in Invisible Man this struggle toward self-definition is applied to individuals, groups, and the society as a whole. The particular genius of Invisible Man is Ellison's ability to interweave these individual, communal, and national quests into a single, complex vision. However, Ellison does not restrict himself to the concerns of African-Americans because he believes that African-American culture is an inextricable part of American culture. Thus, Invisible Man shows how the struggles of the narrator as an individual and as a representative of an ethnic minority are paralleled by the struggle of the nation to define and redefine itself.

All of this pageantry in the story leads Busby to view Trueblood as "a trickster who realizes that by becoming the white community's stereotypical black, he fulfills their expectations and becomes a 'true blood' or pure stereotype" Trueblood and Norton are analyzed and compared/contrasted. Their separate effects on IM are also highlighted.

In this article, the author tracks the growth of identity of IM from beginning to end, through three questions. The quotes are long, so I won't post them.

While the rest of the world was busy bashing African Americans and blacks in general, women were also fighting for their rights and being oppressed by all different races. Ellison displays this in IM by making women IM's weakness and using them as "bait"

I forgot the quotes, but since this is a pdf I can't copy and paste direct quotations. But, it mainly focuses on the leg chain and the effect that Tarp has on IM and his journey and growth.

Ellison's difficulty, one cause of all the cuts, is that matter of self-definition. At a time when many blacks, especially the young, are denying all influences of American culture, Ellison, as always, doggedly affirms his identity as a Negro-American, a product of the blending of both cultures "I don't recognize any white culture," he says. "I recognize no American culture which is not the partial creation of black people. I recognize no American style in literature, in dance, in music, even in assembly-line processes, which does not bear the mark of the American Negro." Unlike Malcolm, he blends American and African. Like Malcolm, however, he sees that black people have a much larger influence on American life than given credit for.

For there is a way for Negro novelists to go at their problems, just as there are Jewish or Italian ways. Mr. Ellison has not adopted a minority tone. If he had done so, he would have failed to establish a true middle-of-consciousness for everyone. In all other parts of the country people live in a kind of vastly standardized cultural prairie, a sort of infinite Middle West, and that means that they don't really live and they don't really do anything. Invisibility touches everyone, and Ellison helps to bring this fact to light.

The Valley of the Ashes and how the people are being oppressed by the upperclasses, and therefore crumbling before their eyes.

Major themes throughout the novel

It doesn't let me copy or highlight because this is a PDF, but look towards page 11. This offers a view on the gender roles during the Great Gatsby

In any event, Gatsby, unprepared for life in the elite class, repeatedly misread people and events. By contrast, his protagonist Tom was in his element, read people and events accurately, and reacted toward his own survival. Gatsby doesn't have the advantages that those born into the higher classes have. He had to start on his own with no background.

Women still are not equal, nor are low wage workers. There is still a large gap in society.

Even though women were oppressed, they still preformed difficult tasks such as serving in the army. The workers also did all the hard jobs that no one else wanted to do, even though they were treated poorly.

Tells about how women's writing has been put down for ages. Much like how anything the low wage worker does gets knocked down, women are often left unappreciated and impoverished.

see if any of the usernames/passwords on this work, most people used Gale or EBSCO
http://mhsmoodle.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=2426
(you prob need to log into moodle and enroll in "library main" to see this, but its a complete list of all the sites the school subscribes to)

"Ehrenreich stresses the physical difficulties in the kind of labor she performs for these experiments. Her health is often in jeopardy, and yet she cannot do everything in her power to heal and become well." For workers, a day off is not an option. No matter how bad their back pain is or how sick they feel, they must show up and give it their all, no matter what the price.

"...the typical middle class, like, "Well, I should look for something better," you know. And then, I began to figure out, if you're paid very little, it could be a disaster to change jobs. Because you might have to go one, two, three weeks without any paycheck at all. And that's not doable." For a low wage worker, there is not the option of finding something better. No matter how hard the work is, or how bad they're treated, they must stay in the conditions just to survive.

"The most shocking in the new book came from an ex-employee of one large retailer, who told Ehrenreich that in 2003 the company held him captive for six hours and interrogated him for giving a colleague a discount on a videogame, before getting him to write a false confession and firing him. A former colleague alleged that such incidents were not unusual." In this article, an interview with the author, Ehrenreich looks back on the reception she has had from the book. In once instance, a worker was fired for something he didn't do. This shows the lack of ethics in the workplace, and the lack of respect employers have for the workers.

"But one of the big shocks for me, almost from the beginning, was how little privacy or rights you have in the workplace. Very early, the first or second flay of my life as a waitress, I was warned by a coworker that my purse could be searched at any time. I just didn't believe that could be legal. But I have since, of course, checked with labor lawyers, and it's true. At work, you have no privacy as to your personal effects, purse or backpack, in any state that I know of." In the workplace, you have no privacy. Instead, you're just another machine who's under the control of the bigger business. Privacy, a right we often take for granted, is almost always denied to minimum wage workers.

(Click the PDF full document at the top, it downloads the article) "In Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich paints the picture of millions of American workers who serve our tables, clean our houses, restock our stores, and take care of our parents. They are paid salaries with which no person can live in dignity, let alone with the hope of ever moving out of the low-class status in which they find themselves. She points out what many of us sense, but few dare articulate, namely that we are willing to accept a form of labor exploitation in our midst while at the same time decrying it in other parts of the world." Talks about how the lower class are all around us struggling, yet mostly we do not know they're there. Their salaries are exceptionally low, but they must try their best to make ends meet and work through the pain.