Although it’s one of my favorite books, it’s not meant for that kind of analysis for first read, especially in high school. There’s too much to unpack, which Ellison did purposely and maybe that partly explains why it was the only book he published.
Anyway, yeah your teacher should’ve hit the high points and kept it moving. You probably would’ve thought that it was amusingly weird if nothing else.
Yes! I still hate that book. I had to read twice read it twice.