Unit 1.pdf - Southwest High School

Activity 1.9
continued
Another Perspective on the World
Grammar
&
Usage A b o u t t h e A u t h o r
Good writing includes
variety in sentence length.
A series of sentences
of more or less the
same length becomes
monotonous and boring.
Such sentences may also
lack clarity, failing to
show relationships and
the progression from
one idea to the next.
Notice the difference in
length between the last
two sentences in the
Prologue to Invisible
Man. Consider also the
way Ellison conveys
relationships among the
ideas within the longer
sentence (a compoundcomplex
sentence) as
well as between the two
sentences.
Though Ralph Ellison’s (1914–1994) novelistic output
was small, its influence was huge. Ellison is best known
for his novel Invisible Man (1952). In his masterpiece,
an unnamed narrator struggles against racism and
urban alienation to find an identity. Ellison employs an
all-embracing style—combining elements of African-
American folklore, Native American mythology, and
classical allusions—which he likened to a jazz musician’s
improvisation on traditional themes. Though Ellison
detested being labeled a black writer, he accepted the
label minority writer, because, as he put it, “the individual
is a minority.”
Sketch Images: Review the sketches you made to capture the images
and/or ideas in Ellison’s Prologue. Refine and arrange them to capture
the essence of Ellison’s Prologue in the space below or on separate
paper.