Invisible Man

I’m glad that I got the chance to read Invisible Man. If I wasn’t forced to read this book, I don’t think I ever would have. The descriptions through the unnamed narrator really allowed me to get a glimpse of what life was like in the shoes of a black man during the 60s. The novel starts with the narrator claiming that he is invisible. The invisibility is not referring to the ability of the narrator to be literally unseen, but instead to the fact that people refuse to see him for who he is. Everyone else tries to force an identity upon the narrator. The narrator essentially sets out on a quest to find and discover his own identity. The narrator begins his story with the narrator graduating. Being the valedictorian of the class, the narrator is excited to give a speech to the wealthy white folks in the town. Before he can, the narrator is basically sucked into a royal battle free for all. The town’s most accomplished white men gather and take great joy in humiliating the young black men. The accomplished men included lawyers, doctors, and even pastors. These men made the young black men to get into a boxing ring and start fighting blindly. At the same time, the white men shout racial terms at the black men. On top of all this, the black men are humiliated even more when they are tricked into being electrified. After all these humiliating events, the narrator is “awarded” with a scholarship. At this point in the novel, the narrator is extremely naïve and is totally submissive to others. His journey in college comes to a screeching halt one day when he has to drive a white trustee named Mr. Norton around the campus. One thing leads to another and the narrator is unjustly expelled by Dr. Bledsoe. The narrator soon finds out that the letters of recommendations he received from Bledsoe were more like letters of doom. Already in his young life, the narrator has been manipulated a multiple of times. This manipulation continues throughout the entire novel until the narrator realizes that he is invisible. The invisibility theme is very interesting to me. I believe that the invisibility theme and the struggle for identity theme are interrelated. The narrator is blind and therefore unable to make his own identity; instead, he has society impose an identity on him. For example, the Brotherhood forces an identity on the narrator by essentially brainwashing him. They don’t see the narrator for who he is, but rather as a mere tool that can be used to communicate with the people. The narrator finally understands the invisibility theme after pretending to be Rinehart. Realizing that people see him for who they want to see him as, the narrator realizes the fluidity of identity. It is this realization that leads him to conclude that he is invisible. I look forward to doing some seminars on this book as it was really interesting to me.