看不见的人布鲁斯分析 第2页
author compared the symbolism between Native Son and Invisible Man. Through the analysis of the use of symbolism in Richard Wright's Native Son and Ralph Ellison’ Invisible Man, the author reveals the similarity between the two novelists’ literary creation is objective. (Huang Chun Ying 2007)
Invisible Man’s success can be viewed from different aspects. In history, many people study Invisible Man from angles of racism, symbolism, black music, and so on. But there are little researches on the spirit of the blues in this novel. Invisible Man reflects the blues not only in form but also in its spirit. The spirit of the blues can be read in lines.
3. The Background of Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison, who is called the father of the本文来自辣文论文网 African American modernism, has been a pivotal person in American literature since the published of Invisible Man. He was born in 1914, in Oklahoma City. In his childhood, little Ellison was saturated with the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and the bluesy styles of his hometown. During high school years, Ellison began performing on the trumpet and had a great interest in music. In 1933, with the help of a music scholarship, he studied at the Tuskegee Institute in Macon County. He studied systematic classical music courses and he desired to write a symphony when he was 25.
However, in 1936, Ellison ran out of money and could no longer attend school. At that time, America was in difficult economic times. There were not many jobs, and even fewer for the black men. Ellison did different kinds of jobs including janitor, jazz musician, shoeshine boy, and freelance photographer. He also became a game hunter to keep himself alive. Lack of money was an important reason for Ellison to become a writer.
In1952, Ellison published the first novel---Invisible Man. This was his early success. It won the Russwurm Award and the National Book Award and established him as one of the most important American authors in the twentieth century. After the success of Invisible Man, Ellison published other novel in his lifetime, except two books of essays—Shadow and Act in the 1960s and Going to the Territory in the 1980s. He spent his later life on another novel--Juneteenth, which was incomplete when he died.
Music, especially Jazz is an integral part of Ellison’s life. Even on his deathbed, he asked his wife to play a jazz album of Louis Armstrong. In 1994, Ellison died of cancer, at his home in New York City.
4. Related Information of the Blues
The blues is an ethnic music of Afro-American. It is an important part of Afro-American’s culture. It started as a form of folk music sung by the black slaves in the United States, expressing the painful and bitter oppression of black American. In 1920s African American slaves were forced to work a long time and had a very hard life. They were not even allowed to speak their native language. They sang a rhythmic “call and response” to communicate to each other. These kinds of songs were known as “field hollers”. Later, this style developed into a style known as “country blues”. The blues has evolved from the music of poor black laborers into a wide variety of complex styles. Now it has been a major influence on American and Western popular music, such as ragtime, jazz, big band, rhythm and blues, rock and roll and country music, as well as conventional pop songs and even modern classical music and it has become part of the world’s culture.
Originally the blues were structured songs performed by individual singers, guitarists and banjo players. The lyrics were usually sad and dealt with every day issues of slave life. When the blues spread from the country to urban area, the content of music absorbed happier aspects. Today, the blues music has become a multi- culture genre in every corner of the world.
5. The Blues in the Novel
The blues was originated in the heart of black slaves with a rich tone and fullness in words. In Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison uses the 毕业论文
http://www.751com.cn/social document recording a large amount of social phenomena and characteristics. It is as realistic as a blues. Not only the structure but also the narrative language of the novel displays the similar features of the blues and jazz.
5.1. The Blues Way of Narration
The blues words and rhymes run through Invisible Man. They enrich the novel. In Invisible Man, there are many blues words and rhymes that can be seen and sensed between the lines and the structure of the novel. Invisible Man is written in a way of narration. The narrator, an invisible man with no name, moved from south to New York, searching for his own identity and visibility in the white America. The whole life of the narrator is full of sadness. The
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