Invisible man was written in 1952 by Ralph Ellison which was also around the time that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man and move to the back of the bus. This is also around the time that Martin Luther King Jr. lead a boycott of the Montgomery, Alabama, bus system. Ellison is best known for his novel Invisible Man, which won the National Book Award in 1953. In 1992, Ellison was awarded a special achievement award from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards; his artistic achievements included work as a sculptor, musician, photographer and college professor as well as his writing. This story is about Invisible Man who never actually states his name. Throughout the story it seems like he is trying to find himself and it seems like he is very confused about his life. He goes through a lot of racist events throughout the book. In order to analyze the text Invisible Man I used the race theories of Booker T. Washington (“Atlanta Compromise Speech”, 1895) and W.E.B. Du Bois (“ The Souls of Black Folk”, 1903). The concepts of double consciousness and lifting yourself up by your bootstraps are useful concepts for analyzing race in the text.
Invisible Man was asked to give a speech at the main ballroom in a leading hotel. He arrived at the place and was basically forced into a blindfolded boxing match with other black men - Battle royal -. They fought for their lives while the white men just laughed and yelled aggressive comments. After the boxing match they were told to grab money from the rug but when they reached for the money they quickly found out that it was an electric rug and they were still forced to pick up the money. Meanwhile, all the rich white people sat around laughing and encouraging this act. Even after the whole event they found out that the money was fake and it was basically for the white peoples’ entertainment. This is a metaphor for racism because the white people make the oppressed fight for a promise of money or goods but never really intended to give it to them. I see both Booker T. Washington’s theories and W.E.B. Du Bois theories when analyzing this part of the book. When Invisible Man was giving his speech I observed W.E.B. Du Bois’s theory of double consciousness because even though they acknowledged that he was a great speaker by allowing him to speak there they also ignored him because he was a black male. I feel that this moment displays double consciousness because in that moment he has kinda two personalities, one where he is a good speaker and the other as a black man who is seen by the whites as unintelligent. I also see Booker T. Washington's ideas of respecting the white men and taking what they give you rather than fighting for more when he had to keep giving his speech even though nobody was listening. Also when Invisible Man had to change his words when giving the speech because instead of “social responsibility” he said “social equality” and one of the white men angrily asked him to explain himself and he replied that it was a mistake.
Another moment in the book I chose to analyze was when Invisible Man was assigned to give tours of the campus. Invisible man was assigned to give a tour of the campus to Mr. Norton who was a white millionaire founder of the college. As Invisible Man was giving the tour of the college, Mr. Norton, he unwittingly drove Mr. Norton to the cabins which once served as slave quarters. Mr. Norton is very intrigued by the cabins but the narrator does not want to stop because Jim Trueblood lives there and he is depicted as a very sick man because he impregnated his own daughter. Mr. Norton insisted that Invisible Man stop so against his gut feeling to keep going he was compelled to stop because Mr. Norton was a very important person. I see a lot of double consciousness in this chapter. Invisible Man knows what his duty as a tour guide is and he knows that he is not supposed to go to the outskirts of the college (the bad parts) but because Mr. Norton is a rich white man and Invisible Man is taught to obey what Mr. Norton says. This moment was very important because it basically shaped his future.
When Invisible Man and Mr. Norton arrive back at the campus, Norton requests to go back to his room and wants to talk to Dr. Bledsoe. Invisible Man is asked to meet with Norton and Dr. Bledsoe in Norton's room to talk about the whole situation. When Invisible Man arrives at Norton's room he is surprised to see that Dr. Bledsoe is not there. Invisible Man is confused but Norton assures Invisible Man that everything is ok because he told Dr. Bledsoe that Invisible Man was not responsible for the actions that took place on the day of the tour. Later on Dr. Bledsoe talks to Invisible Man and is very angry that he took Norton to all the places he was not supposed to see. Invisible Man then protests that Norton ordered him to take him to those place and he is not to blame. Even though Norton earlier agreed that it was not Invisible Man's fault, Dr. Bledsoe angrily tells Invisible Man that he is a black man from the south and should be able to lie his ways out of situations like that. I also see a ton of W.E.B. Du Bois’s theory of double consciousness. All his life Invisible Man is taught to “undermine the whites with yesses and grins” and is basically taught to tend to what the white man says but in this situation he was expected to lie and disregard the white man's orders. In this situation Invisible Man was torn between two different attitudes/ identities.
In conclusion, when doing my analysis of Invisible Man I tried to pick the most important parts of the book, parts that changed the life of invisible man. The main idea of my analysis is to show that there is no easy way to live for Invisible Man. He always has two conflicting voices in his ear and even when he tries to do the right thing it always comes off bad to someone in the scene and how even though there is supposed to be equality he still gets treated like there is none. I feel that the connection I made to Invisible Man show that even though Invisible man is a human he is treated as less than that but life is still very hard for Invisible Man because nobody really accepts that there should be equality. After reading the book I still have questions as to what happens to Invisible Man. One of my questions is; what happens to Invisible Man after he goes in the manhole and the people who were chasing him close the manhole? Also was it a setup that he got kicked out because it seemed like a setup because Norton basically forced Invisible Man to take him to the bad parts of the college and somehow Invisible Man still got in trouble? I feel that throughout the book invisible man is basically set up for failure multiple times. I feel that this was probably a normal thing and that is why Invisible Man experienced so much conflict.
Work Cited
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, 1980. Print.
Work Cited
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, 1980. Print.
Overall, it was a good read and I enjoyed learning about the connections between Du Bois, Washington, and Ellison. Why did you choose to do multiple points of view on the book?
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