Dreams (week 2 bc i accidently read ahead last week)

The narrator is waiting for the campus chapel service to begin and is trying to get his mind off the fact that Dr. Bledsoe is going to give him his punishment right after for what happened with Mr. Norton the night before. He hears the hymns of the choir that the white visitors love and he begins to reminisce. He is nostalgic of his moments on the platform where he spoke with his incredible oratorical talents and that memory starts morphing into him zooming in on Miss Susie Gresham, the old woman who was the guardian of the females. I chose this as a dream because I believe it was a subconscious thought due to it's fast pace and it evoked "shame and guilt" in the Invisible Man. Miss Susie Gresham, an old "relic of slavery" who is beyond being "fooled with the mere content of words" and who bears "something warm and vital and all-enduring, of which in that island of shame, we are not ashamed." (111-12) She is a stereotyped "mother figure" of the race, and like most of Ellison's female characters, does not have a voice of her own. She not only embodies the past of African american women, due to her time spent in slavery, but Ellison remarked that she did in fact represent the black women of the future due to her ability to see "the blaring triumph sounds empty with triumph" meaning the underlying truth of Barbee's sermon. Unlike Barbee, she can truly SEE the promise land and that is why she listens to the TRUE music beneath the self serving sounds and images poured from the preachers who are paid to give a good performance. She is one of the first examples of resistance for the IM. She even states, "Boy, someday you'll make the Founder proud!," which is one of the first instances the IM has had someone recognize his potential and give him legitimate praise for his qualities as an individual. (114)  Miss Susie Gresham is significant because she helps plant the seed of individuality and the power of a voice in the IM's mind.