Invisible Man Discussion
Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man starts off by explaining that the title is indeed a metaphor, and the narrator simply feels invisible, because as he explains, "I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me" (3). This idea forms the basis for the book, about a man who may be fairly normal for who he is, but is invisible to the rest of the world based on social norms. This idea is further emphasized through the fact that the narrator has no name, which will probably drive me crazy as I write about this book, but is an important detail Ellison leaves out for emphasis.
The story starts off in the narrator's 'hole', a basement in which he is living illegally, stealing electricity to light up the room with 1,369 lights and play Louis Armstrong music. He does not explain why he is here, as "that's getting too far ahead of the story, almost to the end, although the end is in the beginning and lies far ahead" (6). This confusing statement sets up a nonlinear progression for the story.
The narrator goes on to take the story twenty years back to when he had just graduated high school. He was asked to give a speech to a group of important people in the town but first had to have a boxing match with a group of his classmates. Such a form of entertainment seems completely nonsensical and degrading, but that is likely the point Ellison is trying to make. After the fight, the narrator gives his speech with blood in his mouth; that is an image that shows the humiliation that the narrator suffers even when he is supposedly being respected. He then is given a scholarship to go to college, which despite his humiliation, he is very grateful for.
He takes up a job as a driver at his college, and takes one of the college's wealth white donors around campus, and out to the countryside where the poor conditions of some of the black people in the area are evident. Mr. Norton, the man that the narrator is driving, insists on talking to the people there after finding out that one man, Jim Trueblood, impregnated his daughter. Such an idea is shocking today, so it must have been even more shocking when the book was first published. Ellison's inclusion of such detail is unclear to me, but perhaps the reasons will be revealed further in the story.
What do you think "the end is in the beginning and lies far ahead" means? Why do you think Ellison includes the conversation with Jim Trueblood when it would be so shocking to his readers?
The story starts off in the narrator's 'hole', a basement in which he is living illegally, stealing electricity to light up the room with 1,369 lights and play Louis Armstrong music. He does not explain why he is here, as "that's getting too far ahead of the story, almost to the end, although the end is in the beginning and lies far ahead" (6). This confusing statement sets up a nonlinear progression for the story.
The narrator goes on to take the story twenty years back to when he had just graduated high school. He was asked to give a speech to a group of important people in the town but first had to have a boxing match with a group of his classmates. Such a form of entertainment seems completely nonsensical and degrading, but that is likely the point Ellison is trying to make. After the fight, the narrator gives his speech with blood in his mouth; that is an image that shows the humiliation that the narrator suffers even when he is supposedly being respected. He then is given a scholarship to go to college, which despite his humiliation, he is very grateful for.
He takes up a job as a driver at his college, and takes one of the college's wealth white donors around campus, and out to the countryside where the poor conditions of some of the black people in the area are evident. Mr. Norton, the man that the narrator is driving, insists on talking to the people there after finding out that one man, Jim Trueblood, impregnated his daughter. Such an idea is shocking today, so it must have been even more shocking when the book was first published. Ellison's inclusion of such detail is unclear to me, but perhaps the reasons will be revealed further in the story.
What do you think "the end is in the beginning and lies far ahead" means? Why do you think Ellison includes the conversation with Jim Trueblood when it would be so shocking to his readers?
Ellison probably used Jim Trueblood as an example of how some black people further the degradation of black people by their actions. As for "the end is in the beginning and lies far ahead" I think it symbolizes how the book will come full circle ending with the Invisible Man in a hole.
ReplyDeleteThe book comes at you swinging as the prologue is shown to be in the future after a lot of important events. The Narrator talks of light, invisibility, and names that have no meaning to us yet, but may be revealed in the future. It is interesting to see the Narrators jaded look at life and compare it to his original naïve outlook.
The first chapter gives us the grandfather speech which sets up an early conflict with the Narrator and his grandfathers words as his grandfather urges him to, “Overcome ‘em With Yeses" (23). The Narrator struggles to try and understand these words and thinks about them repeatedly when he interacts with white people. It constantly come up when he drives around Mr. Norton and during the Battle Royale.
The Battle Royal was a sickening scene where we get a very good outlook on how black people, white people, and women are portrayed. Black people are used for cheap entertainment by whites and are never taken seriously even during the Narrators speech. They also pawn off money to get rid of the guilt they have for doing terrible things like giving scholarships and giving Jim Trueblood money. For white people, its about keeping blacks in their place, but making sure they don't rise up. I also struggle to find an example where a white person isn't either insulting a black person, or helping them with false sympathy like Mr. Norton.
