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Ap Triangle Rhetoric

Rhetorical Triangles of “Invisible Man”

The first speech in Chapter 1 of “Invisible Man” is delivered by the narrator himself.   The narrator delivers his speech about using obedience, submissiveness, and modesty for the social rise of the black community, to upstanding, upper-class white men who request he deliver his popular speech from his high school graduation.   The speaker appears as the timid and naïve poor black boy as he delivers his speech to an audience of rowdy, drunken white men who only allowed him to give his speech after he suffered major humiliation getting beaten in a battle royal.   During the speech, the speaker notices that the drunken white men are laughing at him and ridiculing him as he speaks, but he goes on to speak as articulately as he can with dignity because he still believes in the goodness and righteousness of people and that his obedience and good behavior will earn him a reward.   The speaker’s main purpose or appeal to logos is delivering the message that black citizens like himself should act submissively, obediently, passively, and pleasingly to the white community and live without opinions or aggression towards them.   The narrator is applying this concept to a memory he has of his grandfather who once told him he was to act with humility and meekness to white citizens, although the narrator is not certain whether his grandfather meant that with an underlying contempt or not.   The author, Ralph Ellison, makes the speaker out to be especially appealing to ethos by making the speaker a black boy who is agreeing with the racist views of the bigoted white men he is trying to appeal to.   By agreeing that black people should be obedient, meek, and inferior to the white people and letting them mock him during his speech, the speaker is appealing to their own thoughts and ideas and letting them hear what they want to hear.   The speaker does not necessarily agree with what he is preaching, but he knows that this is what pleases the...