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"I had to move without movin'."
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| | 1 | 2/2/2012 8:01 PM | Crazy Realization As I gathered information for the Invisible Man essay, I realized just how many symbols were in the book. I guess my skimming of the book didn't cut it in finding some mini details. I'm fascinated (crazy because I never was as I read the book) how all the details tie together. I'm so glad that we did this essay, because I was finally able to appreciate Ellison's fine work. One interesting thing that I realized as I wrote my essay was the name of the guy who gave the IM the briefcase after the "Battle Royal" (I did my symbolism on the briefcase). His name was Shad Whitmore. The last name sounds a lot like, "white" and "more" put together, representing how white's will always be the majority of the IM's life. Cray-cray. |
| | 3 | 1/22/2012 7:53 PM | Frantic White Birds On page 285 IM is running from the eviction scene when he comes across these frantic white birds that fly away when he runs towards them. I was wondering what was the meaning of these birds? |
| | 6 | 1/22/2012 7:49 PM | The Briefcase
The items that end up in the IM briefcase connect him to his past and keep the IM remembering all the incidents that he wants to forget and move away from. The items show that everyone’s past is right behind them; no matter how hard someone tries you cannot forget the past. To move forward in life one needs to accept, learn and understand from the past even if it is something we want to forget. |
| | 5 | 1/22/2012 7:46 PM | IM Image Essay So the essay was due last night but I was wondering if others had a difficult time trying to leave plot stuff out of the essay and bring ing more observations that are applicable to real life or whatever. I think I got a decent combination of both, hopefully more of the latter but still. Anyone else have a slight problem with that? |
| | 0 | 1/22/2012 7:44 PM | Coffee OK so i wrote my paper on the conversation Mary had with IM stating that "no matter how good the filters you apt to find a ground or two in the bottom of your cup." now it seems to me like this is saying no matter what there will always be a few bad blacks in their society and there is nothing to do about it. any other thoughts? |
| | 2 | 1/22/2012 5:12 PM | Discipline I have noticed that one of the Brotherhoods main characteristics is discipline. IM appears to struggle with this idea throughout the novel, so I find it ironic that he joins a group that forms its work around discipline. This is why towards the end of the story IM has much conflict with Brother Jack and the Brotherhood, who now find him too uncontrolled to do their bidding as a speaker head. |
| | 0 | 1/22/2012 11:54 AM | Dialectic I wanted to point something out for all those AP Euro students out there, page 504. When the IM is talking with Hambro, Hambro says, "Don't stretch me on the rack of dialectic. I'm a brother." Recognize anything? Dialectic! We just learned about the dialectics, particularly the Hegelian dialectics, and his thesis, antithesis, and synthesis process. In this case, being a dialectic is a negative thing, especially because the dialectical method is described as a torture device...
Apparently, APEH does come in handy sometimes. :) |
| | 0 | 1/22/2012 11:42 AM | Downtown Wares After Clifton's ceremony, the IM walks through the streets of Harlem, and observes everything that is being sold around him. I absolutely love the imagery all through pg. 460 and 461. The watermelon-seller, "crying his wares with hoarse appeals to nostalgia, memories of childhood, green shade and summer coolness," makes the IM think of his life back in the South. This life seems to be the life of an entirely different person, and I think the IM reflects that, and how much he and his circumstances have changed.
Also, the "stale and wilted flowers...like glamorous rags festering beneath a futile spray" reminded me of the birds in Emerson's reception area, and how they were compared to rags also. Both birds and flowers were things once beautiful, but soon ruined or altered in some way, whether by caging or rejection, a parallel that could be drawn to so many other things in this book! |
| | 4 | 1/22/2012 11:20 AM | Pg 500 Quote "Getting up to go, I looked at the wall map and luaghed at Columbus. What an India he'd found!"
Maybe I am just missing something obvious but can some one help me out? (This is after the initial Rinehart part - the IM pretending to be him and right before he is going to see Hambro.) |
| | 3 | 1/21/2012 9:23 PM | Major Epiphany
So starting on about page 508, the IM finally has this large epiphany, realizing that “[he] was simply a material, a natural resource to be used” (508). He realizes that during his life thus far, he had done nothing for himself; he was just a tool to help others. Am I the only thinking that if only the IM had realized this earlier, his life would have been a lot more meaningful? He thinks of this in the second paragraph on page 509, asking all sorts of question about how different his life would have been. However, I also see the other side, where it really would not have made too much of a difference. After all, his solution was to yes them to death. I am skeptical to how effective this would have been. Before this epiphany, he was being used, yet after the epiphany, it seems like he will continue to be used, he will just know this now, plotting his attempt to undermine the white power. Although I am glad he finally realized this major problem in his life, I’m not sure if this sudden realization will actually improve his life much, if at all. Do you guys think the epiphany will have a great effect on his life? Sure, he might feel better and be more at peace in his mind, but does that really make a difference? Won’t the whites continue to have power and he none?
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| | 13 | 1/21/2012 10:41 AM | I found this ... |
| | 4 | 1/18/2012 12:01 PM | Rinehart
Central to the twenty-fourth chapter is the fictitious character Rinehart. Different people keep on mistaking him for Rinehart. This Rinehart is different to everybody, to one being a bookie, and to another a preacher. I think that means the IM’s identity is born out of what other want him to be. This is a sad fact really, showing the IM has merely been living to help others, except not in a good way. He never does something to help himself. Not that I’m advocating selfishness, but his life thus far is nothing more than being a different tool to different people. A question I have about Rinehart is the name itself. Naming is obviously very important in this novel, and I’m sure Rinehart is no exception. Ellison offers a little help, with the IM saying something about separating the Rine from the Hart (sorry, I can’t find the page), but I’m still drawing a blank. And while I’m on the subject of names, I know Mary Rambo’s name is important since the Mary part but also because Rambo rhymes with sambo, as in the sambo bank and doll, but does the Brotherhood guy Hambro’s name also go along with the sambo motif, or is it too much of a stretch? |
| | 1 | 1/16/2012 3:30 PM | Optic White, Duh So maybe this is really obvious, but I just noticed it. When I read Optic White, I just thought about the white part of it, not he optic part. Now it makes sense that optic refers to vision. This is ironic because, like many or all of the characters, they are blind, emphasized by Jack’s glass eye falling out. Sticking optic with white emphasizes just how blind the whites really are.
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| | 0 | 1/15/2012 9:01 PM | Repression Reading the part of the book about the Optic White paint, I kept wondering why Brockway was so enthusiastic about helping make the paint that was metaphorically covering up his own people. Sure, I guess it could have just been naivety or because of money, but I thought there was a deeper meaning. When I read the part about Sybil on page 519, I made a connection between the two events. On page 519, in response to the question why does she have the ideas about herself, she says, “Repression…Men have repressed us too much.” On one level this confused me because the word that makes more sense to be is oppressed, not repressed, but then again I’m sure Ellison knows what he is doing. But the pint I’m trying to make is that these parts blur the lines between oppression and repression, almost becoming one in the same. In the Brockway spot, the whites have constantly been supporting the idea that whites are better, so the blacks eventually believe it too. The whites have oppressed them, rejecting their black side, so the blacks repress their blackness and paint over a layer of whiteness. With Sybil, men have told her to act a certain way, so eventually she does, and craves it. While the novel mainly focuses on race, it touches on sexuality and sexism, which shows the novel isn’t merely a racism book. Ellison just uses that as the prime example, showing how it relates to all types of discrimination.