Women are portrayed almost strictly in the sexual sense as the first image of a woman in the book is a naked one dancing sensuously on a pole. The graphic detail and sexual connotation of women form the girl at the Battle Royal to Jim Trueblood's daughter shows how women are going to be consistently stereotyped by their sexual habits and lower place in society.
Black people are expressed in many different lights in my opinion. Some are a degradation to the black name like Jim Trueblood while others are trying to succeed like the narrator. From what I have seen, black people seem to act like pawns in the white game of social inequality as they fight for money on an electrified rug and agree to fight for white entertainment.
How do you feel about the different outlooks on each group? Are they in anyway accurate of that time or at all?
Entry Three
DeleteAfter the conversation with Trueblood, Mr. Norton and the Invisible Man head back, but before they can get to the school, Mr. Norton goes into shock and this totally freaks out the IM. Panicking, the IM goes to the Golden Day to try and revive Mr. Norton with some whiskey. However, the Golden Day is a brothel and bar which presents a lot of problems as people are drunk and unwilling to cooperate.
Despite some obstacles, the IM gets Mr. Norton inside and revives him the help of a man called the vet. The vet at first seems helpful, but soon starts spouting nonsense that both amazes and annoys Mr. Norton, “He’s invisible, a walking personification of the Negative, the most perfect achievement of your dreams, sir! The mechanical man!” (94). The IM knows this talk will only upset Mr. Norton, but fails to realize that the vet is talking about himself. The vet’s speech is alluding to the narrator’s eventual realization of his invisibility to others.
The IM and Mr. Norton eventually escape the Golden Day, but the Invisible Man knows he is in deep trouble. This is obvious by his constant fretting over Dr. Bledsoe and what his punishment will be. Despite Dr. Bledsoe’s harsh words upon their arrival, Mr. Norton promises that he will explain the whole situation to Dr. Bledsoe. I don’t find Mr. Norton’s promise very convincing as Dr. Bledsoe doesn’t seem like the understanding type.
Before the IM can hear Dr. Bledsoe’s punishment, he goes to chapel to listen to Homer Barbee speak. This only serves to make the IM more paranoid and Dr. Bledsoe less understanding as Barbee talks of the Founder and his ideals in setting up the school and how he got there. When the Invisible Man faces Bledsoe, he is expelled by Bledsoe. The IM immediately tries to leave to tell Mr. Norton when Bledsoe stops him and explains how he has too much power. The whole conversation between Bledsoe and the IM made me quite angry as Bledsoe was incredibly arrogant and is quite ready to crush others to keep his power. Meanwhile, the IM convinces himself of doing wrong even though he did not and is perfectly fine leaving the school the next day.
What did you think of these past few chapters?
There is definitely a lot in these last few chapters; while a lot of what Ellison describes seems irrelevant to the plot, I get the sense that plot is not the main point of this novel. Instead, the novel is meant to describe a social atmosphere and situation through the eyes of a narrator whose character is both very important to the lens of the story but at the same time, entirely unimportant in terms of plot or impact. The de-emphasis of plot in the novel definitely highlights the 'invisibility' of the narrator which is interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis utilization of description in this novel is sometimes frustrating to me because it's long and can be hard to concentrate on, but I really liked how Ellison uses a change of tense in his description when the narrator is going to the chapel at his college, using phrases like, "Into the doors and into the soft lights I go, silently, past the rows of puritanical benches straight and torturous, finding that to which I am assigned and bending my body to its agony," (110). While the novel is mostly in past tense, for this passage of description the narrator speaks in present tense as if he is reliving the moment in real time, which allows the reader to feel as if they too are walking into the chapel. I love how a change of something so basic as tense within writing can create such a different feel to the description.
Dr. Bledsoe is a very interesting character, although I definitely don't like him. He is hyperaware of race relations and uses them to his advantage while appearing to be submissive to his place in society. His philosophy on power is very unusual; "I'm still the king down here. I don't care how much it appears otherwise. Power doesn't have to show off," (142). This definitely ties into the idea of invisibility. Dr. Bledsoe is invisible as a source of power, but he controls much all the same. The idea of power not having to show off also made me think of all of the lightbulbs in the narrator's room. The narrator is quietly siphoning a different sort of power, just as Dr. Bledsoe does with political power.
