Gathering together at an event to provide for the negroes, all of the important men with a vested interest met at the Grand Hotel. I, for one, found these events “a triumph for the whole community” because they provide an opportunity for the negroes to do something with their lives. In my time as the Superintendent of a school for the negroes, I fulfilled my duty to the community to help the negro. However, in this time I realized that my commitment had not been quite enough, so I organized this gathering for my fellow successful men to fulfill our duties as white men. So, like masters awaiting a slave auction, we gathered as is typical of privileged men.
Entering the hotel, everyone traveled to the grand ballroom. Once luxurious, the ballroom’s “gleaming space of polished floors” now sagged in a state of disrepair. The floor lay soaked in whiskey stains and the ceiling was dotted with smoke stains. Nevertheless, we gathered together on these days to fulfill our duty to the negroes. Convening in rickety chairs around the boxing ring, we enjoyed the bar, which no longer served anything but whiskey. The room was soon foggy with the smoke of …show more content…
This scene occurs in the first twenty pages and already the reader is exposed to some of the recurring themes of the novel. In these pages Ellison introduces the idea of the white man’s burden, and the different stages of its manifestation. From the superintendent we see the more literal approach where he devotes his efforts to actually providing a better future for the blacks. However, from the other white men we see the more accurate manifestation of this ideal when they don’t bother with the speech and just want to humiliate the blacks. Considering this context, I then developed the scene from a new perspective to heighten to contrast between the view of a participant and the view of a
Entering the hotel, everyone traveled to the grand ballroom. Once luxurious, the ballroom’s “gleaming space of polished floors” now sagged in a state of disrepair. The floor lay soaked in whiskey stains and the ceiling was dotted with smoke stains. Nevertheless, we gathered together on these days to fulfill our duty to the negroes. Convening in rickety chairs around the boxing ring, we enjoyed the bar, which no longer served anything but whiskey. The room was soon foggy with the smoke of …show more content…
This scene occurs in the first twenty pages and already the reader is exposed to some of the recurring themes of the novel. In these pages Ellison introduces the idea of the white man’s burden, and the different stages of its manifestation. From the superintendent we see the more literal approach where he devotes his efforts to actually providing a better future for the blacks. However, from the other white men we see the more accurate manifestation of this ideal when they don’t bother with the speech and just want to humiliate the blacks. Considering this context, I then developed the scene from a new perspective to heighten to contrast between the view of a participant and the view of a