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| | 1 | 1/15/2012 9:01 PM | We Make the Best Paint in the World
On page 217, Lucius Brockway brags about the paint he helps to make, saying, “We make the best paint in the world,… so white you can paint a chunka coal and you’d have to crack it open with a sledge hammer to prove it wasn’t white clear through!” This is obviously a metaphor of blacks being covered up by white oppression, but the finer parts are what I find most interesting. I’m not sure if I am going anywhere with this, but people use coal for energy, and referring to the blacks as coal obviously goes along with the motif of blacks being a powerhouse. But covering over the coal with whiteness suggest that energy is being wasted. Whites use the blacks as a resource, so why would the whites want to “waste” the blacks by making them appear white? |
| | 7 | 1/15/2012 7:53 PM | Unfinished Statement So on page 463, when the IM is being interrogated, and is asked where he got his "personal responsibility", he answers but stops himself short. He first says, "From your ma--" but then decides that that would be the wrong thing to say, and so instead says, "From the committee." What was he initially going to say? I'm really stumped on this one. |
| | 5 | 1/15/2012 7:37 PM | Burning Himself At the end of the novel when the IM is in the hole underground, he burns the items in his suitcase for light. All of is papers burned easily, like his scholarship papers and his brotherhood name, but the sambo doll was stubborn. The point I think Ellison is trying to make is that it is hard, or rather impossible, to erase one’s past. On page 508, the IM says, “I was my experiences and my experiences were me,” so it is pretty safe to say the IM knew that the items in the briefcase represented him. However, it is important to note that the scholarship papers, his Brotherhood name, and the like were easy to burn away, while the sambo doll wasn’t. This is suggesting the papers really weren’t the IM, they were superficial, but the sambo doll is what really represents the IM, drawing a correlation between them. This is revisiting when the IM couldn’t escape from the sambo back earlier in the novel. For better or for worse, the IM cannot separate himself from the sambo stereotypes, no matter how hard he tries.
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| | 6 | 1/15/2012 5:46 PM | What themes are there to racism? So, I've been thinking, and nobody has really addressed this question as we've read this book, and I think it's an important topic to put forward. It's pretty easy to just say racism is the prejudice people have towards people of different ethnicities and races. But there are so many things which build up to this common hate towards others. There's so much trickery, and mystery swirling beneath this hatred, that I am sure one who is racist has no idea of. There's so much pre-judgement that takes place, and we're stuck in our own ideas of racism. But WHY does someone feel this way towards others? Any ideas? |
| | 3 | 1/15/2012 12:08 PM | Bread & Wine " Bread and Wine, Bread and Wine, Your cross ain't nearly so Heavy as mine..."
IM recalls this verse from the Golden Day wen he sees a contrasting image of a white nun dressed in black and a black nun dressed in white. I believe that the relationship between this verse and the nuns is the portrayal of struggles in two key societies. The nuns represent extremes of contrast, yin and yang if you will, each living shrouded by the burden of the opposite race. They represent the viewpoint of the verse, that both races are burdened by struggles, and why they may seem different in "color", they are actually quite equivalent. |
| | 4 | 1/14/2012 7:50 PM | gold coins I have been looking at the gold coins that are thrown out to the boys after they wrestle and it is just another symbol of how the white race treats the black race. It seemed fair that the boys would get gold coins as a reward for fighting, but they ended up being fake. Also, they were put on an electric rug,which shows that the white men never hand anything to the black men, they always make them work and watch them suffer. |
| | 6 | 1/14/2012 12:13 PM | Plot So I know that this is a very symbol heavy book, but the literal end confuses me. He is stuck in a manhole. That is filled with coal. Where are there holes filled with coal? I want to know where this is. And then it says he is roaming around symbolically burning all of his papers from his past lives and associations (which was pretty cool). Then it goes on to the epilogue. HOW DID HE GET OUT OF THE HOLE? This is a plot point I would like straightened out. I know that surface level things aren't supposed to be important, but still, it is bugging me. |
| | 0 | 1/8/2012 8:36 PM | Correlation between Black vs. White and Dark vs. White
I’m wondering if there is a connection between the two motifs, black vs. white, and dark vs. white, like if there is a parallel between blackness and darkness, and whiteness and light. While it may be instinctual to assume there is, it is not necessarily safe to do so. Light is often characterized with blindness, associated to that motif, like the blinding lights when he was giving his Brotherhood speech. But my question is if there is a connection between things that are white and things that are filled with light, and also for their respective opposites. Like in the twenty-fifth chapter, for example, is the fact that the IM is burning parts of his black identity to bring light showing that white power (light) arises from black destruction, or am I intertwining two separate motifs? |
| | 5 | 1/8/2012 5:36 PM | True Invisibility On pg 243 the IM states, "There was one constant flaw, myself. There was no getting around it. I could no more escape than I could think of my identity. When I discover who I am, i'll be free." This was really powerful to me. So, the IM says this when he's having trouble in the hospital answering the simple questions for the man dressed in black (what a friendly color). When presented the question 'what is your name' he really felt a loss of identity and maybe this was when his whole thought of invisibility sky rocketed. Maybe he was just freaked out that he couldn't remember his name after the head injury, but then I thought if he could remember his name, I don't even think he would say it because it goes with his role of invisibility. |
| | 5 | 1/8/2012 4:50 PM | Dark On page 401 Westrum says "He works in the dark, he's got some kind of plot..." The whole working in the dark has come up a couple times. This quote reminded me of the very beginning of the book where someone tells IM to get the power, stay in the dark, and use it. If he is "working in the dark," he's doing exactly what he should, exactly what he needs to in order to get by. But the brotherhood doesn't like that since they want to control everything that their members and leaders are doing. My question is, does the IM really have a plot going on within his brotherhood work ? |
| | 8 | 1/8/2012 4:47 PM | Not Black Enough
On page 303, Emma says, “But don’t you think he should be a little blacker?” to Brother Jack in reference to the IM. This blatantly shows the Brotherhood doesn’t really care about what the IM has to say, they just want a black on their side to make them seem more open-minded and loving. The Brotherhood is trying to show they don’t discriminate, but they are in the very way they want the IM; they are using his as a token. This is similar to the way Mr. Norton treated the IM like a tally on his scoreboard for the college. When Brother Jack says, “Shhh, don’t be a damn fool,” I doubt he means what he really says, that it is about his voice, but rather along the lines of, “be quiet, he can hear you.” The Brotherhood is very transparent, and the IM blinds himself to reality. |
| | 2 | 1/8/2012 4:40 PM | Hearing What You Want to Hear On page 573, the invisible man starts to talk about how people like to hear only what they want to hear whether it is the truth or not. When IM tried to tell the truth and be honest, he was hated and no one was satisfied by it. When he justified mistaken beliefs or gave them incorrect answers that they wanted to hear, the people loved it and were satisfied by it. This, I found very interesting, how people would rather hear a lie that sound nice rather than the truth that may hurt a little. The truth is the only thing that will help anybody, telling lies and having deception will only push away the truth further and further into one's body and that will cause a person to possibly go crazy and be depressed. I personally would rather hear the truth but most people are shallow enough to just want the good lies. |
