Essay #2 Idea

After doing some pretty extensive research on Huddie Ledbetter (a.k.a. Lead Belly), I’ve not only been captivated by his unbelievable output (an estimated five hundred songs in his life) and the dramatic true story of his life, but I’ve also noticed a very clear connection between Lead Belly and the protagonists of the last two novels we’ve read: Invisible Man and Native Son. 

I plan to start the essay with a biography that runs along the same lines as my blog post earlier this week. Beginning by running through his early life in the South, I’ll briefly trace the path that brought him up to the North, which, consequently, resulted in his exposure to the Communist Party and the general public as an audience.  He made it North by becoming a driver for the legendary anthropologist John Lomax (father of Alan Lomax). 

To connect Lead Belly to both the IM and Bigger, I want to take different details of Lead Belly’s life and connect them to major events and happenings in Invisible Man and Native Son.  They share Southern origins, a sojourn to the North, the “help” of white communists (who they have much trouble actually understanding or relating to).  

I also plan to connect some of Ellisons’ passages about music via close reading, along with the lyrics to Lead Belly’s song “Bourgeois Blues,” and, “Good Morning Blues.”  Lead Belly also was a “public speaker” in a sense. He wrote many campaign songs for candidates (“He Is the Man” for Wendell Wilkie) and several songs relating to American politics and foreign policy (“We’re Gonna Tear Hitler Down,” “National Defense Blues”).  

Essentially, Lead Belly’s life and endeavors complement quiet nicely both the Invisible Man and Bigger and I think there are substantial passages to close read both in his songs and passages from the novel.