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The Invisible Man
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Chapters 1-3
From the title any reader can see that one of the man themes of this book is the invisibility of a person because of race. But how or why this invisibility has been formed has to be shown in the text of the book, many times through the use of symbols. The first three chapters show numerous times where the invisibility taken on by so many of the African Americans is due to their blindness to the entire situation.
Chapter 1 depicts a scene with the narrator and his grandfather. The grandfather on his deathbed confesses to being a traitor for being so submissive to the black oppression. The grandfather had recognized his invisibility because of his lack of action. Yet in an effort to maintain any dignity he tells his family to to live two different lives, on they outside they were to appease to the wants of white society but on the inside they were to feel the bitterness of the situation they have been put in to. But even with the grandfather's recognition of the symbolic invisibility the narrator still chose to live the life of appeasement.
The narrator's blindness is first seen here. He is not able to see the truth behind what has been shielding his eyes. Because of this the narrator is again blinded, this time by the hope that he will receive a scholarship to a college. His ignorance leads him into a blinded boxing match with many other boys that is set up by many school officials, all of them being white. The narrator is literally blinded to the fact that the men set up this fight to fulfill their own racist desires. The men have total control over the boys, seen in this quote "...and when I raised my gloved hand to push the layers of white aside a voice yelled, "Oh, no you don't, black bastard!'" and even when the boys try to fight the power they are defeated by fear. But in turn the men are also blind to the reality of the actions. The men do not see the boys as human beings but as animals. This is later seen in a quote in chapter three, "To you he is a mark on the scorecard of your achievement, a thing and not a man; a child, or even less-a black amorphous thing. And you, for all your power, are not a man to him, but a God, a force-".
The narrator cannot see past his blindfold though, even after he has taken it off. The boy still attempts to gather up coins off of an electrified carpet the men had set up. And after a dream he has that shows his grandfather's attempt to save him from himself the narrator still is blind.
Chapter two symbolically shows the blindness of many black people through the use of a statue. The statue is described to be a man unveiling a slave, but the narrator thinks again of the statue and believe it could be a veil being lowered to blind the slave. But after birds fly over the statue a "liquid chalk" begins to run form the "empty eyes" that look upon the world. The man as well as the slave in the statue are blind to the world and what is happening.
Later, the symbolic invisibility is create through a new character, Mr. Trueblood. "But I sees there ain't no use reasoning with her then. I makes up my mind that I'm goin' to takes whatever she gimme. It seems to me that all I can do is take my punishment. I tell myself, Maybe if you suffer for it, it will be best. Maybe you owe it to Kate to let her beat you. You ain't guilty, but she thinks you is. You don't want her to beat you, but she thinks she got to beat you. you want to git up, but you too weak to move." Here Mr. Trueblood symbolizes the black people who feel the need to please the white people and Kate represents the white people who do not need a reason to beat up on the black people. This terrible relationship though is what creates invisibility, the blacks loose all dignity and do need feel the need to fight back.
"You see, he has eyes and ears and a good distended African nose, but he fails to understand the simple facts of life. Understand. Understand? It's worse than that. He registers the senses but short-circuits his brain. Nothing has meaning. He takes it in but he doesn't digest it. Already he is-well, bless my soul! Behold! a walking zombie! Already he's learned to repress not only his emotions but his humanity. He's invisible, a walking personification of your achievement of your dreams, sir! The mechanical man!" This quote from chapter three is yet again a realization of the invisibility the narrator is cloaked with because of his ignorance. The war veteran proclaims that he is a zombie and a mechanical man, something that lacks the experience of life and cannot hold a single private emotion thought of their own. Something done by the white people in order to maintain control in society, it is the loss of individualism.
Tom-
Though I do not agree on your first assumption relating to the title of the book and the reader's perception of its meaning, I must say that your symbolic analysis of this novel was done in excellence! I was intrigued, so to speak, by the way in which you were able to bring out the symbolic meaning that the author was trying to bring out from the title of the novel. Your quote usage was very precise and added depth to your analysis. Though some of your passage was hard to folow at times due to typos and grammatical errors, your overall presentation of how the author took the idea of the silencing of the african american race in olden society, and that they were the "invisible men" of that time period, was on your part an excellent observance of a great piece of literature. I commend you on your blog, and will have you know that you have strike an interest in my mind to delve into the pages of this masterful work, so that I too may indulge in all that the author has to offer about that time period and how people back then lived their lives in the shadows of their adversaries.
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