While listening to Louis Armstrong’s jazz, the narrator pictures a scene in which a black slave woman speaks about her white master. After giving her sons, she confesses that she loves her master but at the same time, she also hates him for not setting them free. Because her sons were preparing to kill him with knives, she gives him “poison and he withered away like a frost-bit apple”. This is an allusion to the apple given to Eve by the snake in the First Testament of the Bible. The apple represents knowledge and the consequences that result from possessing it. Ellison uses this to show that knowledge of ones birthright versus ones societal place is both enlightening and degrading. If there is no way to change status or position is society then knowing that one is being wronged may do more damage then good.
5. Great choice in allusion but the analysis needs further development in relation to the scene itself and in turn linked to the IM. I really like " to show that knowledge of ones birthright versus ones societal place is both enlightening and degrading", but explain more! This is good!
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