Passage Discussion

[vincent.m]

To be honest I really struggled with articulating the scale for this one. I have an idea: Not enough social and political and no distinct African American novelistic style vs. Criticisms too limiting, thematic blend is good (critics vs. Ellison and Author).

P1: Background on Invisible Man. Criticism against Invisible Man.

P2: Ellison's response to critics.

P3: Analogy of blending music in jazz.

P4: Further explanation of jazz's relation to Invisible Man.

Comments please! Thank you!

[rinagoldfield]

Hey Vincent,

Thanks for your post. I think your passage map and scale are good. You’re right that the scale is tricky in this passage, since the author unexpectedly throws "jazz" into the mix in the third paragraph. However, we can think of jazz as supporting evidence for the author’s and Ellison’s position that Ellison’s collage of divergent styles is a strength of Ellison’s work.

I’ve attached my own scale and passage map below, which only slightly tweaks yours. The main thing I added to your map is that the author implies his/her agreement with Ellison in the third paragraph.