| | 0 | 1/8/2012 4:30 PM | Pigeon Drop Going back and reading the scene when the IM destroys Mary's bank and then tries to get rid of it on the street, I found the phrase "pigeon drop" on page 330. I was curious as to what it was, so I did a little research, and it's described as a scam in which a person is duped into putting in some of their money "in good faith" when a bag/purse/envelope is found with a much larger amount of money. They are befriended by the scammer, who soon has their confidence. Further description here. This made me think of the larger picture of the Brotherhood. Brother Jack and the other big wigs hire the IM for his speaking ability (evidenced by the statement "you were not hired to think") so their cause can be advanced. The IM is even approached on teh street and goes to a diner with Brother Jack! He soon puts his entire trust in them, yet in the end, the IM gets absolutely nothing out of it-in fact, he feels that he loses his identity. Thoughts? |
| | 1 | 1/8/2012 4:23 PM | Yay, another post about the symbolism of black and white! So on page 354 the IM says, "I thought of Bledsoe and Norton and what they had done. By kicking me into the dark they'd made me see the possibility of achieving something greater and more important than I'd ever dreamed." This made me think it's almost as though he is saying you must go through black to get to the white. Just like how you must mix black in the paint to get the perfect white. Most people aren't born into power (related to white). They're either born in darkness or somewhere in the middle (related to blackness). You can either become comfortable with this, or you can strive towards the lighter, whiter side and try to become more powerful. Which is, in essence, what the IM really wants. But not everyone does this, and we need those ones in the dark to hold power over. "Three white men and three black horses." (page 337) No matter where you are on this spectrum, whatever you may relate these colors too, each needs the other to truly show - to truly exist. |
| | 7 | 1/8/2012 3:54 PM | Sambo Bank
The description of the sambo bank on page 319 in many ways reminded me of the IM, not merely because of the over-exaggerated physical description, but because of its function as well. It is a bank and will open it “grinning mouth” if given money. The mouth reminds me of how his grandfather said to yes them to death, or something to that effect. However, the fact that it is “choking, filled to the throat with coins” is perhaps the most similar. At the beginning of the novel, when receiving his scholarship, he says his “dry mouth, filling up with blood from the cut, almost strangled me.” Also, as part of the Brotherhood, they are paying him to open his mouth and make speeches. The fact that the IM goes berserk when he sees this yet is joining the Brotherhood anyway suggests it is hard to find faults in oneself, but easy to spot them in others. However, this bank could have been a good thing for the IM, perhaps opening his eyes to more clearly see the situation around him. |
| | 7 | 1/8/2012 3:14 PM | IM Rejoining At the end of the novel the IM decides to reenter society. He says he's been hidden away too long, that now he can do something. My question is, what has changed about society or about the IM himself that makes him think he can return? |
| | 4 | 1/8/2012 2:46 PM | Tarp and the IM There seems to be a parallel between Brother Tarp and and the IM. On page 387, Tarp tells the IM how, after being chained up, his leg dragged even though there was nothing medically wrong with it. Think about the IM's constant pursuit to please a higher power (the people at the college, his prospective employers, the Brotherhood) as his own figurative shackle.
However, unlike Tarp, the IM doesn't choose to say "no" to his chain; he wears it believing that all the dragging will amount to some reward. |
| | 1 | 1/8/2012 1:51 PM | Bledsoe Does the IM actually see Beldose in the Men's house. I remember reading it and the text seemed to confirm that IM just thought it was Bledsoe, but as the novel continued IM mentions how he saw Bledsoe in the Men's House. Did he actually see him, and if not does he know that it actually wasn't him? |
| | 3 | 1/8/2012 1:25 PM | Dead Limbs
On page 291, near the end of Chapter Fourteen, Brother Jack’s opinion of the old struck me as odd. He says, “It’s sad, yes. But they’re already dead, defunct. History has passed them by. Unfortunate, but there’s nothing to do about them.” He then continues, comparing them to dead branches on a tree that must be pruned away to allow room for the young and fresh to grow. If I were in the IM’s position, this would be a red flag to me. This would show me the Brotherhood doesn’t really care about genuinely helping people, but rather to care for itself. Once again, the IM falls victim to his naivety. Although he was grown up in one sense by seeing through the hypocrisy of the two-faced Dr. Bledsoe, he fails to see similar characteristics in others. He is blind to the reality that the Brotherhood is doing what they are for personal gain, not for the betterment of the community. Despite this obvious red flag, he leaves Mary and his home to foray into this new life without much hesitation. |
| | 5 | 1/8/2012 1:10 PM | Invisibility On page 301, the IM realizes he is invisible, or at least in one instance. He says, “It was as though they hadn’t seen me, as though I were here, and yet now here.” The descriptions preceding this statement are of a lavish room, filled with “Italian-red draperies that fell in rich folds,” a grand piano, and “several attractive young women.” He knows he does not fit into the picture. He definitely feels out of place, and almost seems like he wants to be invisible. He loosens up after talking with Brother Jack for a while, but that may just be because of the alcohol. This out of place feeling is emphasized by the “pale beige upholstery of the blond wood chairs.” Initially, he does not fit into the Brotherhood. |
| | 12 | 1/8/2012 12:46 PM | Yams In first hour, we discussed the importance of yams on page 266, when he proudly declares, “I yam what I am.” I felt proud of the IM for not being ashamed of his Southern ways and embracing his culture. Just as quickly he embraces his culture, however, he is disgusted by it, throwing out the frost-bitten yam. This separation from his true self continues when he eats the cheesecake. He acts so proper, and eats it to be fancy. He is eating more for what it represents, not for the food itself. He is co careful to maintain a good image that he is forgetting his heritage. This separation continues when he joins the Brotherhood, furthering the suppression of his inner self. He is always putting up a façade, never truly embracing who is really is. What cultural things he does experience are short lived and erased out of his memory; he is trying too hard to conform.
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| | 4 | 1/8/2012 12:34 PM | Subcultures of a Race Reading Ras the Exhorter's spiel to IM and Clifton in Chapter 17 caused me to ponder on what are the differences in thoughts between subgroups of a race fighting for identity and equality. For instance, consider three main subcultures of the black community in the novel. There are the Southern blacks, the Harlem northern African Americans, and also the legitimate Africans such as Ras. All seem to be fighting in some way to find a valid place in white society, yet all have different tactics and beliefs. |
| | 4 | 1/8/2012 11:10 AM | Leaders: Thrown Up or Chewed Up? "Throw them up? Nonsense, they chew them up and spit them out. Their leaders are made, not born. Then they are destroyed." Emma p.302 Well if this isn't foreshadowing, then I don't know what is. Clearly the Brotherhood has some diabolical plan for one of their new leaders, IM. This intense quote also addresses socieies tendency to use and abuse their figureheads. It's interesting how the life a leader is portrayed with more of a negative appeal.
