The Invisible Man is Running

I must say that I am quite thankful that we are finally done reading the Invisible Man, a book, despite whatever my test grade will indicate, that I did finish late Sunday night. Despite the pain in the … that the novel was, at least in trying to finish all of the never ending assignments that remain to go on, I did actually enjoy the novel as surprising as that may seem. In my research of Ralph Ellison, I found that he explored race relations in the times after the Civil War in a way different than those before him in that he depicted the African American culture as vibrant and full rather than diminished and nearly dead. This different way of writing about race relations and the invisibility of African Americans was very interesting and caught my interest throughout the novel.
When looking back over the novel in a futile attempt to study for the test, I noticed many things that connected the beginning of the novel to the end of the novel that I had not initially picked up on. One of these things was the “running” theme and diction used. In the moments after the Battle Royal took place as the narrator watched the naked lady do her mesmerizing dance and was forced to fight, the narrator was able to give a speech. This speech contained a certain eloquence that would be reciprocated during his times in the Brotherhood but the white men listening did not truly appreciate it. The school superintendent merely gave the narrator the scholarship and an official looking document and sent him on his way after the white men had been entertained by the black men. The night he received the document, the narrator had a dream where he read the letter and it said “Keep This [expletive for African American]-Boy Running” (Ellison 33). After explaining the dream, he stated that he did not get the meaning at the time, but it is apparent that he eventually did glean the meaning. The funny thing about the letter and the dream is that it came true. Usually when one says that his dreams came true, it is a god thing but in this case, it was the opposite as the narrator was forced to run through various locations. He ran from his home to college and while at college ran around following instructions. He was eventually kicked out for running an errand incorrectly and was ran out of the college and forced to go to New York. When in New York, he ran around the city giving his “letter” of recommendation from Dr. Bledsoe to the employers only to never get a call-back. After this, he went to the paint factory and eventually gave his speech about dispossession after which he again ran away from Brother Jack. This running continued as he followed other people’s wishes and did what they expected of him, something that he eventually realizes and rebels against. In the very end of the novel, on page 534, he states that “I ran through the night, ran within myself. Ran.” In stating that he is running within himself, he is essentially stating that he is running away from himself and his personal identity. His identity has been dictated by other for so long and now that he has decided to harness it as his own, he has been rendered invisible as people can no longer see him in the way that they want, but now must realize that he is finally his own man. This at least was my interpretation of the word running and the invisibility presented in the novel as the two go hand in hand.

Invisible Oppression

The title The Invisible Man always causes thoughts of some science fiction thriller to rush through my head because the concept of invisibility is somewhat unknown to man. Sure, things can be camouflaged to appear invisible and they can hide from appearance by using things as cover, but true invisibility, and here I am talking about a condition when any seeing creature can look at you an see through you, has never been accomplished. Also, man is always afraid and extremely interested in the unknown, so I figured Ralph Ellison would take some weird approach on explaining invisibility through some obscure scientific concepts to satisfy his own interests. I was actually quite excited to read about something that could probably really spark my interest. The only problem was that I was completely wrong in my assumptions of the possible subject matter.
After reading through the first couple of pages in the novel, I realized that Ellison is going to explore a more figurative invisibility, but one that is just as interesting a topic, the inability of people to see the state of race relations. This topic is really only introduced a good ways into the novel when a fight breaks out between the people at the Golden Day saloon as one of the black veterans comments about a white man named Norton being blind to race relations. Despite the real discussion taking place in the meat of the novel, the introduction really struck me because of the fact that it is true, not the part about a man stealing electricity to light his home under a building but the part about how many are blind to the problems around them. In the case of civil rights, it took a man like Martin Luther King to come out and shed light upon an issue that many had chosen to turn a blind eye. In the case of the independence of many countries, such as India, it took a man like Gandhi to band the people together to strive for a goal that people had previously thought impossible or invisible. In the case of women’s rights, it took people like Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to band women under one banner to get the privileges they deserved. In all of these cases, the problems were apparent but remained invisible to the public until there was light shed upon the issue, light that could be taken as synonymous to the large amount of light present in the mans home. It is as if he is trying to fight his invisibility with an abundance of light so he becomes relevant again. This same light is shed upon Norton when he comes into the Golden Day saloon and witnesses the fight and hears the “doctor” talk to him about race relations. I will admit that I am a bit behind on my reading, but I can only guess how the rest of the novel will go as we learn more about the narrator’s invisibility and how he came to see himself in that way.

The Invisible Man

This week marks the first real week back in school, and I have to say, it has gone relatively well. We haven’t really had any major tests, aside from the impossible AP Lit essay, or homework. One thing that I have started at home is reading the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. To be honest, the novel is nothing like I expected it to be. When hearing the title Invisible Man, I thought about a science fiction novel about a man that somehow became biologically invisible and experienced many things in the world from a unique perspective. The man had maybe made himself irreversibly invisible and had somehow conveyed some sort of life lesson through the events that happened to him. This of course is nothing like the actual novel, which I suppose is good because it makes for a very interesting storyline. In the first few lines of the novel, Ellison details that the character is invisible from a figurative sense because he has been ignored due to the color of his skin. The invisibility basically comes not from the fact that people can not see him, but because they refuse to acknowledge him as well as the rest of the African Americans in the US. This brings about a very interesting discussion topic as it was clear that equal rights for all minorities was a big problem, but nothing was really done about it until Martin Luther King Jr. and many other leaders forced the world to realize the situation. It was almost as if the world, or at least the US, could not see the invisible problem despite being apparent to many. This invisibility, which translates into a lack of action by the majority of people, has been a problem for centuries and I can only guess that the novel will go on to discuss the invisibility in greater depth.
During the many liberation movements and civil rights movements that have occurred throughout history, there have been many similarities. One is that people realize that there is a problem, but not much is done about it until a leader appears and takes the situation in his or her own hands. This is exactly what happened with Gandhi in South Africa and in India as he let the people rise up against the oppressive British. It is also exactly what happened with MLK as he led the African Americans and other minorities to fight for their rights against the oppression faced in the US. In both cases, the problem was apparent, but remained invisible to the general public as nothing was done about the issues for a long time. Another example can be with the feminist and women’s rights movements as chauvinistic tendencies had been around forever, but it took the efforts of a few women, such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and others at conventions such as the Seneca Falls Convention, to really get the ball rolling in passing suffrage amendments. I haven’t really read enough of the novel to understand the story line, but after looking through the first couple of pages, I realize why the name Invisible Man can mean more than its literal definition, but can also encompass the struggle of the oppressed.