Blog #1 - Music / Black and Blue

As Hans Christian Anderson once said, "Where words fail, music speaks." This quote perfectly expresses my view about music. Music can express arrays of emotion, from sadness to happiness to everything in between. However, these emotions become an almost personal experience for each and every one of us. The songs that induce sadness when I listen to them could bring others joy. When I was around fourteen years old, one of my favorite movies was The Nightmare Before Christmas. There is a particular song in the movie, "Sally's Song", that is the main female's tragic realization that herself and the protagonist are never meant to be because she is 'not the one'. Although this song is completely heartbreaking, it has comforted me during moments of feeling down in the past several years. The fact is, somehow my sub-conscious has linked this almost ominous melody with a feeling of personal comfort.

In Invisible Man, the narrator places Louis Armstrong's song, "What Did I Do To Be So Black and Blue," into the feel of the prologue. This jazz tune explores one man's struggles and isolation in a society of racism. Instead of Armstrong directly stating how he feels, he uses music as a medium to express the frustrations of millions. Ralph Ellison's placement of this song into the story is his own way of similarly expressing Anderson's quote, "When words fail, music speaks." Although the narrator never directly states, "How will it end? Ain't got a friend, my only sin is my skin," by placing the song in the background he is channeling his feelings of frustration into the forefront without directly saying so. He is letting the music speak for him. The protagonist of Invisible Man feels extremely isolated, a feeling which is also explored in the line, "No joys for me, No company." The melodic croon of Armstrong's voice and his deeply symbolic words perfectly exemplify the conflicts and emotions that the protagonist of Invisible Man feels throughout the duration of the novel.

- CAR