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| | 3 | 1/8/2012 8:06 AM | Is the Brotherhood's Charge Correct? While the charge toward IM of arranging an interview for narcissistic purposes does not seem to be compelling, Brother Wrestrum's charge using the Brotherhood for opportunist purposes causes for further investigation. It would appear that IM does actually use his status in the Brotherhood to gain recognition, to further fulfill his identity, however does not stray from the Brotherhood purposes. What I find most confusing is why being an opportunist is seen negatively by the Brotherhood. Isn't the group partially formed as to offer individuals a chance to "define themselves" through community work and leadership? So why would IM be frowned upon for seizing this opportunity? Is his power just becoming to grandiose for higher leaders of the Brotherhood? Or is IM's power becoming to big for even himself? |
| | 3 | 1/8/2012 7:47 AM | Sound Sound obviously has an important function in the novel, but I can’t seem to grasp what exactly it is. On page 286, when running from the officers, he notices there is “no sound from above, not even the malicious note of the barking dog. On page 317, admiring the Brotherhood, he notes “in the street a siren howled.” On the surface, silence could be associated with fright, possibly stemming from desolation, while noise could be connected to hope and happiness. On page 286, it is almost as if he wishes he heard something, but describing the barking as malicious contradicts this, since malicious certainly does not have a positive connotation. I know there must be a deeper meaning to the noise than this an would appreciate some insight as to what impact sound has. Also, if there is another post discussing this already, a nudge in the right direction would be appreciated.
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| | 9 | 1/8/2012 12:24 AM | No Growth
Is it just me, or has the IM not really displayed much growth through about Chapter Fifteen or so. He continually makes the same mistakes and never learns from them. At the beginning of the novel, he thinks the white men actually care about his speech. Although he is ridiculed, he still leaves satisfied. He thinks Dr. Bledsoe really cares about him, and doesn’t Mr. Norton just sees him as a tally on his scoreboard. By about Chapter Fifteen, he realizes he made these mistakes, but doesn’t apply the knowledge he should have gained to his current situation. The Brotherhood is obviously using him, but he doesn’t necessarily see it. What he says in page 315 applies to this. He says his grandfather “had confounded them all by passing the test, although they refused him the ballot…Anyway these were different.” He always thinks that situation he is in now is so special. Although he sees the errors of his ways in hindsight, he does not effectively learn from them. |
| | 1 | 1/8/2012 12:12 AM | Jack's Glass Eye Jack's glass eye is a big image. It is like looking through 'rose colored glasses'. Through the glass eye, the world is supposed to seem perfect, wonderful, and ideal. Through a regular eye, the world is seen in its reality, its true problems and all that it wrong with it. Jack having one of each, a glass eye and a real eye, shows that Jack is living in (basically) 'limbo', balancing between his ideal world where the brotherhood is in charge and has arranged society and the real world where the brotherhood and Jack have less support than they wish. Jack's glass eye inhibits his ability to see clearly and fully with his real eye. Plus, the glass eye letting him see the ideal world which gives Jack a power over everyone else. |
| | 4 | 1/7/2012 10:31 PM | Blue During the eviction the black people in the streets begin to rise up against the white men throwing the elder couple out on the street. The invisible man began to preach to the crowd:
"Look at him," I called to the angry crowd. "With his blue steel pistol and his blue serge suit. You heard him, he's the law."
(Chapter 13, page 279)
I think the description of "blue steel pistol" and "blue serge suit" was important. Earlier in the book the color blue was associated with white people and the ideal race, as well as the power and importance that came with it. For the white man's attire to be described as "blue" is important, especially considering the fact that he is using his power to remove elderly black people from their home by force.
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| | 1 | 1/7/2012 1:10 PM | A Bullet to the Brain... Almost. I think it's in the last chapter before the Epilogue...? The Harlem Riots are in full swing and the police are shooting all up everywhere and they shoot towards IM. A bullet skims the side of his head (woah, talk about burning pain) and he falls to the ground.
This image connotes a couple of different ideas--
IM is working towards this internal psychological epiphany of how the world works, how society works... and obviously the external events have paralleled. Clifton dies, Brother Jack's eye pops out, he gets to know Rineheart (indirectly), and the heat builds up his understanding. This heat culminates in a fiery explosion bursting out of a gun-- BANG BOOM KAPOW= REVELATION (It also culminates in a burning building, but that's irrelephant at the present moment). And the fact that the bullet graces the side of his head (so near his brain) would, to me, suggest a connection between his mind and this small soaring killer. IM's brain has built up enough heat (FINALLY!) to do some damage. (Ironically, he doesn't do anything except hide underground.) The bullet simply knicks his head too... does that mean that IM has only "knicked" the edge of realization? However, the only way for him to realize everything (in this particular extended metaphor) would be for him to die... which as a plot device doesn't really work for Ellison, so that could be why.
One thing I'm really struggling with is IM's purpose for "hibernating." Unlike Clifton, who had clear desires to die, IM ducks and dodges numerous death traps until he is alone in a basement, writing a book. And the book is great and powerful and meaningful, but I can't believe that IM is "hibernating." Is he? For what? Rather than explaining his reasons for "hibernating," it seems like he is explaining his reasons for "how crazy homeless people got to be the way they are."
What do y'all think?
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| | 4 | 1/7/2012 12:34 PM | The Invisible Man's History and "Future"---Castration Many parts of this novel branch into the surreal wherein it can then be difficult to discern the actual physical happenstances. A prime example of this being as the IM slips into a semi-conscious dream state and is revisited by his numerous puppet masters and their demands to give in (wish I could give you a page number, but I've neglected to actually be prepared with my copy...suffice to say this section is near the end of the novel, after the riots, once the IM has retreated into his coal bin hole). The puppet masters (among them norton, BroJack, bledsoe, etc.) advance menacingly on the IM, knife drawn, to cut off his "orbs".
and here we run into the difficulties. The IM never directly states what "orbs" he means, and in the surreal nature of the dream we lose some of the meaning. It might be logical to assume that the "orbs" are his eyes, as he speaks of his ability to perceive and of his invisibility. But this is not so. In fact, he means his testicals, his balls. The invisible man is being castrated, as is made clear through some discrete language (sic, "seed spilling in the river")
Well wow. there is a heavy symbol for you. Castration is archetypally equivalent to loss of power, to impotence. This meaning is clearly applicable as the invisible man is only now fully realizing how his supposed influence in Harlem has all been architect-ed by BroJack and how invisible he truely is. So that symbol of impotence and inability, how these puppet masters have taken away his power and abilities is clearly applicable.
But could there be more than this first symbol? Often there are layers upon layers of meaning. Indeed, when the IM speaks of this torture, he mention his 'seed spilling upon the river and his history drifted away.'
Could this loss of his testicals also be representative of a loss of his ties to his past? We associate the reproductive organs as being are tie to the future, the source of generations. But there are also strong connotations of family ties in the reproductive organs "seed of my seed" and the like. Perhaps the IM loss is also the loss (or his fear of the loss) of his history and personal story, and of the ability to make a continuation upon it: without his sperm, how can he achieve an immortality by giving life to an extension of himself?
