简介:
ralph ell**on,1914-1994
ralph waldo ell**on was born on march 1,1914,in oklahoma city,oklahoma.from h** birth,ell**on’s parents knew he was bound for prosperity.h** father even named him for the great writer ralph waldo emerson in an effort to ensure such success.as ell**on himself says in reference to h** parents,“no matter what their lives had been,their children's lives would be lives of possibility.”mrs.ell**on,a maid,would bring home books,magazines,and record albums that had been d**carded in the homes she cleaned.ralph and h** brother,herbert,were supplied with chem**try sets,toy typewriters,and a rolltop desk so that they would h**e the tools to succeed.
when he was a **ager,ell**on and h** friends daydreamed of being“rena**sance men.”therefore,they studied the values and attitudes of native americans and whites,as well as blacks.ell**on revered and admired the musicians of h** area.at douglas high school,ell**on followed h** inclination toward music.from there,he went to tuskegee institute on a scholarship and dreamed of writing a symphony.after there was a mix-up with h** scholarship,ell**on chose to go north in order to s**e money for tuition.arriving in new york,ell**on found it difficult to find work and even harder to find work as a musician.the result was a succession of odd jobs at harlem’s ymca with a psychiatr**t.there ell**on acted as a file clerk and a reception**t,and held various other jobs around town.during th** time,ell**on met the writer richard wright,who encouraged him to be a writer rather than a musician.
from th** point on,ell**on followed a life of writing in which he earned many awards.h** best known work ** the novel inv**ible man,though he also wrote several short stories.he began a second novel that has recently been publ**hed posthumously.students at rutgers,new york university,and bard college were lucky enough to h**e ell**on as a professor.ell**on died on april 16,1994,of pancreatic cancer,but he continues to be publ**hed.in 1996,flying home:and other stories was publ**hed after being d**covered in h** home.
ell**on ** often criticized for not using h** writing as a propaganda tool to elevate the"black man in society."for instance,critic richard corl**s writes,"the unfashionable fact ** that ell**on's writing was too refined,elaborate,to be spray painted on a tenement wall.he was a celebrator as much a denouncer of the nation that bred him."ell**on defended himself by saying"i wasn't and am not concerned with injustice but with art.
in inv**ible man,ell**on depicts a black individual searching for h** identity or place in society.for example,when the young black men are in the battle royal,they are forced to watch a nude white woman dance.the white observers abuse these young black men for not watching and also abuse them for watching.these black fellows do not know how they are expected to beh**e;therefore,they do not know their place in society.ell**on has the characters in th** novel deal with the problem of incest,which ** not a racial problem,but a social problem.both the black man trueblood and the white man mr.norton grapple with the problem of h**ing sexual feelings for their daughters.they realize that these feelings are unnatural and that the act of incest ** not socially acceptable.
symboli** ** a tool ell**on uses often in h** writing.for example,in inv**ible man,the blindfold symbolizes man's inability to see who he ** within society and the reality of society.another example could be the contrast between light and dark.light can symbolize understanding as well as the"good"of society,whereas dark can symbolize confusion and the"lower scale"of society.
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