Sam AAL

  In chapter 24 of Invisible Man, our narrator is posed with a conflicting situation when he is trapped underground during the riot. Instead of sulking in his misfortune, he chooses to make metaphorical lemonade out of the sour lemons he is given by the universe; he uses this threatening occasion to reflect upon his life and his choices thus far. When he is stuck underground, IM decides that the best way to see through the dark is to start burning the possessions he held in his briefcase. All of the things stored in his briefcase were memorials of pernicious events that happened to him throughout his whole life, and burning those items is a metaphor for letting go of the past and removing the impurities from his life. Essentially he is born again through this event. Ralph Ellison wrote Invisible Man in a way that makes the novel seem open to interpretation by the reader, rather than supporting one focused message. Ellison wrote this novel’s ending with a generic main idea that can ...

In chapter 14 of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the narrator (whom I will be calling IM, short for Invisible Man) joins an organization called The Brotherhood with the purpose of making social and political change as a speaker for them. During his time in The Brotherhood, IM learned that the organization might not have been what it seemed, and was using/manipulating him. The organization appears fairly cultish (i.e., I believe it is a cult). To support this contention, I will be using an article from Oprah Daily written by Samantha Vincenty about the major warning signs of a cult, and will analyze The Brotherhood through the lens of these criteria ( https://www.oprahdaily.com/life/relationships-love/a33648485/signs-of-a-cult/ ). Vincenty states that there are 4 main types of manipulation used by cults to brainwash individuals: Behavior control, Information control, Thought control, and Emotional control (the acronym is BITE). I will focus this post on informational control and though...