Closer Reading: The Stories Behind RC Passages and LR Questions – PrepTest 37, Section 1, Passage 3
Under the time constraints of the LSAT, you won’t have time to appreciate some of the great content in the Reading Comprehension passages and Logical Reasoning questions. In this blog series, we’re slowing things down to tell some of the most interesting stories from the test and explain how they can aid in your LSAT prep.
Ralph Ellison and his most famous novel, The Invisible Man, featured prominently in passage 3 of PrepTest 37’s Reading Comprehension section, which suggests the writers of the LSAT felt that the average reader wouldn’t know much about him. After all, they try to pick more obscure subjects to avoid giving anyone an advantage. Hopefully, however, this post makes him slightly more visible to the average LSAT prepper!
Ralph Waldo Ellison (named after Ralph Waldo Emerson, not the “find me” character, despite his relative invisibility) was a native Okie. Despite a full work schedule during his youth of busing tables, shining shoes, and assisting dentists, he learned to play both the trumpet and alto sax, giving him a love of music that was explored in the Reading Comp passage.
Attending the Tuskegee Institute to play trumpet in its orchestra, Ellison devoured literature and was a fixture at the library. He cited The Waste Land, Crime and Punishment, and Jude the Obscure as major influences. All throughout, he continued to develop his love of music not only through playing, but also by tinkering with audio technology. So, ya know, think about how much of your time at college you wasted compared to this Renaissance man.
Moving to NYC to study sculpture and photography, he was eventually enticed to try his hand at fiction by Richard Wright, another author. They both became involved with the Communist Party, and later became disappointed with it. It was this disappointment, in part, that led to the writing of The Invisible Man.
The book won the National Book Award for Fiction, and Ellison would go on to win a number of other awards throughout his life (including the Medal of Freedom, the Langston Hughes Medal, and the National Medal of the Arts). After his death, two posthumous novels were published: Juneteenth and Three Days Before the Shooting…
Ellison’s 81 years were marked with many accomplishments, and the LSAT passage barely scratches the surface! With The Invisible Man being called, at times, the most important novel since World War II, it’s a shame that many haven’t been exposed to his writing, so we recommend you check it out.
So what can we learn from Mr. Ellison that will help us with the LSAT? His studies in a variety of fields certainly would have made him better able to tackle the Reading Comp section, which requires you to be comfortable reading articles on a variety of subjects. It’s not that you need to know the material on the test. Rather, you need to not freak out when you see that first technical word, or realize that you’re in the hard science passage. So take a cue from Ralph Ellison and get some reading in a variety of subjects as part of your studies so that, on test day, your heart rate doesn’t spike when you hit a passage in an unfamiliar area. ?
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Matt Shinners is a Manhattan Prep instructor and jdMission Senior Consultant based in New York City. After receiving a degree in Biochemistry from Boston College, Matt scored a 180 on his LSAT and enrolled in Harvard Law School. There’s nothing that makes him happier than seeing his students receive the scores they want to get into the schools of their choice. Check out Matt’s upcoming LSAT courses here!