Sandra K. Friday
Art rendering Catlett’s sculpture,
Ralph Ellison,
based on text rendering the excerpt from his novel
The Invisible Man.
Objective: The intent of
Elizabeth Catlett’s sculpture,
Ralph Ellison,
has no significance without an understanding of the work for which he is best known, his semi-autobiographical novel,
The
Invisible Man
, published in 1952. With the two paragraphs I have included from the Prologue of the novel, students, through text rendering, will have a basic understanding of Ellison’s intent, and why he titled it
The Invisible Man
. Many of the experiences described were not unlike those of the author in the first half of the 20th Century in urban America.
First I will show students a slide of Catlett’s sculpture, with details as to who it honors, where it is, when it was installed, what medium was used, and who sculpted it. I will ask them to describe what they see. Then I will ask them how this could be a fitting sculpture for writer Ralph Ellison. What statement is the sculpture making about the man? A few students may know that he wrote
The Invisible Man,
but it is not likely that anyone will have read it.
Next, I will put the sculpture on hold and ask them to read, first to themselves and then out loud, the two paragraphs from the Prologue that I have included in my unit. These two paragraphs are in themselves a short, short story with a plot, a conflict, a character who undergoes a change in understanding, and a lesson for the reader.
One method of
text rendering
is to ask students to record on the left side of a graphic Organizer what they observe to be the plot, including the conflict, and on the right side of the sheet, to copy sentences from the text to support observations they have made on the left side. It would be a good idea for my students if, before they set out to write the plot and identify the conflict, we brainstormed as a review what conflicts are most common: man versus man or society, man versus nature, or man versus himself. With these in mind, students will attempt to summarize the plot on the left side of the Organizer, identifying the conflict. Then, they will find and copy support, on the right side of the sheet, for their observations.
Once finished, it should be straightforward to reach consensus on the plot. Some students will identify the conflict as
man versus man
, given the bloody physical fight that ensues, while others will no doubt claim
man versus himself
. I will ask the students to make a case for their choices. Both have a point. The question to be resolved is whether one conflict goes deeper than the other, or whether they are equally significant. I plan to introduce the term
foil
to my students, hoping the majority will see that the narrator’s struggle is with himself over his invisibility, and that the blonde, blue-eyed man is the
foil
. I will ask students to speculate on whom this
foil
represents. This is not a simple cut-and-dried conflict, so I hope to give me students some latitude.
The next graphic organizer that they complete will actually better illuminate the conflict. Like the graphic organizer for plot and conflict, it is divided into a left and right side for observations on the left, and support copied from the
story
on the right. But, the second Organizer is also divided into three horizontal parts:
At first
,
Then
,
And finally
. Students are to describe the narrator as he
first
appears in the story, then as he
begins to
undergo a
change
, and
finally
, how he evolves at the end with an understanding he did not have at the outset, or an understanding more solidly confirmed at the end. The narrator seems to move from anger at being bumped into, in the near dark, by the blonde, blue-eyed man; to rage that the man will not apologize; to sincere compassion for the “poor blind fool . . . who thought he was
mugged
by an invisible man!” 17
On the final Graphic Organizer students will identify what they think are the lessons of the story, numbering them from most to least important lesson. This is a bit trickier, but they will try to find and copy evidence to support their number one lesson.
These graphic organizers can be used as a means of text rendering most stories.
After completing each graphic organizer, I will attempt to have a structured class discussion to tally various findings and give students a chance to make a case for their findings. I say, “I will attempt” because students at my school arrive with little experience at having class discussions where they take turns talking and listening; all the more reason for these opportunities.
I want students to assess how effective Ellison is in conveying his anger, rage, and frustration over his treatment by this blonde, blue-eyed man who represents society. This could be a writing assignment that I use to assess their understanding of the lesson. Also, an effective strategy for encouraging students to connect with the text is to ask them to pick a quote, copy it and write a response to it. A question to ask them to consider is whether they have ever felt invisible or ignored by a person of another race or ethnic background. I might ask students whether they have ever experienced the escalation of anger to rage. How did they handle it? What was the result? How
might
they have handled it?
Now, after this method of text rendering, I will once again bring up the slide of Catlett’s sculpture, asking students, using their graphic organizers, to write a response to this assignment:
Based on the excerpt from Ellison’s Prologue, in what ways do they find it an appropriate and effective memorial to him?
Along with the three Graphic Organizers, this too will serve as an assessment for me to determine their understanding.