Chapters 8-11

1. Chapters 8-11 Carolyn Keating, Brianna Menzemer, Emily Petterson

2. Theme Even the purest things have their flaws, and it is through these flaws that their true greatness is revealed. Real identities are revealed when the truth uncovers what conceals them. A simple question can reveal the complexity of an identity. *** Through unexpected events can come a rebirth of a personality. ***

3. Thesis Through betrayal and unfortunate events, Ellison illustrates the idea that these unexpected events can result in a rebirth of a personality as the state of mind created from the home environment is changed.

4. Example 1 The narrator was originally sure that the letters would get him a job in the North, so he had been confident when he passed out the letters to the business owners. "I had been so confident that I had failed to put aside the price of train fare home", (Ellison 170).

5. Example 1 - So What When the narrator first arrives in New York he is naïve to the real world and is too trusting of his superiors. He believes that his superiors would never lie to him. He also looks up to New York as a wonderful haven where everything will work out perfectly for him. When the letters are unsuccessful, the narrator is forced to realize the reality of the world around him and recognize it for the cruel place it really is. This forces the narrator to realize things that he never realized growing up.

6. Example 2 "They'd sent me to the rookery, all right. I laughed and felt numb and weak, knowing that soon the pain would come and that no matter what happened to me I'd never be the same. I felt numb and I was laughing. When I stopped, gasping for breath, I decided that I would go back and kill Bledsoe. Yes, I thought, I owe it to the race and to myself. I'll kill him," (Ellison 194).

7. Example 2 - So What In the South, the narrator was very naïve and believed anything that someone further up in power told him like Dr. Bledsoe. After he moved to the Northand Bledsoe betrayed him, he is overcome with anger. The narrator previously was against violence and was aiming to be an educated man. When he realized that Bledsoe was trying to destroy him, he became angry enough to kill. His personality switched completely from who he was at home.

8. Example 3 "You were trained to accept the foolishness of such old men as this, even when you thought them clowns and fools; you were trained to pretend that you respected them and acknowledged in them the same quality of authority and power in your world as the whites before whom they bowed and scraped and feared and loved and imitated, and you were even trained to accept it when, angered or spiteful, or drunk with power, they came at you with a stick or strap or cane and you made no effort to strike back, but only to escape unmarked," (Ellison 225).

9. Example 3 - So What The narrator's whole life has involved him meekly looking up to his superiors and doing whatever they told him to do, but at this moment his personality changes. He can no longer sit idly by as a supposed authority figure that he doesn't even respect tries to kill him. This drives the narrator to action, while going against everything the narrator was ever taught and everything he has ever lived by.

10. Example 4 During the explosion in the boiler room, the Narrator gets injured and gets sent to the company's hospital. He loses his memory and essentially his whole identity. "When I discover who I am, I'll be free," (Ellison 243).

11. Example 4 - So What The doctors try to figure out who the Narrator is, but the Narrator can't help them out. They discharge him from the hospital even though he's not in the best shape. The Narrator leaves with an "alien personality" and a new perspective on life. He isn't intimidated by important people anymore and is in a way reborn in the hospital and leaves a new person in comparison to how he was raised.

12. Conclusion Looking at our chapters as a whole, we can say trust is a fragile thing. As you grow up, you realize that although you were raised a certain way, you will have to learn to adapt in order to survive in your changing environment. Some say that ignorance is bliss, but if you don't know how life works, chances are you aren't going to be happy with what it gives you.