Thoughts? |
| | 5 | 1/5/2012 7:39 PM | Brotherhood Acceptance
I was a bit surprised, although it makes sense, by how easily the IM accepts Brother Jack’s offer to join the Brotherhood on page 309. He expresses hesitation about joining and loyalty to Mary up until the point he is offered money. He even agrees not to talk to his family and to go by another name. This to me strikes me as weird. It is a sure sign that the Brotherhood is just using his to further their club. He scripts the speeches and has him read literature to fit the mold of the organization. Brother Jack grabs his interest by saying he could be the next Booker T. Washington. The IM is so easily controlled by white man’s money. He gives up his old life, his old identity for money. Granted, the rate of pay is quite good for the IM and he makes speeches which he likes to do, but the organization doesn’t want to his make speeches about what the IM wants. They are using him, but the IM fails to see this. |
| | 4 | 1/3/2012 12:00 PM | Relaxed Regulations
I was kinda surprised how easily the factory hospital released the IM after the work done to him. To me, the IM seemed very confused still. He could not remember his own name or his mothers, and couldn’t speak. Either the regulations were very loose back then, or it was a shady hospital. For sake of common sense, I would not send somebody out on the streets like that. On page 244, they even said how his recovery was abnormal and they chose not to call Drexel (whoever that is, presumably a senior doctor), and just to mark it in the charts. They whole procedure seems borderline illegal to me and I would hardly call the IM cured. Maybe I’m just being overly cautious, did anybody else have a similar (or contrasting) reaction after reading that? |
| | 2 | 1/2/2012 12:56 PM | What Does Grandfather Represent? Just for a bit of clarification, I was wondering if we could discuss the role IM's grandfather plays in the story. I believe that he is supposed to represent the cynical, distrusting part of IM's conscience towards the white men, and possibly a voice of reason that contrasts with IM's collegiate education. Any other thoughts or corrections? |
| | 1 | 1/1/2012 6:32 PM | Ras's Point on p. 375-376 Ras the Exhorter makes an interesting point to IM. Ras states that he is "no black educated fool who t'inks everything between black mahn and white mahn can be settled with some blahsted lies in some bloody books written by the white mahn in the first place." I had never really thought of how strong of a point this was beforehand. It would seem that all of IM's education, even on his own black identity, has been controlled so far by the "white man". |
| | 7 | 1/1/2012 6:17 PM | Name? In chapter 11 after IM wakes up in the hospital he is confused. He see's a man in "white" overalls. What I just noticed is we never find out IM real name! They ask him for his name and he doesn't answer, so they just give him a new one and of course he accepts it. In class Anna Marck started yelling lines from The Crucible. "BUT IT IS MY NAME!" A line Procter says over and over at the end of the play. A name is our signifyer, it defines us, it's who we are. Without it we don't have anything and poor IM has nothing. He let's people tell him what to do adn who he is. He is truely en soi. |
| | 0 | 1/1/2012 5:08 PM | New Identity
The fact that the IM is given a new identity on page 309 is foreshadowed on page 294. On the latter page, he contemplates the initial offer from Brother Jack and dismisses it immediately. He feels an attachment to Mary and can’t see her as dead branch that needs to be cut away. He actually does recognize that the Brotherhood would use him for their own gain. “He only wanted to use me for something. Everybody wanted to use you for some purpose.” He realizes he would just be fitting their mold, merely being a tool that has a function. Once again, this long running motif of blacks as the machinery that powers the whites is brought up. On page 309, his predictions come true. The Brotherhood assigns him a new name to fit their purpose. The only reason he accepts this, however, is because of the hefty sum of money they are offering him. The whites have power over him mainly because of one thing: money. Its influence is so powerful, it changes his identity. |
| | 0 | 1/1/2012 3:03 PM | Are the Evictions a Symbol? After reading IM's first speech as a member of the Brotherhood, which discussed the topic of dispossession, I started to wonder if the act of people being dispossessed from their homes had greater meaning. IM claims that the people are being "dispossessed of their heritage" and are wandering just like him. In this section of the novel, IM believes that by banning together under a brotherhood the people, along with himself, can find a path to a life they deserve. |
| | 2 | 1/1/2012 2:08 PM | Mysterious letter On page 391, after IM gets that letter that tells him not to rise too fast, he starts to think of people that might have written it. It may habe been somebody from the Brotherhood but was hard to tell and nobody seemed to give him any signs that they wrote the letter. Then on page 391, IM makes the note that the person who wrote the letter seemed to have had "learned of my experience with Bledsoe's letters and was trying to use that knowledge to destroy not only me but the whole Brotherhood." Once he said this, the first person that came to my mind was Emerson's son. This is one of the only people who knows this information in the north and would possibly have a motive to write this letter. I just cannot believe that IM said what he said, but still did not even think about the possibility that it was Emerson's son. It is still a mystery of who wrote the letter but I think that Emerson's son could be a likely candidate. |
| | 2 | 1/1/2012 2:02 PM | Interesting Quote On page 573, the invisible man says something that can be very true. He says, "There is, by the way, an area in which a man's feelings are more rational than his mind." In some cases this is true. Not everything can come from the mind and not everything can be done from what the mind thinks is right. Sometimes one has to go with the gut feeling or with first instinct. IM never really thought of his feelings and that was his problem. He "always tried to go in everyone's way but [his] own." He lived as an en soi person and just did what others wanted rather than thinking about how he felt about this and about his own well being. He wasted so much of his life on others rather than himself. He did what others wanted and now he is finally realizing what he has done and will fix it and start doing things the right way, his way. |
| | 3 | 1/1/2012 1:58 PM | Optimism? On page 408, after IM is accused of using the Brotherhood to advance for his own selfish reasons and then removed from Harlem, he starts to try to convince himself that things are alright. He is forced to give up his current assignment and take an assignment downtown about the women question. When IM thinks about this he starts to think that because the Brotherhood chose for him to do this, that they were reaffirming their belief in him and that "the assignment was their unsentimental affirmation that their belief in [him] was unbroken." This could be looked at as IM being optimistic and trying to look at the bright side of things or it could be the IM playing tricks on himself to make him believe that things were fine when they really were not. The IM usually does do the later half of my possible explanations, which makes him a limited perceiver because he is sometimes unrealistic about things. To me, he is probably being unrealistic again, but that is just me, Any thoughts? |
| | 2 | 1/1/2012 1:50 PM | World of Possibility On page 498, the invisible man starts to think about Rinehart and what Rinehart has done. The invisible man discovers that Rinehart's "world was possibility and he knew it." Then IM realizes that he was a fool for not knowing the same thing. He even says that he "must have been crazy and blind" not to see it. The world is full of possibilities and IM failed to notice that. There are no limits as IM points out, " The world in which we lived was without boundaries." One can do anything anywhere and explore the world as they wish. IM wasted so much time on his school and Bledsoe and being this en soi person that he was that he failed to recognize the world of possibilities. He could have done so many other things with his life that would have been much more productive and would have made him a much happier person. At least now he is starting to realize things, but it may just be a little too late. |
| | 3 | 1/1/2012 1:46 PM | "I'm invisible, not blind"
On page 576, the invisible man says, "I'm invisible, not blind." This means a couple of things. One is that he can see others but they cannot see him. Another thing is that he is saying that he can see it all, he is blind to nothing. Now he knows and sees the truth so he is not blind. Seeing is one of the themes of this novel which is what makes this quote even more significant. Speaking of themes, there has been one theme in this novel that has been bothering me lately. It is the theme of color and more specifically red. I have seen the color red pop up many times in the novel and I am still not sure of exactly what it means. Then on page 514, it is mentioned that Jack's hair is red and that is where I really knew that it had to be something very significant, but I did not know how. I wish I knew what it meant, but I just cannot put my finger on it. Anybody think they know?
