Matthew McElroy > Recent Status Updates

I read a few enlightening articles on Ellison this morning which helped me frame the book. First- I had no idea this was the ONLY book that he published during his life. Second, as Bledsoe and Barbee pontificate about The Founder, it came to me that Ellison was referring to Booker T. Washington. Ellison attended Tuskegee and it seems like he is dealing with Washington's complicated legacy.

Maybe I need to pay better attention, but I'm not sure the narrator has a name yet. In that sense, it is similar to the Red Badge of Courage where the main character has a name, but is mostly referred to as "the youth". I wonder if the lack of a name, or the character never being referred to by his name is part of his invisibility.

There has to be something in the story about Trueblood. What makes this sad story of incest relevant? Why is he rejected by the upper-class Blacks at the school and aided by the white people in town? Is this is an allegory that meant one thing in 1947, but can easily mean another in 2021?

Not every book has to be uplifting, but damn, there hasn't much to be happy about in this book so far. Much of that is to be expected in a book about Black people after World War 1, but still...
A biography about Ellison is probably in order when I finish this.