Re-read the following passage from Ellison’s “A Party Down at the Square”:
I tell you the rain was cold. I had to stick my hands in my pockets they got so cold. The fire was pretty small, and they put some logs around the platform they had the nigger on and then threw on some gasoline, and you could see the flames light up the whole Square. It was late and the streetlights had been off for a long time. It was so bright that the bronze statue of the general standing there in the Square was like something alive. The shadows playing on his moldy green face made him seem to be smiling down at the nigger. (2032)
In a blog post between 500 and 700 words, discuss how in this passage Ellison achieves a critique of the violence of white supremacy—a critique that characterizes his story generally. How do the words, tone, and images he puts in his narrator’s mouth achieve such an end? Be sure to draw on specifics from the passage itself in your response.