There are definitely a lot of pieces that the reader has to put together in this novel to connect ideas to symbols and plot points. Have you noticed any significant connections like that?
Entry Five:
ReplyDeleteI agree with your evaluation of Bledsoe and though haven’t made any connections like you have; I am enjoying the detail and thought Ellison is putting into his world.
The next two chapters follow the Invisible man as he is navigating the wonders of New York City. He quickly establishes a place of living in Harlem, a setting that will probably more important later, and begins to use the letters Dr. Bledsoe gave him. It is interesting to see how hopeful and naïve the Narrator is after being dismissed from college. I think we will see some more development in his character and a shift of viewpoints as he spends more time in the real world.
Despite the letters, the Narrator has no jobs and is soon worried by the lack of responses. He soon receives a letter from Mr. Emerson, however, and meets him at his office. It is revealed there that Dr. Bledsoe has sabotaged the letters, stating that the IM will never be allowed back into the college. This devastates the IM who is told to work at Liberty Paints by Mr. Emerson who helps secure a job for him there.
Once he arrives however, he is immediately told what to do with no explanation for anything. I find this very interesting, because much of the white people resent the black people taking their jobs. I feel like the vague instructions are a ploy by the white people to confuse the black people and get them fired. This sends the IM into the basement of Liberty Paints where he meets Mr. Brockway, the engineer. Brockway brags about how important he is and how he keeps the place running, yet he is in the bottom of a basement. This is the sort of invisibility Mr. Bledsoe has as they both have power over huge amounts of people, yet act like they don’t by acting humble or staying out of sight.
At first, all seems well between the two, until the IM mentions the union and all hell breaks loose as the two fight. Soon, the boiler room explodes on the IM he awakes in a machine which doctors explain as a testing machine. Soon the IM is tested on and has his first experience of not having an identity. This sense of no Identity is only cured by Mary Rambo who takes him home and feeds him.
As the IM moves in with Mary, we see a shift in his way of thinking, “I knew that I could live there no longer, that that phase of my life was past. The lobby was the meeting place for various groups still caught up in the illusions that had just been boomeranged out of my head’ (256 Ellison). I think this shift will bring us closer to the IM we find in the prologue of the book as he takes a more jaded look at life. As the Narrator stays with Mary, he comes across an eviction in progress and incites the crowd to attack the evictors. This speech is noticed by the Brotherhood he recruit him to their cause. As Chapter 14 closes, The Invisible Man will no longer live with Mary and is wondering just how his life will turn out now.
Do you think about Brockway? Are there any other characters who symbolize something in the book?
Brockway is a pretty terrible person; his pride is unwarranted and causes him to treat others poorly. At the same time, his fears are real and he uses his pride to cover them up. He is afraid of losing his job because he is uneducated, therefore he looks down on the educated and tries to posit himself as better than they are. Behind the invisible power in this book is a lot of fear and insecurity; just as Dr. Bledsoe sent the narrator away as he reflected badly on the school, Brockway fights the narrator for daring to threaten his pride. With invisibility, Ellison seems to say, comes insecurity.
DeleteThis insecurity is reflected in the ever developing identity of the narrator. One thing that stood out to me in this section was the idea of names. Of course, we never discover the narrator's name, but he does mention it to Brockway after he asks, "I told him, shouting it in the roar of the flames" (208). The narrator is not opposed to sharing his name, but feels like he must fight against his environment for his true self to be heard, and does not succeed. The next time the idea of names comes up is when the narrator is in the hospital and the doctors try to ask him his name. This causes the narrator to have an identity crisis when he cannot remember his own name. He panics, thinking "Maybe I was just this blackness and bewilderment and pain, but that seemed less like a suitable answer than something I'd read somewhere" (240). The narrator finds himself absorbing ideas through his experiences to define himself instead of standing on his own merits. This fits with the motif of invisibility; to become invisible he would absorb light rather than reflect it.
The narrator's identity shifts when he meets with the Brotherhood. He is given a new identity, but it is not an identity of his own. Instead, he is asked how he would like to be a facsimile of someone else; specifically, Booker T. Washington. After the narrator accepts, he is given a new name, a new place to live, and an entire new identity. For someone who had little identity established in the first place, this is bound to be confusing.
