Booker T. Washington’s “Atlanta Exposition Address” and W.E.B. DuBois’ “Of Our Spiritual Savings” appeal to Ralph Ellison’s character, “The Narrator” in his novel Invisible Man by determining the identities of what it is to be “Black” and an “American.” Ellison satirically reflects both Washington’s and DuBois’ philosophies in order to uncover that “Veil” that Blacks would live with for life. Other characters in Ellison’s novel such as Mr. Norton and Dr. Bledsoe support The Narrator’s college experience in living with that Veil.
The “Veil” as introduced by DuBois, is portrayed as the color-line, or border line that Blacks had to live with their whole lives throughout slavery and after Emancipation with the Whites. As DuBois says, “Then it dawned …show more content…
It is expressed as to having that willingness to be more educated than the White Americans. For example, Ellison has Mr. Norton, a White millionaire contributor to the college, and Dr. Bledsoe, the Black president of the college, to examine that advantage the Blacks have over the White folk. The Narrator is then informed by Dr. Bledsoe after finding out Mr. Norton’s decision in going to the less covetable parts of the campus, “…I’m still the king down here…The only ones I even pretend to please are big white folk…That’s my life, telling white folk how to think about the things I know about…But I’ve made my place in it and I’ll have every Negro in the country hanging on tree limbs by morning if it means staying where I am” (Ellison 111-112). Dr. Bledsoe is claiming that he knows his way around the White Americans, that he is ready to obey them and go along with them in any situation just to maintain his authority, his position as the president of the college. By acting as an illiterate Black man, Bledsoe makes the Black person less intimidating to the Whites. He also states in that quote that he knows how to control the White …show more content…
Norton in this case) by taking Mr. Norton to those low profile areas of the campus. Those low profile areas gave Mr. Norton a glimpse of how Blacks really lived around the college. The Narrator repents his decision to go down the road leading to those areas, “Suddenly I was sorry that I had blundered down this road…I saw the group of children in stiff new overalls who played near a rickety fence” (Ellison 37). The group of children gave Mr. Norton an image of what the Black person’s reality was outside the educational institution, an “eye-opener” as to what Bledsoe was technically hiding from the Whites. While the reality of the Black person was excluded from the campus, the reality of the White person being mental slaves to authoritative Black figures was
The “Veil” as introduced by DuBois, is portrayed as the color-line, or border line that Blacks had to live with their whole lives throughout slavery and after Emancipation with the Whites. As DuBois says, “Then it dawned …show more content…
It is expressed as to having that willingness to be more educated than the White Americans. For example, Ellison has Mr. Norton, a White millionaire contributor to the college, and Dr. Bledsoe, the Black president of the college, to examine that advantage the Blacks have over the White folk. The Narrator is then informed by Dr. Bledsoe after finding out Mr. Norton’s decision in going to the less covetable parts of the campus, “…I’m still the king down here…The only ones I even pretend to please are big white folk…That’s my life, telling white folk how to think about the things I know about…But I’ve made my place in it and I’ll have every Negro in the country hanging on tree limbs by morning if it means staying where I am” (Ellison 111-112). Dr. Bledsoe is claiming that he knows his way around the White Americans, that he is ready to obey them and go along with them in any situation just to maintain his authority, his position as the president of the college. By acting as an illiterate Black man, Bledsoe makes the Black person less intimidating to the Whites. He also states in that quote that he knows how to control the White …show more content…
Norton in this case) by taking Mr. Norton to those low profile areas of the campus. Those low profile areas gave Mr. Norton a glimpse of how Blacks really lived around the college. The Narrator repents his decision to go down the road leading to those areas, “Suddenly I was sorry that I had blundered down this road…I saw the group of children in stiff new overalls who played near a rickety fence” (Ellison 37). The group of children gave Mr. Norton an image of what the Black person’s reality was outside the educational institution, an “eye-opener” as to what Bledsoe was technically hiding from the Whites. While the reality of the Black person was excluded from the campus, the reality of the White person being mental slaves to authoritative Black figures was