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NOVELS: The Invisible Man |
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| The Invisible Man begins with
the narrator recalling his grandfather’s
last words. His grandfather felt he had betrayed
his people, African Americans, and his words
serve to motivate the narrator in his actions
throughout the story, even if he doesn’t
fully comprehend his grandfather’s meaning
in them. The story starts after the narrator
graduates from high school. He is asked to give a
speech for a group of important white men, where
he is degraded by them. Afterwards he is given a
briefcase and a scholarship to a Negro college
for his speech. At the college he works as a
driver for one of the founders of the college,
Mr. Norton. Mr. Norton asks the narrator to take
him someplace interesting, but when the narrator
takes Mr. Norton to the bad part of town and
introduces him to some people, Mr. Norton is
shocked and disgusted. When the head of the
college finds out what happened, he expels the
narrator. The narrator attempts to fight the
decision, but he is helpless in the face of
power. He is then tricked into going to New York
to earn money, being told he’d be readmitted
if he did. When he discovers the college head
never intends to readmit him, he forgets about
college, and instead looks for work. The narrator
gets a job working at a paint factory that is
famous for its white paint. When he gets into an
argument with another worker one day, he
doesn’t watch the controls and the machinery
explodes, putting him in the factory hospital.
While there h is given electroshock therapy until
he can’t remember a thing. He is then given
some money and sent on his way. The narrator ends
up joining a political group known as the
Brotherhood, and he works as a public speaker.
The group gives him a new identity and way of
life. Everything is going fine, until the
Brotherhood begins to fear that he is gaining too
much power, and threatens to expel him. While out
one day, the narrator is recognized and attacked
by black nationalists, and so he begins to wear a
disguise. Eventually, riots break out in Harlem,
and he is recognized again. The narrator flees
and falls through a manhole. In order to find a
way out he begins burning the things in his
suitcase. He begins thinking, and realizes how
the Brotherhood has betrayed and used him, as has
everyone else. There is no real closure to his
problems. He decides to make the best of his
invisibility, and believes that in the future
society will change to allow black people to be
heard and respected. This book focuses on the
issue of racism. The title and the story express
the idea that society purposefully ignores and
holds back African Americans. Throughout the
narrator’s experiences with racism, he
changes and discovers many things about himself
and society. There is no closure to the story,
and the narrator is as confused as he ever was
when the book began. However, he is not the same
as he was. Through his struggles he has learned
more of his identity, and how to change and carry
on, even if there is not a truly positive outcome
within sight. The Invisible Man is written as an episodic story. In the majority of novels, each scene leads logically to the next, but in this story, the associations between scenes are far less logical. The story continues in this direction until the end. The book has no closure, though the Epilogue explains what the story was getting at. Because the book is a narrative, the narrator’s thoughts and feelings are exposed, allowing us to see how he changes over time. In the end the narrator has decided it is time for him to come out of hiding and face the world. Ideas like this are conveyed in this book mainly through the narratives, as opposed to dialogue. This novel is focused on the theme that American society purposefully ignores blacks, treating them as if they were invisible, hence the title of the book. The book contains many symbols throughout it. In the paint factory, the black workers who keep it running serve as symbols of the blacks who work unnoticed to keep things running for white society. They are also symbols of how that society takes advantage of them, as the workers are mistreated in the factory. The Invisible Man is rich in literary devices. This book is written as a satire of the myth of American success. Not much was expected of African Americans at that time, and so they did whatever they had to do, whereas whites had certain things they were expected to do to be successful. It uses he first person narrative in order to reveal the narrator’s thoughts and feelings, so we can see more clearly his changes in personality. The book is considered a milestone in American literature, because it was written at a time when things like race issues were not commonly discussed.
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