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.