Do you think the narrator will ever establish an identity of his own or will he always be defined by the people he interacts with and the roles he is forced to play by society?
From what I know of the Invisible Man, he will probably be defined by the community he works with, not by his true identity. The narrator is always changing identity’s whether its at college or at Liberty Paints.
DeleteOnce the IM joins the Brotherhood, he embarks on a meteoritic rise to popularity as he heads the Harlem District along with Brother Tod Clifton. Both these men are fiery, young, and ready to see things change and are set up as foils by Ellison. However, the most important distinction is that Brother Clifton has a name while the IM doesn’t, reflecting the idea that the Invisible Man’s identity lies with whoever he is with. At the peak of his power and influence, he is suddenly brought down to earth by Brother Wrestrum, “This here brother constitutes one of the greatest dangers ever confronted by our movement” (399). These accusations rattle the Brotherhood who sends the IM downtown to debate the “woman question” while he is investigated. While there, the IM has his first, well, encounter with a woman where the idea of women being mainly for pleasure and to be used as tools is reinforced. Ellison portrays woman as victims of the system just like black people. Soon the IM is sent back to Harlem to sort out the mess that was created when he left, however, Harlem is not the same. Brother Clifton is gone, many of the districts workers are gone, and Ras the Exhorter is in control. The IM does his best to sort this out, but is soon thrown off-balance by the appearance of Clifton selling Sambo dolls. The invisible man soon ponders the effects of his actions, “I’d been so fascinated by the motion that I’d forgotten to measure what it was bringing forth” (444). Soon after the IM sees Clifton, Clifton is shot and killed and the IM sets up a funeral for Clifton and makes sure he was remembered as a hero.
Despite the IM good intentions, the Brotherhood was not happy about this. In this part of the story, I really despised the Brotherhood as it was soon made clear that they were as racist as everyone else. The committee makes it clear that Clifton was a traitor and that the IM has no business thinking outside of what the Brotherhood wants, “the committee does the thinking. For all of us. And you were hired to talk” (470). The Brotherhood seems to punish people for thinking outside of their parameters, yet encourages thinking against the flow. The Brotherhood is also blinded by their ideals to not look at reason and this is symbolized in Brother Jack losing his glass eye. This seems to symbolize that while outwardly the Brotherhood is accepting and good, inwardly it is as blinded and racist s everyone else.
Do you think that the IM will stay with the Brotherhood any longer? Are they really racist or are they just angry at our narrator?
I don't think the Brotherhood is intentionally racist; their purpose is not to spread racism but they often inadvertently use racial exploitation to achieve their ends without much thought for the people that they are exploiting. In that way, they end up being subtly racist, not with the express purpose of racism, but The narrator is in the process of realizing that he's been manipulated into something that he is not, and soon enough he will leave the Brotherhood, which would fit in with where he's at in the prologue.
DeleteThere was a lot in this section, as there usually is. The narrator's speech near the start of the section was very powerful, especially for something as supposedly off the cuff as it was. The whole blindness and invisibility metaphor was very interesting and pops up several times. When the narrator first takes the stage to speak, he realizes he cannot see the audience and thinks "It was as if a semi-transparent curtain had dropped between us, but through which they could see me--for they were applauding--without themselves being seen" (341). For once, he is not invisible; it is simply his audience that is invisible. However, interestingly, he realizes that he is blinded to the audience, which inspires his blindness metaphor. When he is invisible, he observes what is going on around him and has a better perspective on it, but when he is fully visible, his perspective and observations are much more limited, making his visibility less useful.
The idea of identity crops up yet again, and all of his dealings with the Brotherhood make the narrator even more confused on what his identity is. When he gives his first speech, he feels more like himself than he has in years. However, his own ideas are quickly shot down by the Brotherhood, who tell him to stick to the predetermined ideology. As he became more involved with the Brotherhood, he ended up, "becoming aware that there were two of me: the old self that slept a few hours a night and... flew without wings and plunged from great heights, and the new public self that spoke for the Brotherhood and was becoming so much more important than the other that I seemed to run a foot rase against myself" (380). You were right, his identity gets caught up in whatever group he is a part of at that point. This is so true when he is a part of the Brotherhood that he is aware of it himself, but does little to stop it because he prefers this to his old invisibility. Based on the prologue, however, I think this experience will teach him to appreciate his invisibility.
