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AML 1000S2 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Analysis

AML 1000S2 Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Analysis

Daniel Kevins

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Draft the structure of your review by answering the critical questions associated with your selected analysis tools. For this outline, just answer the questions and leave breadcrumb trails or hints for fleshing out your review. This step, when done well, will enable you to access the ingredients for your final review and complete it with ease.

Begin with the question:

Did you like the short story, book, article, etc? This is your introduction, so make it pop.

Answers to these questions will build your thesis:

Why or why not?
What thoughts run through your mind as you read the work?
What emotions does your selected work evoke for you?

Select 3 of the 6 questions below and answer them to flesh out your review.

Question Choices 1- 3	Question Choices 4 – 6
Which character(s) did you like/dislike the most? Why? Were there any characters or personalities you liked at one point and disliked at others? What behaviors made an impression on you? What reactions from others impressed you or seem likely in your opinion? Discuss the “Hook” of the work. What made you want to keep reading the work? What kept you interested as you engaged with the story? If you did not feel engaged, why? What could the author have done differently to make it more meaningful for you? Choose one sentence or paragraph from the work that you particularly liked and discuss only that part. What about the sentence or paragraph was so great? Does the author play with language in this sentence? How? How does it relate to the more prominent themes of the story/article?	Analyze a character’s/ audience’s wants, needs, and obstacles. What is it that they want? Is this different than what they need to become a happy, fulfilled person? What are the obstacles that stand in their way of what they want? How do they try to overcome those obstacles? Analyze a significant object. Why did it seem so important? What was it about the object’s description, or the way characters interacted with the object made it seem so important? How do you relate to this? Discuss how the context for the work might have affected the writing itself. (History, geography, biography…) Provide a brief “overview” of key historical events of the time, as well as any key biographical events of the given author. How do these historical/personal events affect their interpretation of the story? Do you think the author intended the story to carry any specific message for the people of the time? What would be reactions to the message today?

Question Choices 1- 3

Question Choices 4 – 6

Which character(s) did you like/dislike the most? Why?

- Were there any characters or personalities you liked at one point and disliked at others?
- What behaviors made an impression on you?
- What reactions from others impressed you or seem likely in your opinion?

Discuss the “Hook” of the work.

- What made you want to keep reading the work?
- What kept you interested as you engaged with the story?
- If you did not feel engaged, why?
- What could the author have done differently to make it more meaningful for you?

Choose one sentence or paragraph from the work that you particularly liked and discuss only that part.

- What about the sentence or paragraph was so great?
- Does the author play with language in this sentence? How?
- How does it relate to the more prominent themes of the story/article?

Analyze a character’s/ audience’s wants, needs, and obstacles.

- What is it that they want?
- Is this different than what they need to become a happy, fulfilled person?
- What are the obstacles that stand in their way of what they want?
- How do they try to overcome those obstacles?

Analyze a significant object.

- Why did it seem so important?
- What was it about the object’s description, or the way characters interacted with the object made it seem so important?
- How do you relate to this?

Discuss how the context for the work might have affected the writing itself. (History, geography, biography…)

- Provide a brief “overview” of key historical events of the time, as well as any key biographical events of the given author.
- How do these historical/personal events affect their interpretation of the story?
- Do you think the author intended the story to carry any specific message for the people of the time?
- What would be reactions to the message today?

*Take your pulse: After completing this section, address whether your feelings about the reading have changed.

Notes:

Make sure to:

download and review this portion of the project in the assignment charter which can be found under the “Getting Started” link in the left menu.
check your work for grammatical and spelling errors.
not copy anyone else’s work or words. Just use your own. This is about you.

These are the options to choose from

Native American Oral Literature: Vol. 1 pp. 29-30

Tecumseh:

Biography, Vol. 1 p. 484 and “Speech to the Osages,” Vol. 1 pp. 484-486 (nonfiction)

Zitkala-Sa:

Biography, Vol. 2 pp. 652-655 and “The Soft-Hearted Sioux,” Vol. 2 pp. 660-665 (fiction)

Sherman Alexie:

Biography, Vol. 2 pp. 1677-1678 ; “At Navajo Monument Valley Tribal School,” Vol. 2 pp. 1678-1679 (poetry); and “Pawn Shop,” Vol. 2. p. 1679 (fiction)

Harriet Jacobs:

Biography, Vol. 1 pp. 878-879 and chapters I, VII, and X from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Vol. 1 pp. 879-889 (nonfiction)

Frederick Douglass:

Biography, Vol. 1 pp. 996-1000 and “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?,” Vol. 1 pp. 1066-1069 (nonfiction)

Richard Wright:

Biography, Vol. 2 pp. 1058-1059 and “The Man Who Was Almost a Man,” Vol. 2 pp. 1059-1067 (fiction)

Ralph Ellison:

Biography, Vol. 2 pp. 1209-1210 and excerpt from Invisible Man, Vol. 2 pp. 1210-1220 (fiction)

About the Author

Daniel Kevins

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