Literature-In-English Paper 2 WASSCE (PC), 2023

Question 6                  RALPH ELLISON: Invisible Man

Why is Dr. Bledsoe angry that the narrator had driven Mr. Norton to the black quarters and the Golden day?

This question requires the candidates to give a comprehensive assessment of Dr Bledsoe’s anger that the narrator had driven Mr. Norton to the black quarters and the Golden Day.
Candidates were expected to discuss the following:

  • Statement of the theme of racial discrimination and the experiences of African-Americans in a white-dominated society.
  • Identification of the Black Quarters, Golden Day, Dr Bledsoe and the narrator.
  • The driving assignment
  • Dr. Bledsoe instructs the narrator to drive Mr. Norton round the college grounds.
  • Mr. Norton asks the narrator to drive a little afield to the black quarters.
  • Mr. Norton encounters Trueblood and listens to his story of incest.
  • Mr. Norton is affected by Trueblood’s story.
  • He breaks down and is driven to the Golden Day where he is revived.
  • Dr Bledsoe’s anger: he is displeased with the narrator for driving Mr. Norton to the black quarters. He insists the narrator should have given Mr. Norton an excuse and not driven him to the black quarters. He insists the narrator should have lied and said that ‘the place was filled with sickness – small pox’.

 

  • Reasons for Dr. Bledsoe’s anger
  • Dr. Bledsoe fears that the action of the narrator in driving Mr. Norton around endangers the school and the black race.
  • Driving Mr. Norton to the black quarters exposes the blacks’ infamy to the whites.
  • The drive to the Golden Day reveals the debauchery of the blacks.
  • Dr. Bledsoe fears that Mr. Norton could have come to some harm.
  • Dr. Bledsoe is particularly angry because the narrator fails to reason like him.
Candidates performed creditably well