I wanted to share a note from my friend, Jon. The Invisible Man (by Ellison) is not an easy read but it is very provocative. I had not thought about the similarities until they were brought up, but I am intrigued to read and compare Dreams of My Father.
I spent six semesters arguing the significance of Ellison's Invisible Man with my students with middling success. Little did we know that seventy years later, he would leave the basement of the "whites only" building and move into the White House:
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=5c263e1d-d75d-4af9-a1d7-5cb761500092
The article is an interesting comparison of Obama's Dreams of My Father with IM. Samuels argues both narratives fall into the category of bildungsroman, and both narrators gravitate towards and then become disillusioned with the father figures they choose to replace an actual father figure (Obama's distant and then deceased father, IM's completely absent dad). See Samuels' comparison of IM's Dr. Bledsoe and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Samuels illustrates how both the Invisible Man and Obama created a blank slate identity of themselves for people to project their hopes or their fears upon.
Personally, I think only Ellison could have written the story of this election. Samuel's tries to mimic Ellison in his article--check out the "crazy" man talking wisdom at the Obama rally.
"Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?"
Invisible Man
I spent six semesters arguing the significance of Ellison's Invisible Man with my students with middling success. Little did we know that seventy years later, he would leave the basement of the "whites only" building and move into the White House:
http://www.tnr.com/politic
The article is an interesting comparison of Obama's Dreams of My Father with IM. Samuels argues both narratives fall into the category of bildungsroman, and both narrators gravitate towards and then become disillusioned with the father figures they choose to replace an actual father figure (Obama's distant and then deceased father, IM's completely absent dad). See Samuels' comparison of IM's Dr. Bledsoe and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Samuels illustrates how both the Invisible Man and Obama created a blank slate identity of themselves for people to project their hopes or their fears upon.
Personally, I think only Ellison could have written the story of this election. Samuel's tries to mimic Ellison in his article--check out the "crazy" man talking wisdom at the Obama rally.
"Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?"
Invisible Man
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