There were a lot of new and impactful characters introduce in this section, like Brother Tarp, Brother Clifton, and Ras the Exhorter. Which of these characters do you think makes the biggest impact on the narrator's life or the story as a whole?
I would say Ras has the most impact since he is always challenging the Invisible Man when he sees him.
ReplyDeleteAs the Invisible man wanders around, he soon finds solace and invisibility in Rinehart, a man who is whatever the situation needs him to be. The Invisible Man takes this persona on and combines it with his grandfathers advice of yessing them to death to take down the Brotherhood. His plans start splendidly as he quickly fools the Brotherhood and takes Sybil, a Brotherhood leaders wife, to his apartment. Here they drunkenly talk and almost perform Sybil's twisted rape fantasy until the narrator decides against it. Like all women in the book, Sybil is neglected by men and used as a tool, even by the IM. This seems to prove the point that women are tools to the white men just like the black people.
Once free of Sybil the Invisible Man lands smack in the middle of a Harlem race riot. Here he is dragged along on a stream of consciousness ride where he loots stores and burns down a building. Through this haze, he continually holds onto his briefcase which must be a symbol I cant figure out what for though. However, the Invisible Man soon finds himself in front of Ras the destroyer who is out for blood. Despite the peril, it is here the Invisible Man seems to find himself, "A new mood was settling over me as they came on... I went calmly forward, holding the heavy case, but moving with a certain new sense of self... I knew suddenly what I had to do, knew it even before it shaped itself completely in my mind" (557). The Invisible man seems to find himself as he battles Ras and his men, throwing a spear through Ras mouth and hitting his men with a slave leg iron. It is interesting to see how the IM tries to explain how he and Ras have been pitted against each other by the Brotherhood and how he uses a slave iron to hit other black people.
As the I'm runs, he soon ends up in a coal hole where he has a dream/vision of all the people who have used him. All the people who never saw him and used him. Here he accepts the true extent of his invisibility and fights back against his inner demons. He conqueours those who took him for granted, and retreats from society to hibernate. He soon contemplates the journey he took and decides that it is time for him to return, but as someone fully aware of his invisible nature. He ends with a final, chilling passage which ironically, rhymes, "But only partially true: Being invisible and without substance, a disemobodied voice, as it were, what else could I do? What else but try to tell you what was really happening when your eyes where looking through? And it is this which frightens me: Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?"
The structure of this book sort of makes sense at the end, although I still feel as if most of the plot points were less about plot and more about creating symbolism and atmosphere, as well as social commentary. This is not a singular coherent story, and really, there is no beginning and end as the beginning and end are the same. The book has distinctive sections of plot but the story doesn't seem to have the typical plot diagram rise and fall; the narrator has several ups and downs, and while maybe his anger at the betrayal of the Brotherhood could be considered a climax, but in general, the book seems like a collection of events meant to portray a character and several themes.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator figures out who he really is when others mistake him for who he is not. When several people believe that he is Rinehart, he realizes the whole scope of his invisibility; "How many days could you walk the streets of the big city without encountering anyone who knew you, and how many nights? You could actually make yourself anew. The notion was frightening, for now the world seemed to flow before my eyes. All boundaries down, freedom was not only
the recognition of necessity, it was the recognition of possibility. And sitting there trembling I caught a brief glimpse of the possibilities posed by Rinehart's multiple personalities and turned away" (386... in a different copy of the book). For most of the book, the narrator has believed that visibility is power. But having been in a position of visibility and yet powerless to truly change things, he realizes that his invisibility is an asset, and that he can change the world from behind the scenes. Without realizing it, he comes to understand Bledsoe's philosophy of power; no one needs to know what he is doing, as long as he can make changes invisibly. This realization is a turning point for the narrator; afterwards, he turns his back on the Brotherhood because he believes they have used him as a pawn.
His newfound realization of his invisibility reinforces his wish for independence. He allows himself to be used a few more times, most notably with Sybil, but once he in in the hole, he decides to fight back against those who have used him, to become his own (invisible) person. The epilogue seems like a strange place to end the story, as the narrator seems to be planning some big action that will carry out all that he desires after what he has learned from his journey. It seems to be setting up for a sequel, but I don't think that's where Ellison was going with it. Instead, I think the ending leaves the reader with the idea that Ellison's themes are not of the past, but still very much in the present. And even today, 70 years later, you could argue that is true.