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| | 2 | 1/1/2012 1:42 PM | Invisibility beginning? On page 485 and into the next few pages the invisible man starts to do some experiments concerning his visibility. All he does is put on a hat, some glasses, and a black coat and all the sudden nobody recognizes him. He is now a completely different person. People are now mistaking him for other people just by what he wears. He now is realizing that nobody really sees and looks at him. Nobody really cares. They just see the mere outside of a person and for him they are only looking at his outfit. He is now seeing that he is invisible and when he really finds out that he is invisible, he will use it to his advantage. Maybe now invisible man will start to make more and more connections to what really goes on so that he can eventually recognize the truth. |
| | 4 | 1/1/2012 12:54 PM | Naivety I feel sorry for the Invisible Man for getting taken advantage of and tricked all the time. But at the same time he is so actively naive that it is hard to pity him when I can see his manipulators' intentions. It is like he is trying to blind himself. There are sad motivations- he just wants to belong and everywhere he tries rejects him when he begins to find his niche. He is trying to find someplace that will validate him as a person and respect his black skin, but also acknowledge specifically that he is black. But I did get tired of him going through this process five or six times. |
| | 6 | 1/1/2012 12:44 PM | Anti-Racist White Guy? In chapter 13 (page 292) the invisible man sat down with one of the guys who heard his speech at the eviction. They begin to talk about what had happened:
"..You were concerned with that old couple," he said with narrow eyes. "Are they relatives of yours?"
"Sure, we're both black," I said, beginning to laugh.
"Seriously, are they your relatives?"
"Sure, we were burned in the same oven," I said.
The effect was electric. "Why do you fellows always talk in terms of race!" he snapped.
I thought this conversation was really interesting. especially because both black and white people think in terms of race, but only black people are truly effected by it. The fact that this random white guy was offended by a comment involving race was kind of funny to me. Why was this guy so interested and offended? Usually, it's the other way around! |
| | 4 | 12/24/2011 10:29 AM | Missing an Eye On page 474, Brother Jack and the invisible man are pretty much in an arguement and they are both pretty angry. Then, all the sudden, Jack's left eye fell out. Jack only has one eye and the other is fake! I know that this means something much more symbolically. Brother Jack is blind or at least partially blind to something. There is something that he is just not seeing and that he is doing all wrong. And then, the fact that he puts in a fake eye to try and hide his blindness makes things even worse because not only is he blind to something but he is trying to hide that he is blind to it. He is trying to make it seem as if he knows and sees it all when really he does not, which is very interesting to me. I know that him having a missing eye means something but I really wish that I knew what exactly it meant that he was blind to. Anybody know? |
| | 4 | 12/24/2011 9:55 AM | More Human On page 346, during one of IM's speeches he says something very interesting. He says, "I feel, I feel suddenly that I have become more human." This is something that really got my attention. When he says this it makes sense and I agree with him because before this he was not really human at all. He was more like a robot or a rock, acting as an en soi person. He always was doing things because others wanted him too and he was living for others and their expectations rather than doing things for himself or because he wanted to. He has become more human, though, in that he has come to realize some things of how he was living all wrong. He is still no where near being completely human or pour soi but he has made incremental steps towards these aspirations. This is just what the IM needs, to become more and more human in order to be more happy and knowledgable about life. |
| | 9 | 12/24/2011 9:44 AM | Food So I am starting to see alot of IM society being taught through symbolic images of food. It is very interesting because today in first hour we talked about how the Cheese Cake was somewhat of a luxury that IM got to experience but didnt have much to say while the yams earlier in the book he had about three paragraphs to talk about them ... is it because cheesecake is a white thing and yams are a black southern thing? any thoughts? |
| | 3 | 12/22/2011 11:33 AM | Brockway's Teeth After IM comes back from the union meeting Brockway is mad because he took too long. IM tries to explain, but again he is unable to. Brockway attacks him and IM fights back. He thought he got stabbed, but it was Brockway biting him. Brockway's teeth fall out and suddenly he turns weak. He doesn't want to fight anymore and his attitude chages, he seems nice but weak. What do the teeth represent here? |
| | 1 | 12/22/2011 11:28 AM | Chapter Nineteen's Little Red "She was a small, delicately plump woman with raven hair in which a thin streak of white had begun almost imperceptibly to show, and when she reappeared in the rich red of a hostess gown, she was so striking that I had to avert my somewhat startled eyes."
This may be reaching, but I can't help making the connection between Mrs. Hubert and Little Red Riding Hood (THE ORIGINAL LRRH!!). Both girls are delicately plump and cloaked in red. Both girls are in control the whole time. And both have sexual prowess over dark skinned (men) (wolves). I realize that the original LRRH is not widely known, but perhaps Ellison was aware of it and attempting to revive its existence? Or maybe Ellison, in his constant switching of colors, realities, etc. chose to switch a gender stereotype by making Mrs. Hubert the seducer?
Another point that is very interesting in this quote is Mrs. Hubert's hair. It is entirely raven black except for a barely perceptible streak of white. With hair being so close to the head, the brain, I would interpret this as the amount of time she thinks about black vs white. Mrs. Hubert seems to be an older version of Sybil in that she dwells on black, dark, Id behavior, craving it to some extent, but she maintains that small streak of white (her Superego) which keeps her living in a lavish household with a dull husband and lots of money. Thoughts? |
| | 0 | 12/21/2011 7:08 PM | Brother Wrestrum First of all, what a jerk! Who put mean juice in his coffee? Brother Wrestrum seems to stir up trouble just for the fun of it, or for attention! And did anyone notice his name sounds like restroom? I don't know if that was intentional or not, but he acts like a toilet, spinning ideas in circles and talking out of both sides of his mouth! (Toilets don't talk, but you know, if they could... that's how they would talk...)
Pg. 393: "Between you and me, Brother," he said, "there are those amongst us who don't really believe in Brotherhood... You damn right they don't! They're just in it to use it for their own ends. Some call you a Brother to your face and the minute you turn your back, you're a black son of a bitch! You got to watch 'em."
And so Wrestrum says goodbye to the Brother and the minute he turns his back, charges IM with making a fool out of the Brotherhood! It was as if Wrestrum was warning IM from the dangers of Wrestrum. What a self-centered hypocrite!
