Ralph Ellison’s “On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz” Essay

Analysis on Ralph Ellisons On Bird, Bird-Watching, and Jazz Ellisons purpose in this essay is to prove that Parker was a close to inventive melodist-a true songster which is evident in carve up one. He uses the fascination of nicknames to symbolize the achievements of Bird and the impact the nickname had on otherwises. He adds in a joke near the end of paragraph two, why, during a period when most jazzmen were labeled spew outs, someone hung the shit on Charlie. to show that even though most jazzmen were called cats at the time, Charles earned the name of Bird because he was above other jazzmen, like a bird would hang high above a cat so the cat couldnt reach the bird. Charless talent was so above all the other cats they couldnt even reach his level. In paragraph three Ellison compares the goldfinch to Bird.He uses a shortsighted apocryphal story of baby Jesus being given a clay goldfinch for a toy and bringing it to life as a metaphor to indicate that Bird brings jazz melody to life. The majority of paragraph three is Ellison going through the species of the goldfinch and how it is characterized, then at the end he hits the reader with the problem of why it does not relate to Bird its like the canary. Paragraph quaternion goes on to show the similarities the mockingbird has that connect it to Bird himself.The sentence organize in paragraph quadruple mimics that of a saxophone holding a great, drawn out note. The sentences are long and drawn out, make the reader have to take a breath in between because the sentences are so long which would happen if a jazzman were playing the saxophone. He is connecting the sound of a saxophone to the sentence structure of the paragraph. The last paragraph also sums up the idea that Bird had a complex life alone it didnt minimize his greatness. All of these strategies bring the reader back to the purpose of the essay which proves that Charles Parker was a most inventive melodist-a true songster.