“Black will git you…”
“Yes, it will…”
“…an’ black won’t…”
“It do…”
“It do, Lawd”
“…an’ it don’t” (Ellison 2005)
In the dialogues of the novel, there is also “call-and-response”. The characters that make the dialogues are frequently omitted, and there are few words like “he said”, “I said”, etc., for example, in Chapter One of the novel, the narrator delivers his speech, the audience questions him,
“What’s that word you say, boy?”
“Social responsibility” I said.
“What?”
“Social…”
“Louder!”
“…responsibility.”
“More!”
“Respon---“
“Repeat!”
“---sibility.”(Ellison 2005)
One audience calls to question and the narrator responds in time to answer, just like two musician echo with their instruments.
“Call-and-response” is not only used in the dialogue, but also used in non-dialogue scenes. There are lots of the narrator’s monologues. He usually calls and responds to himself. For example:
“Only one thing bothered me: Since I know that their real objectives were never revealed at committee meetings, I needed some channel of intelligence through which I could learn what actually guided their operations. But how? If only I had resisted being shifted downtown I would now have enough support in the community to insist that they reveal themselves. Yes, but if I hadn’t been shifted, I would still be living in a world of illusion…” (Ellison2005).
The narrator calls out his need and respon本文来自辣文论文网ds to himself by asking “how”. And he answers with a “Yes”. In this way, the narrator calls and responds himself repeatedly.
What’s more, the narrator calls and responds himself in the structure of the novel. While the “past I” calls, the “present I” respond. The ending sentence of the prologue is the question of the narrator: “But what did I do to be so blue? Bear with me”(Ellison 2005). In the following chapters, his question is gradually answered by his bitter experiences. Firstly, he is forced to take part in the royal battle before delivering his speech. Then he is kicked out of school before his dream毕业论文http://www.751com.cn/of the narrator’s experiences ends with a blue and down feeling. It is the response to the question on Prologue.
The “call-and-respond” technique can be found in both the language and the structure of the novel. In all the 581 pages of Invisible Man, there are more than 430 pages or so containing dialogue scenes. It means more than seventy percent of the novel is made up of dialogue scenes, nearly all of which are organized in the “call-and-respond” technique.5.2. The Blues as Soundtrack of the Novel
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