The Invisible Man

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsNon-Author OpinionHumanities

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Passage

Published in 1952, Invisible Man featured a protagonist whose activities enabled the novel’s author, Ralph Ellison, to explore and to blend themes specifically tied to the history and plight of African Americans with themes, also explored by many European writers with whose works Ellison was familiar, about the fractured, evanescent quality of European fictional modes lessened his contribution to the development of a distinctly African American novelistic style.

Ellison found these criticisms to voice a common demand, namely that writers should censor themselves and sacrifice their individuality for supposedly more important political and cultural purposes. He replied that it demeans a people and its artists to suggest that a particular historical situation requires cultural segregation in the arts. Such a assumption that audiences are capable of viewing the world only from their own perspectives.

Models for understanding Invisible Man that may be of more help than those employed by its critics can be found in Ellison’s own love for and celebration of jazz. Jazz has never closed itself off from other musical forms, and some jazz musicians have been able to take the European-influenced songs of to explore and express the issues of identity and character that had so interested European writers.

Further, jazz, featuring solos that, however daring, remain rooted in the band’s rhythm section, provides a rich model for understanding the relationship of artist to community and parallels the ways the protagonist’s voice in Invisible Man is set within a wider communal context. Ellison’s explorations in the novel, often in the manner of the transmutation of a cultural inheritance can never be completely cut off from the community.

What this question is testing

Non-Author Opinion

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question

15.

Based on the passage, Ellison’s critics would most likely have responded favorably to Invisible Man

Answer choices

Correct47% picked this
created a positive effect on the social conditions of
Why this is right
This one reinforces the first criticism. 1. focus less on individual stuff / more toward political action 2. use less European stuff / be more concerned with developing a distinct African American writing style His critics believed that the social and political conditions of his era demanded that his art be directed more toward political action. Political action would be aimed at creating a positive effect on these demanding social / political conditions. If the book were achieving positive social change, then the critics would have no grounds for issuing that 1st complaint.
Skill tested: Non-Author Opinion · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
47%
Out of Scope: historical record5% picked this
provided a historical record of the plight of
This one is flirting with the 2nd criticism, but that was about developing an African American writing style, not writing the history of African Americans. 1. focus less on individual stuff / more toward political action 2. use less European stuff / be more concerned with developing a distinct African American writing style
5%
Out of Scope: political contributions20% picked this
contained a tribute to the political contributions of African
This one is trying to make a word salad out of both criticisms together. The critics said, "you should have made a political contribution" and "you should have tried creating an African American writing style". It never said, "you should have written glowingly about African Americans of the past who made political contributions".
20%
Out of Scope27% picked this
prompted a necessary and further separation of American literature from European
Out of Scope: separating US from Europe This one is flirting with the 2nd criticism, but that was about Ellison using fewer European conventions in order to better develop a distinct African American style. 1. focus less on individual stuff / more toward political action 2. use less European stuff / be more concerned with developing a distinct African American writing style The critics weren't worried about separating American from European art. They were worried about separating African American from other art.
27%
Out of Scope: generate diverse audience1% picked this
generated a large audience made up of individuals from many
Neither of the criticisms have anything to do with fostering a diverse and large audience. The two desires the critics had: 1. focus less on individual stuff / more toward political action 2. use less European stuff / be more concerned with developing a distinct African American writing style
1%

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