Ralph Ellison's Blues

Abstract

Ralph Ellison's essay, Wright's Blues, is distinguished from many on Wright's work by Ellison's use of an art form indigenous to black American culture as the focal point of his critique. His understanding of the blues provides the thematic structure of this essay. A relationship is established between Wright and the blues so that his work is seen against a new background and as a part of a longstanding black American cultural tradition. The result is a fresh and sympathetic reappraisal of Richard Wright's essential contribution. The essay typifies Ellison's persistent reliance on the folk traditions of his own culture and his view of these traditions as important elements of America's overall cultural milieu. They are more than a badge of racial pride for him; they shape in a very fundamental way not only his critical and cultural theories but also the form and content of his fiction. For Ellison, Wright's autobiography, Black Boy, is among other things a blues piece, an extended blues song that deals with the real pain of life thro'ugh confrontation rather than evasion. Ellison's Invisible Man itself is rich in the folklore of black America, and several of the essays in his book, Shadow