For your fourth essay, choose one of the topics listed below, and create a convincing argument of approximately twelve hundred words to support your point. In the introduction of the essay, provide a firm thesis statement. This statement should express your opinion about whatever facet of Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man you are focusing on. In your discussion, extrapolate selected passages from the novel to support your points, and then analyze those passages in relation to your thesis. As with the previous assignments, remember that we've all read the novel. Your purpose is not to retell the story. Rather, you are to create an argument about what you believe that Ellison is saying about a specific topic. That argument will require that you analyze and interpret the work--and that you can convincingly support your views.

When you cite passages from the text, document them with the standard MLA format. This consists of in-text documentation and a works cited page. If you have doubts about how to do this, then visit my website on documentation and/or consult your Bedford Handbook, by Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers. For this assignment, I want you to use four outside scholarly sources, plus the novel. By scholarly sources, I mean literary critics, whether online or from traditional print media. What I don't want you to do is to use encyclopedias, the Bible, other fiction, or non-scholarly sources such as Spark Notes or other study guides to the novel. Also, do not focus on Ellison's biography.

As with all essays for this course, I expect you to adhere to the standard rules of English grammar and American usage. Make sure that you proofread your paper. You will be evaluated not only by what you say but also by the language and organization you use to express your opinions.

The essay must be typed and double-spaced. Please use a twelve point font and a new cartridge in your printer. Consider my poor eyes. They are older than yours. Bind your essay with a paper clip, not staples. Check your syllabus for the due date of the essay.

A few other points:

• Include the number of the topic you are responding to immediately under your name, the course, and essay four.
• Make sure that you use four outside sources--and that you document them properly.
• Put a title on your essay. That title should reflect something about your thesis. It should not be a mere repetition of Ellison's title or of the phrasing of my questions.
• Use direct quotations from the novel and your scholarly sources to support your argument, but those quotations should not exceed 15% of your essay.
• Do not merely summarize the story. Interpret and analyze it, and don't hesitate to evaluate it.
• Proofread your paper carefully.
• As always, abide by the honor code in creating your essay.

Suggested Topics

1. Chapter sixteen of Invisible Man concludes with our narrator's relating a lecture by his previous literature professor, Woodridge. Woodridge says the following: "'Our task is that of making ourselves individuals. The conscience of a race is the gift of its individuals who see, evaluate, record . . . We create the race by creating ourselves and then to our great astonishment we will have created something far more important. We will have created a culture'" (354). Using selected events and characters from the novel, argue that this quotation lies at the core of its meaning.

2. Ellison repeatedly reminds us of the past and its influence on the present; for example, the novel begins with the narrator's grandfather and his surprising admission that he has been "a spy in the enemy's country" (16). Then Ellison refers to Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass. In addition, he uses the eviction of the tenants in Harlem, the image of the narrator's briefcase, and Brother Tarp. Argue what you believe Ellison is saying about the impact that the past has on the present.

3. Tod Clifton and Ras the Exhorter figure prominently in the New York section of the novel. What is Ellison's attitude toward these characters, and what does he seem to say thematically through each?

4. The narrator has a poster on the wall in his office (385), a poster to which Brother Tarp draws his attention. Argue what you believe Ellison's larger thematic intentions are in drawing the narrator's (and the readers') attention to this poster.

5. The scene dealing with Tod Clifton's selling of Sambo dolls and with his eventual death seems key to the novel. What significance do these events have for the thematic structure of the novel? In your argument, be sure to refer to other events in the novel that are linked to these.

6. The theme of blindness runs through this novel. Choose several characters and events that deal with blindness, and argue what you believe Ellison is saying through this theme.

7. If none of these topics appeals to you, then create your own. Just be sure that it is argumentative and that you clear it with me before you begin your writing.

Good luck!