Goes By The Accent

The Invisble man narrates his experience at college by the experience he had with the Mr. Norton scholarship man. The conversation they have in the car consists of various literary forms used by Ralph Ellison such as metaphors and accent.

The use of accent is very important for the book since it gives strong feeling of difference between the races, in this case, the African Americans and the white population. When Mr. Norton speaks to Jim Trueblood, it is very distinctive the voice each character has. Mr. Norton, a well educated man, uses a different selection of words rather than Trueblood, a simple farmer. The southern accent from the African Americans has more slang language than the one from Mr. Norton. Trueblood uses simple words and with an accent such as “The nigguhs” or “caint”.

The accent used by these characters differs greatly and it is possible to recognize who is talking. Even so, through the story, the reader may see how Mr. Norton uses a series of metaphors to describe the incidents in his life, just as the passing away from his daughter. He would describe her beauty as “well spring of purest water of life, and to look upon her was to drink and drink again.”(pg. 42).

The metaphors Ellison uses to give descriptions gives an idea of how beautiful a thing was, just as Norton’s daughter. The accent also makes the character get into the book and realize it is the African American’s accent there in the south, so at least the reader knows in what kind of environment the book takes place. 

The Man

 Ralph Ellison's " Invisble Man" is a narration made in first person by the invisble man. Through the story it is implicit that the man is as African American since Ellison says " I am not ashamed of myself for having grandparents for haviing been slaves." (pg. 15). This clearly states that our character is part from a black heritage. Ellison also uses allusions, in this case, in the prologue, he refers to Edgar Allan Poe since he sees ghosts, and by this our character makes a distinciton between what is it like to be an invisible man rather than a ghost.

Moreover, Ellison begins to uncover the mystery of this invisible man through this character narrating his story. In the incident in the ball room, Ellison uses imagery to portray what is happening in such chaos and mess from the blinded fighters. " I saw a boy going down heavily beside me" (pg. 24). The language that is used through the story emphasizes how racism acted upon our character. " Let me at that big nigger" (pg.21). 

The use of diction is very important through this chapters since it makes a difference between the african american children, our character itself and the M.C people. For example, the use of words changes from the fight and chaos it was provoked, and from the speech our character uses. Through metaphors, Ellison descibres how our character who " knows more big words than a pocket-sized dictionary". (pg. 29)