All 5 Uses of
futile
in
Invisible Man by Ellison
- Somewhere an engine ground in furious futility, grating loudly until a pain shot around the curve of my head and bounced me off into blackness for a distance, only to strike another pain that lobbed me back.†
Chpt 10
- I looked down into their sun-swept faces, digging for the words, and feeling a futility about it all and an anger.†
Chpt 21
- His name was Clifton, Tod Clifton, he was unarmed and his death was as senseless as his life was futile.
Chpt 21 *futile = pointless because it was unproductive or unsuccessful
- Stale and wilted flowers, rejected downtown, blazed feverishly on a cart, like glamorous rags festering beneath a futile spray from a punctured fruit juice can.†
Chpt 21
- Or was it, did he mean that we should affirm the principle because we, through no fault of our own, were linked to all the others in the loud, clamoring semi-visible world, that world seen only as a fertile field for exploitation by Jack and his kind, and with condescension by Norton and his, who were tired of being the mere pawns in the futile game of "making history"?†
Chpt Epil.
Definition:
-
(futile) effort that is pointless because it is unproductive or unsuccessful