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Personification
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—White Man's Burden:
The novel offers a deeply satirical portrayal of the unnamed historically Black college which the narrator attended for three years before being unfairly expelled. Ellison, who attended the historically Black Tuskegee Institute before dropping out in his third year, was deeply critical of the university in his later life. In this novel, he lampoons the college’s leadership as well as its wealthy trustees. One figure, the millionaire Mr. Norton, is a satirical representation of the white donor class:
They were all such a part of that other life that’s dead that I can’t remember them all [...] But this one I remember: near the end of my junior year I drove for him during the week he was on the campus. A face pink like St. Nicholas’, topped with a shock of silk white hair. An easy, informal manner, even with me. A Bostonian, smoker of cigars, teller of polite Negro stories, shrewd banker, skilled scientist, director, philanthropist, forty years a bearer of the white man’s burden, and for sixty a symbol of the Great Traditions.
The narrator serves as Mr. Norton’s chauffeur while he is visiting the college, to which he has made substantial donations. Though the man at first appears to be kind and sympathetic, Ellison uses this character to satirize the patronizing and paternalistic attitudes of wealthy white Americans towards African Americans. The narrator describes the man as a “teller of polite Negro stories” and a “bearer of the white man’s burden,” suggesting that he feels that it is his duty to help “civilize” black people. Later events in the novel highlight Mr. Norton’s inability to confront the realities of Black life in the American South and the limitations of his sympathy.
Related Themes:
Chapter 4
Explanation and Analysis—Dr. Bledsoe :
After receiving a scholarship from a group of wealthy but sadistic white men in his hometown in the American South, the narrator attends an unnamed historically Black college. Through his portrayal of the college, Ellison presents a satirical portrait of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, which he attended for three years before moving to New York for work. The cynical college president Dr. Bledsoe, for example, is a satirical representation of the administration of such a college. After the narrator returns to campus from his ill-fated outing with the wealthy trustee Mr. Norton, the narrator recounts his conversation with Bledsoe:
“The quarters! Boy, are you a fool? Didn’t you know better than to take a trustee out there?”
“He asked me to, sir.”
We were going down the walk now, through the spring air, and he stopped to look at me with exasperation, as though I’d suddenly told him black was white. “Damn what he wants,” he said, climbing in the front seat beside me. “Haven’t you the sense God gave a dog? We take these white folks where we want them to go, we show them what we want them to see. Don’t you know that? I thought you had some sense.”
In public, Dr. Bledsoe is a stern but respectable figure who speaks idealistically about the mission of the college. Here, however, he reveals his contemptuous and self-interested worldview to the narrator. Furious that the narrator has allowed Mr. Norton to see what he considers to be unflattering and unseemly images of Black life, Bledsoe admonishes the narrator, as he believes that it is the job of the college to “take these white folks where we want them to go” and to “show them what we want them to see.” Ultimately, then, Bledsoe presents a sanitized image of Black America to the wealthy trustees in order to guarantee further donations and cement his own power at the college. Here, then, Ellison lampoons the administrators of colleges such as the Tuskegee Institute, suggesting that they care more about social respectability and funding than they do about supporting the Black community.
Related Themes:
Chapter 10
Explanation and Analysis—Finks and Finkism:
In a scene that satirizes labor unions, Ellison employs dialect and slang associated with working-class, unionized laborers in the mid-20th century. When the narrator accidentally interrupts a clandestine union meeting while trying to eat lunch at the Liberty Paints factory, he is immediately condemned as a traitor by one of the union members, who argues against including the narrator in the union:
“I’m against it! Brothers, this fellow could be a fink, even if he was hired right this minute! Not that I aim to be unfair to anybody, either. Maybe he ain’t a fink,” he cried passionately, “but brothers, I want to remind you that nobody knows it [...] Please, brothers!” he cried, waving his arms for quiet. “As some of you brothers have learned, to the sorrow of your wives and babies, a fink don’t have to know about trade unionism to be a fink! Finkism? Hell, I’ve made a study of finkism! Finkism is born into some guys.”
The union member repeatedly describes the narrator as a “fink,” an old-fashioned slang term, commonly associated with labor unions, that means “informant.” These unions often had to identify and expel informants who were hired by factory bosses to sabotage the union’s efforts. Here, the union member repeats the word “fink” incessantly, even claiming that he has studied “Finkism” and can identify this characteristic in others who might not even know they are “finks.” Ellison, who grew disillusioned with unions and the communist party in the years before he wrote Invisible Man, satirizes what he considers to be the paranoia and racism of the labor unions.
Related Themes:
