Summary and Analysis

Summary

At the beginning of the chapter, the narrator distributes six copes to Dr. Bledsoe only to respond to polite but firm refusals. Concerned about his lack of work, the narrator decides to change his tactics. He writes to Mr. Emerson requesting an appointment, explaining that he has received a message from Dr. Emerson. I have a bread saw. He also writes a letter servicing Mr. Norton. After three days, he was disappointed by the total lack of response, but his money was almost gone, and he decided to remain optimistic. When he receives a letter from Mr. Emerson the next morning, he is sure his luck has changed. Finally safe in his room at Men's House, the narrator concludes that Harlem is an unreal city of dreams where none of the old rules seem to apply. His first instinct is to resort to religion (symbolized by the Gideon Bible on his bedside table), but he rejects the idea, deciding that it will only make him homesick because it reminds him of home. He then considers reading the letter but claims that doing so will betray Dr. It will hurt Bledsoe. In short, the narrator struggles to stick to his values but quickly realizes that in a world where people arbitrarily change the rules to suit the situation, the rules of right and wrong don't always apply. I notice. In this way, Ellison advances the theme of the game. This is emphasized by the narrator comparing the characters to "high tramp hands".

Analysis

The narrator's first dreamy impression of New York is radically different from his first impression of Chicago in Black Boy, in which Richard Wright describes New York as "unreal". The shock carried from the agricultural South to the industrial North seems to require tremendous adaptation and assimilation from blacks who were suddenly driven from home and forced into a foreign culture where Southern laws no longer apply. At this point, the narrator has yet to discover that, while infinitely freer than the South, the Northern version of covert racism is as devastating as the overt racism of the South. )

Themes

Race and Racism

Identity and Invisibility

Power and Self-Interest

Dreams and the Unconscious

Ambition and Disillusionment