He speaks at lengths about getting flags and banners and an emblem for the Brotherhood, to make it more united, to make sure no one gets hurt. He singlehandedly causes IM's transfer to downtown because IM is standing out too much as an individual. It seems like Wrestrum wants the Brotherhood to turn into a communist party that takes over New York. I just really dislike him! Anybody else? |
| | 2 | 12/19/2011 12:21 PM | Being Invisible After the invisible man talks to the lady from the crowd at his speech for the women question and gets into bed with her, her husband comes home. he even walks to the door and talks to her but seems not to see the invisible man. On page 418, IM really starts to think about this and realizes that the man had looked in and had given no definite sign of seeing him. Maybe this is the point where IM starts to realize that he is invisible. This could be the point where the invisibility kicks in and where IM actually recognizes that he is invisible. When he does find out that he is invisble, he will use it to his advantage and maybe then he will finally figure out more about the truths of life. Now, maybe he can stop being so naive about things and start living his life the proper way. |
| | 1 | 12/19/2011 12:02 PM | The Brotherhood The brotherhood is focused too much on committee and group things. Everything that happens must go through the committee or be discussed in some meeting but it just cannot work this way. There has to be some individuality in the Brotherhood to make it great. Nothing can get done if it all has to go through the committee all the time. Each individual person such as IM is trapped and it is like they are each locked up and have no freedom to do what they wish. In the Brotherhood, the brothers are told what to do and it seems like they are supposed to act as en soi people, especially IM. Tension will arise because of the committee controlling everything and making some of the brothers do as they please. This is why we have state and federal governments where the federal government does not control what all of the states do, giving the states freedom because that is how things can run more smoothly. If the federal government controlled eveything that the state governments did, then the state governments might not be able to do all the things that they wanted to do, which will cause them to get mad and that just would not work well in trying to run a country in a peaceful and happy way. I just think that the way the Brotherhood does things is wrong and they should change it. |
| | 2 | 12/18/2011 8:16 PM | John Brown Do you guys know who John Brown was? he was the man who prompted the start of the civil war, a revolutionary abolitionist who used violence and "action" to accomplish his mission of getting rid of slavery. After a raid on a town in the Southeast to free slaves, he and 4 other ringleaders (many relatives) were hung
coupled with BroJacks mentions of how the dead are still living, this gives an important distinction about the fight against inequality being in the violent spirit and disasterous ends that Hohn Brown met. |
| | 1 | 12/18/2011 4:43 PM | Autobiography: Air/CS560 - Connections to IM At the DIA yesterday, I came across a collage by Howardena Pindell, an African American artist born in 1943. ***Link: Autobiography by Howardena Pindell)***
Instantly I was struck with the connections I drew from the collage to the Invisible Man. There were so many overlapping themes - violence, in particular. So I'm wondering what this says about the existence of African Americans in that time period. It's also interesting to note that Invisible Man was published a few years after the artist was born. |
| | 4 | 12/18/2011 4:28 PM | Scary Sambo the puppet "A grinning doll of orange and black tissue paper with a flat cardboard disks forming its head and feet and which some mysterious mechanism was causing to move up and down in a loose-jointed shoulder-shaking motion..." When I read the Sambo the doll scene I was to freaked out. One because I don't like puppet/dolls and two because the creepy songs Clifton was singing. When I think of marianetts I think of New Orleans voo-doo. Nothing good can really come from puppets like these... What really got me thinking in our 3rd hour discussion about this was why Clifton decided to do this street performance. I feel as if he wanted to maybe mock the white man by something something with what a white man made? It was all kind of confusing especially when the cops came in. Any thought of why else Clifton did it? |
| | 3 | 12/18/2011 2:00 PM | (mild spoilers) Emma is clearly the best character in the book On page 515, when IM is considering seducing emma, he realizes that she makes an unlikely candidate because she might "willingly surrender herself (in order to satisfy herself)". I'd just like to take a moment to appreciate the only character in the entire novel who might act simply because she desires to.
We don't hear about her internalised desire to be raped, like we do with Sybil. She isn't described as unintelligent, or a victim. Emma is so wholly in control that she might choose to have sex with IM just because she wants to. In a book all about en-soi behaviour and indecision, she is a brief, brillant breath of pour-soi fresh air. |
| | 2 | 12/18/2011 1:44 PM | Burning Down the Tenement Building The decision of the residents of the tenement to burn down their home seems at once foolish, cruel and irresponsible. To destroy the place they live makes little sense.... right?
I guess it depends on your perspective. Burning down the building doesn't seem like it really will accomplish anything practically....and it wont. It might actually make things worse, for with no place to live, the residents will be forced to bunk down with relatives, find new accommodations and belongings. The pregnant lady certainly felt it to be the wrong idea....or maybe just the wrong time for such an idea.
But for a desperate people, who have come to associate the tenement with the chains keeping them in a hateful place, a place of death (it killed the ringleaders son with TB), this may seem the only realistic option. In order escape the poverty and discrimination that still haunts them even after slavery's end, utter flame and destruction is undoubtedly appealing. Thus Ras's strange attraction, or the necessity and glee of burning down their representative anchor, even when it is also their home. |
| | 4 | 12/18/2011 1:43 PM | Complacent
I was a bit surprised on how mad Lucius Brockway was on page 225. It was very clear that he was furious, from the all capital letters to the death threats. I tried to think why he was so mad, as explained on page 228. He curses them and says how they are trying to take his job. The part that I found most interesting is further down in the page. “Here the white man done give ‘em jobs…good jobs too, and they so ungrateful they goes and joins up with that backbiting union.” He also says joining the union is like “[biting] the hand of the man who teached us to bathe in a bathtub.” This is the complete opposite attitude he has from when he was first describing his job to the IM. Earlier, he was saying how the factory can’t function without him, and how the white man begged him to come back to his job. Now, he is describing how dependent he is upon them. He is complacent with his job, and doesn’t want to do anything that would upset the whites. This example furthers my mindset that the blacks really have no power at all, that is belongs to the whites. While reading the first part of this chapter gives the façade that Brockway really is powerful, he later explains his reliance on the whites. |
| | 1 | 12/17/2011 6:30 PM | Brother Jack revealed As the novel gets further and further, we start to see more of what kind of person Jack really is. The guy is controlling, he has a temper, and he is just cold. Every time he reveals the truth, I am just shocked and in aw that he even said what he said and that he thinks the way he does. On page 473, he reveals more of his bad side when he says, "Our job is not to ask them what they think but to tell them." This just sounds so terrible and controlling, coming from a guy who, at first, we thought was really nice and was giving IM a great opportunity to change his life around for the better. It is just so crazy how a guy can be like a father even and take care of IM when they first met but then later on after IM really gets to know him, he is not the same guy and is really, actually a very dark person that is very mean to IM. It is very interesting, the way that things turned out. |
| | 1 | 12/17/2011 5:24 PM | IM and his Grandfather The Invisible Man has reminisced on his grandfather many times in this book. He always thinks back and thoroughly thinks of what the Grandfather would have done or said to IM. The Invisible Man never really references his mom or dad, but his grandfather... The first was in the first chapter when he was in the battle royal afraid of what was going to happen next, he thinks of his grandfather. I picture a cloud forming above his read and his grandpa in it and telling him what to think or how to handle the situation he's faced with. IM doesn't talk about his family at all really, but he only speaks of his grandfather because maybe they had a special relationship? Just a thought. |
| | 1 | 12/17/2011 5:11 PM | Reality On page 469 there is a meeting or something like that where some of the brothers are speaking to IM. As Jack is speaking to him, he says something very interesting. He says to invisible man, "You were not hired to think." My first reaction to this was, whoa. I cannot believe he just said that. So basically they just hired the invisible man to do whatever they told him and for him to be their puppet. He could do so many more things if he thought on his own and made speeches his way because he was figuring out the people of Harlem. When Jack tells him this staight to his face it is like, slapping in the face or stabbing him in the back. The IM is just being betrayed again and again. He just cannot seem to take a couple of steps forward in life without taking 10 more back. Things are rough for the IM and I really hope that it gets better for him. |
| | 0 | 12/17/2011 2:23 PM | Speech about Clifton's death On page 456, the invisible man is giving a speech on the death of Clifton and it is a weird speech. He makes it seem like the death of Clifton was not such a big deal that it was no special event. He said that "he fell in a heap like any man and his blood spilled out like any blood;red as any blood, wet as any blood...and it dried in the sun as blood dries." This, to me, is very interesting that he says these things. It is true that Clifton is just like any man but any man would not have all these people that he does not know at his funeral. Matbe the invisible man is making a point here of how all these people are so interested in going to Clifton's funeral even though they do not know him and it is also very uncomfortable in the crowd. maybe he is just trying to make these people realize that what they are doing makes no sense. Maybe the IM is just in shock after Clifton's death and is overreating towards the crowd. I do not know but it is very interesting. |
| | 1 | 12/15/2011 10:21 PM | The Identity Game "Left alone, I lay fretting over my identity. I suspected that I was really playing a game with myself and that they were taking part. A kind of combat."
