his grandfather throughout the story and yet he says he needs to be a invisible man. Shouldn't he want to stand up the way his grandfather was telling them all? To fight them with grins and show the white people that they can overcome anything, rather then getting angry and giving up?
Valds question; I believe that his passion to say his say speech gave him enough strength mentally to handle the pain. If he didn't reach for the money just the other boys then he would have gotten a harder time from the older men.
To answer your question Amy, I think that regardless of how much he WANTS to be that man who fights with his disposition, there is a very large cultural deficit he falls into. Regardless of the obvious signs of changing times in this story when it comes down to nickels and diamonds he is still a black man and is expected to "know his place" in society. I think that if he were to be as aggressive as you suggest with his goals it would be counter productive; turning away listening ears rather than drawing them.
Similarly to what Desiree said, I want to know why the protagonist gets an additional prize at all. He didn't get first place, so what makes him eligible for such a valuable prize? And don't tell me it was because his speech moved them, because they obviously had this gift prepared beforehand.
To answer Danny's question, I think that the narrator is so focused on giving his speech and on not getting completely beaten in the fight that he can barely even hear the men outside the ring. I don't know if you played any sports but when I played volleyball the only people I could hear when I was on the court were my coach, my teammates, and my mom. A person can get so focused they can tune out just about anything around them.
My question is why doesn't the narrator follow more of what his grandpa advised? Until Anna mentioned the concept of gaining respect by not letting taunting get to you, I had forgotten about that way of gaining respect. So why doesn't he try it? Its worth a shot isn't it? Why does he try so hard to not be like his grandpa?
I don't think we can really answer these questions by just going off of what the text is telling us. For example, the question of what does it mean when he says he had to discover he is an invisible man. Throughout this short story the narrator is irrelevant. The entire story the narrator is nameless. He is here to deliver a speech that isn't listened to etc. You kind of have to look at yourself and ask yourself the question when have you felt invisible? That's what the narrator feels throughout his entire life. The entire idea of invisibility actually ties into each and every single answer as well: "How come he doesn't feel anger when the other people insulted him?" "why he kept trying to get the coins even though he was being electrocuted?" once your so used to something like being called a nigger, shine, sonsabitches you don't even notice it. What would it matter if you got angry? Your invisible! You don't matter. And to wrap up this long comment, the scholarship at the end is the frosting on the cake. The entire time they've degraded him and now they want to give him a scholarship? It's rather ironic. To me it's the ultimate slap in the face, here you nigger go on and fill your head with pointless dreams and visions that will never come true. It's like when Malcolm X's teacher told him to become a carpenter despite the fact he got the best grades in class. Last thing, I think the woman is included in this story to show that in this time, women to were invisible.
My question is directly to those who feel they haven't been affected or as affected by discrimination, racism, classism, and all the other ism's in the world. What is your reaction to this kind of treatment of another human to the point that they justify this treatment by calling it invisibility?
David I would like to respond to your question, I don't feel like I have been tremendously affected by racism, not nearly as much as many others. I know of a lot of people that are racist but to me its ridiculous! This story is horrible in my mind, granted I try to take into consideration the time period and what the entire country had just gone through at that time but still I still hurt for the woman and for the boys because the arrogant white men treat them like trash. Something that came into my mind while reading the part about the fight. I don't know who all has heard of cock-fighting and dog fighting. Esp the cock-fighting, roosters are very dumb animals for those who have never worked with them. They will fight to win no matter their opponents size, they fight to defend and when they do its looks weird. I know of some people who think its funny but to me its horrible. One of our roosters used to try to fight us every time we tried to go in the coop to feed them, we had to use a garbage can lid to defend our legs and we never went in alone because he would jump on our backs and rip apart our clothes. The big boy in the fight, Tatlock reminds me of a rooster. He seemed to keep fighting because he didn't know what else to do. The narrator did the same thing, he wanted to win just to be able to give his speech. He fought to defend himself so he could achieve that goal. These men thought it was hilarious as these boys fought, I'm sure they were betting on them and they really didn't care what happened to any of the boys. Much like the people who sponsor the cock-fights, they bet on them and don't care what happens. They treated the boys as if they could be as easily replaced as the roosters are. They didn't care. I haven't had to deal with a lot of racism but that is my view on this story.
Why do you think he attempts do go on with the speech despite the racial criticism he had been going through?
To answer Danny question; I believe that he does not express any anger for a variety of reason. One of which is that if he did, these men were intoxicated and constantly yelling vulgar racial slurs, who knows how they would have reacted if he decided to fight back. However, he was also so caught up in delivering his speech that he did not want to do anything that could jeopardize his opportunity.
My question is why are his grandfather's words a curse? It just seems like advice to me, I don't see why it would be a curse to the narrator.
I think he tries to go on with his speech despite the criticism because if he gave in to it and didn't finish, he would be giving in to the men's criticism. He has enough honor to stand up for himself and keep going no matter what reaction the men give him. I think that's part of why they gave him the scholarship too. He really stood his ground even though he was put to a really difficult test.
How is the naked white woman significant in the short story?
I think the boy is still focused on giving his speech after the fight because he is so determined to make his words known that the events that took place prior to his speech are not important to him. Just as long as he can make his point known, he will be satisfied.
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