Mr. Bledsoe once again is presented to the reader through his own internalized racism against black people. Once the narrator discovers his letters of recommendation are damnation rather than praise, an existential crisis occurs. “Twenty-five years seems to have lapsed between his handing me the letter and my grasping its message” (191). Ellison uses the letters of recommendation to put the nail in the narrator’s emotional coffin. The last shred of hope he has at being readmitted into college (and society as he knows it currently) dissolves. Ellison, through a system of hope and despair, has broken the narrator’s youthful innocence. Like in How to Read Literature like a Professor, Bledsoe acts as a vampire upon the narrator. He is a mysterious and lofty acquaintance. He takes great interest in the narrator’s youthful spirit. Spirit that Bledsoe drains, feeds on, and leaves to wither in the streets of Harlem. Bledsoe metaphorically feeds on the innocence of a young naïve man to gain power for himself. He is a vampire.
Ellison employs the young Mr. Emerson as an alternate avenue for life as a young black man. In the rehabilitation vantage point of this climax: Emerson is the sponsor, and the narrator is in need of a 12 step program on how to navigate life. “There is so much more you could do here…I do know the world you’re trying to contact” (188). Ellison uses the son of Mr. Emerson as the conduit messenger to the narrator to introduce a new generation. From this point on in the novel Ellison has introduced main characters who were much older. By adding a youthful white man into the menagerie, Ellison allows for more change to occur. In one small section, the narrator finds hope, loses it, and gains a new opportunity to turn his back on normal life (college) all together.
It is very insightful of you to mention "How to Read Literature like a Professor". It extends Bledsoe as a character and explains the reason of his actions towards the narrator. I love how you stated, " Ellison uses the letters of recommendation to put the nail in the narrator’s emotional coffin." I like the choice of words, "emotional coffin" as if Bledsoe's actions killed any last hope the narrator had for going back to college and possibly being Dr. Bledsoe's assistant.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great connection between Foster's description of a vampire and the way Bledsoe acts. When speaking about vampires, Foster uses the words "selfishness" and "exploitation" (16). These words definitely describe Bledsoe and his motives for deceiving the narrator. Bledsoe sees a threat and decides to eliminate it by using the narrator's youthful optimism and turning it around on him, feeding him false hopes that ultimately destroy his innocence for the purpose of ensuring power and influence.
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