Narrative Devices
This narrative technique seeks to imitate the way a person's thoughts jump around.
Stream of Consciousness.
This is a type of juxtaposition in which both of the entities being juxtaposed share many features in common and suggest the same theme.
What is a repetition?
Santa Claus and Mr. Norton are associated with this idea.
What is White Man's Burden?
This theme explains why the invisible man never has a name.
What is black identity being denied by society?
The image of Bledsoe enjoying chitterlings symbolizes this idea.
What is the shame and rejection educated black people are made to feel about origins in the poor, rural South?
Characters like these give us good reason to either doubt that they are telling the truth or reason to assume they do not understand the whole truth.
What is an unreliable narrator?
This is a type of juxtaposition in which the two entities juxtaposed are opposites or near opposites and they suggest different or opposing themes.
What is an inversion?
This character type betrays his own in order to get ahead within the system of white supremacy.
What is an Uncle Tom?
All the white women in the book represent evolutions of this theme.
What is the resilience a black man has to show to survive a white supremacist society?
These literary features typically characterize stream of consciousness narration. (Name at least two that haven't already been named.)
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In this type of juxtaposition, the entities juxtaposed share many features in common and similar themes, but the second entity in the juxtaposition adds something new to the theme beyond what was suggested by the first entity.
What is an evolution?
These three characters represent the "Uncle Tom" stereotype.
Who are Dr. Bledsoe, Mr. Brockway, and Brother Tobitt.
This theme is represented by Brother Jack and Dr. Bledsoe, and is emphasized by the way their faces are described.
What are facetiousness and manipulation?
The various items that are thrown out during the eviction symbolize this.
What is the history of black culture in America?
These are some other features that are typical of stream of consciousness. (at least two that have not already been named.)
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The Golden Day and the Chthonian are examples of this type of juxtaposition.
What is an inversion?
This character best symbolizes that the American Dream has become a nightmare due to neglect and abuse by powerful white men.
Who is Sybil?
The choices made by the doctors in the hospital best represent this theme.
What is the dehumanization caused by white supremacy?
This theme is suggested by Mary's coin bank and the narrator's failure to get rid of it.
What is the persistence of racist stereotypes in the minds of the people being stereotyped?
These characters are examples of unreliable narrators-- other than the invisible man himself-- from Invisible Man. (Name at least two.)
Who are Jim Trueblood, Mr. Norton, Dr. Bledsoe, Rev. Barbee, Mr. Brockway, and Ras the Exhorter/Destroyer?
The blonde girl in chapter one and raven-haired woman in chapter 19 are examples of this type of juxtaposition.
What is evolution?
This character best represents the ideas of Black Nationalism as violence and divisiveness against the black community as a whole.
Who is Ras the destroyer?
What is rebirth?
This idea is symbolized by Rinehart's hat and glasses.