10/18 Symbols in the Invisible Man

In class we discussed some of the recurring symbols in Invisible Man and what they may mean. We started with the Grandfather. We discussed how the Grandfather is one of the first symbols in the book and is returned to after almost all bad situations in the book. The grandfather seems to represent the black man being forever beneath the white man unless he fights to over come it. Another very important symbol is colors specifically black and white. These are symbols that are apparent throughout the book, but shown most powerfully in the Liberty Paints factory. In the factory the Invisible Man has to add 10 drops of a black substance to each bucket of white paint. Eventually the Invisible Man notices the paint has a sort of gray tint to it. This draws attention to the name of the paint, "Optic White." The color white itself is a very multi-layered symbol within the book, and includes White America, America itself and purity in some cases. The third important symbol we discussed was veils. Veils are mentioned few times in the book, but the idea of the Founder lifting the veil can be seen several times, for example with the letters. Veils involve a form of willful ignorance among the characters. The next scribe shall be BARROW!!!

English class 9/17/10 Invisible Man and "The Knife" descriptive language

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On Friday in class we started by discussing descriptive language and how it can be used to give more complete details about what is happening in the writing. The list of examples of descriptive writing techniques is as follows:

• Verb choice is unique (buttering)

• Personification

• Unique modifiers (adj./adv.)

• Figurative Language

• Simile/metaphor

• Oxymoron

• Symbol

• Personification

• Allusion=indirect reference to a famous story/image

• Concrete specific detail

Mr. Neal also mentioned that descriptive writing is like pepper, it is good but only in the right amount too little and you don't notice it or too much and it's all you can notice.

And the next scribe will be...

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Ava