Invisible Man: How will we be defined

As I continue my independent reading of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, I can't help but to wonder how I myself have felt as though I was in the some of the same predicaments and mentality of the narrator. Being a minority, it is almost as though you can not help but to have felt inferior to "The Man", as Ellison describes, at some point in time. Many of times there has been an ignorant comment, selfish action, or an all together ignoring to us all in one way or another. Although the novel was set in the 19030's, many of the returned feelings and washed up emotions can and often are still felt today. It is difficult to explain to the exact being of feeling less than, but Ellison has painted the picture beautifully. Everyone can, in some way or another relate to the injustice within the novel, whether it be racially, religion based, or gender wise. Although I am still in the early chapters of the novel, its obvious self doubt and emptiness of the narrator grasps the readers attention from the very beginning.

Only months prior to making the transaction from high school to higher education, Invisible Man also forces me to ponder one nagging question; As I continue into becoming an educated young women, how will I leave my footprints in the "real" world? Will I allow myself to be invisible among all of the others or force my voice, my beliefs, my ideas to be heard? Soon becoming a student of a prestigious private University this fall, I am most certainly want to leave my mark someway or another, not allowing my campus to define me, but that who I am can rightfully represent the University.

Invisible Man is defined by so much more than simply a young mans journey and a coming of age novel, but rather a recognition of each one of our significant rolls in the book of life.

-Jasmine C

I wanted to read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson, because my parents both read it and I recently saw the movie, which I recommend everyone to see as long as you have the stomach.  It is one of the craziest movies I have seen, and from past experiences, the book is always better than the movie.  The beggining 80 pages of the book is pretty boring since it is all about financial situations and it brings up many names and many cities in Sweden (where the story takes place) so you can't really even pronounce half of the cities and names in your head.  I know I wouldn't have been able to get past the first part if I didn't see the movie, so that is why I think you should see the movie before you read the book because it will help you understand all the confusion in the beginning.

Once you get past the beginnning, it starts into the murder mystery that the story is about.  The two main characters, Mikael and Lisbeth, live separate lives which the book clearly illustrates by switching off between the two stories of the two characters every once in a while.  As you read on the different stories of Lisbeth and Mikael are closer together and I am now in anticipation of when they finally get together to work on the case. 

The only thing wrong with the book is that there are a lot of disturbing parts to it.  It might have been even more disturbing to watch in the movie rather than just reading it on paper, but I haven't gotten to those parts yet so I will keep you posted on how tolerable it is in the book.

In Henry Won\rdsworth Longfellow's work, The Children's Hour, the concerns of the par\ternal figure in society is discussed. In his perspective, Longfellow claims that the status of the father figure to his children is tremendously great in that his love for them is boundless. Longfellow describes how he feels his daughters' immense lovem as he is "[devoured] with kisses", through metaphor (Longfellow, line25). Longfellow holds their love "fast in [his] fortress...in the round-tower at [his] heart", meaning that he equates his daughters love for him with the same amount of love that he will never let go of until death (Longfellow, line 33-36). This metaphor reflects Longfellow's opinion on the fathers of society in that there is an existing unbreakable bond between father and child. Despite that work may take nights, fatheres will never grow tired of their beloved children, who he loves just as much, if not more. The father figure in society during the 19th century appears to be healthy in terms of proper love and nourishment for his children.

Excessively Formal and not at all satirical Introduction

Mandatory Link

Having decided upon reflection that the prior version of this document was unsuitable for publication, I have decided to simply erase it and start anew.


Sadly, there being little of worth to talk about, as those thoughts or actions of worth to talk about would land me in jail, this introduction will necessarily be bland and tasteless. That said, I will nonetheless strive to at least meet the basic requirements of a "post," which will credit me for one of the 5 minimum necessary. Shame I forgot about the requirements, having thought them unimportant at the time, something about book reports, or something.


As one might have noted by now, I have a propensity to be rather sesquipedalian while typing. Fortunately, I do, in fact, know what those words mean, so when I use "big words," I don't feel idiotic when I read what I typed afterwards. Implication through omission.


So yeah, Edmond Dantes, he's a swell dude, buys islands and not afraids of anything. Also the titular Count of Monte Cristo, possessing a fortune roughly the twice the size of continent he resides in, and is also a vampire. Long story short, he was framed and imprisoned, got a decent university level education at said prison, and tripped over a rock after he escaped, thus discovering a fortune which enabled him to travel the world and then completely screw over his enemies, who have all conveniently gathered at Paris. Can anyone say plot convenience? And ... that's it, really, the whole 1000 page volume exists simply to tell that story which I managed to summerize in two sentences. The thousand or so pages not used to tell that succinctly stated tale are all simply filler, admittedtly filler of the highest quality, one rarely even notices that one isn't even reading about anything remotely related to the plot in any way.