This quote from chapter eleven seems to summarize a key idea of the novel; that IM is trying to find his trying to find his identity. I believe that he importantly addressed how all the events up to this point have influenced his reaching an understanding of who he is, but do not directly transform him. |
| | 5 | 12/14/2011 10:54 PM | Foreshadowing: What will Cause the Invisibility? In sixth hour a couple of days ago, we were talking about what truly will drive the IM to become invisible. We discussed how he never really stuck to anything he's accomplished such as college and the factory for instance. Whenever he gets "relocated" to do something else, he keeps his anger inside and it takes over his mind, not even releasing it, and then approaches his new task with optimism. "Oh, I've never been to New York before, I'll get all of this experience in working there!" or "Well, even if I did get relocated to downtown to work on women's issues, I have a new challenge I can overcome!"
I think that all of this anger he's keeping inside is just going to end up driving him to be invisible-in which no one really cares about what he wants to do, they just order him around like a puppet (and like a Sambo doll too). I'm speculating a giant eruption of IM, going off on everyone...but then everyone dismissing him. Sad, but unfortunately realistic.
Thoughts? |
| | 2 | 12/14/2011 10:44 PM | *SPOILERS* the ending First!
So now that that's out of the way, I want to talk about the book's conclusion. More specifically, I want to discuss the fact that IM has only experienced the first three of the six existential epiphanies. He's realised that he doesn't exist unless he acts, that the world is absurd, and that he is helpless before society's absurdity.
I don't know about anyone else, but I felt a bit cheated. Why spend so long struggling so much with even the basic tenets of IM's humanity to gloss so quickly over their realisation in the final chapters?
My best hypothesis is that Ellison didn't want to offer an excuse for complacency - by having no final resolution, he reflects the tumlut he argues is still occurring and that must be addressed. |
| | 4 | 12/14/2011 2:15 PM | Connection with A Clockwork Orange
The factory hospital scene seems like it could’ve been almost directly taken out from Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange. For those of you who have read the book I’m sure you’ll agree, and for those of you who haven’t, the main character goes through a procedure that strips him of ability to choose between right and wrong, making him a “perfect” citizen, since he acted right all the time, he just didn’t have the choice. In our book, the doctors argue over the procedure that is being done to him. One argues that this is just as bad as castration, fighting against the belief that it is good for “the patient [to] as he has to live…with absolute integrity.” He’ll “experience no major conflict of motives” and it will be for the good of society. Like in A Clockwork Orange, the single voice that speaks out against this tyranny is suppressed for the “betterment” of society. Another similarity between these two books is how classical music is brought up, although I’m not really sure of the function this has on page 232 in our book, any suggestions? |
| | 2 | 12/12/2011 1:04 PM | SYMBOLISM OMG OH MY GOD MORE SYMBOLISM AREN'T YOU JUST SO EXCITED! LOOK, HE WORKED IN A PAINT FACTORY WHERE THE SLOGAN IS 'WHITE IS RIGHT'!!! OH MY GOD, THE METAPHOR!!! AND THEN THERE WAS THAT SPEECH ABOUT HOW YOU COULD PAINT COAL AND YOU WOULD HAVE TO CRACK IT OPEN TO SEE IT WAS STILL BLACK! HOW VERY INTRICATE! PLEASE YELL MORE METAPHORS AT ME I AM SORRY FOR THE ALL-CAPS, I AM JUST TRYING TO IMITATE THE SUBTLETIES THAT WE ARE WITNESSING HERE PEOPLE!!! |
| | 6 | 12/11/2011 9:23 PM | An interesting bit just saw this, thought it might be considered relevant.
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| | 0 | 12/11/2011 8:32 PM | IM Reborn
After the procedure done to him in Chapter 11, the IM is reborn, a major turning point of the novel in my opinion. No longer is he afraid, as described on page 249, “not of important men, not of trustees and such; for knowing now that there was nothing which I could expect from them, there was no reason to be afraid.” It is at this point he rids himself of his blindness, or at least partially and perhaps realizes more of his own invisibility. He has given up his faith in the men like Bledsoe, and for good reason, and will try to live his life more independently. I also believe this realization is one of the reasons he joins the Brotherhood. Further evidence of this turning point is right at the end of the chapter, when he goes toward the platinum blond biting into a red apple, emphasized by the capitalization of the word “delicious.” I doubt he would’ve taken a metaphorical bite of the forbidden fruit if he still had faith in the likes of Bledsoe. |
| | 1 | 12/11/2011 8:04 PM | Fighting Back
I was sort of proud, yet surprised, of the way the IM acted on page 227 in response to Brockway’s rant. He actually stands up for himself, for the first time on his life thus far. After he defends himself, he feels more powerful, instead of under the control of others, he even says he feels “suddenly the older” on page 228 (if I’m interpreting that correctly). Granted, he might have gone a bit overboard, hurling a slew if insults on page 227, but he was just trying to make a point. I think the reason he takes so long to do this and has such an internal battle with it is obviously because of the blacks are supposed to act, but also because he tried to pull the white man off of his chair at the beginning of the novel, but failed. I can’t help but think how different his life would’ve turned out if he had stood up for himself earlier in the novel. For example, if he fought back against Bledsoe. While he still probably would’ve been expelled, it would at least have been with some dignity. |
| | 1 | 12/11/2011 6:48 PM | The Mother and the Machine While disoriented in Chapter Eleven, IM confuses his mother with the noise from a nearby machine in the hospital. This raised my awareness that IM rarely ever discusses his parents except for at the beginning of the story, making me wonder if they had any influence on him. Also, I am curious as to this mother/machine confusion represents mother liberty and the industry governed machine of America and its economy. |
| | 0 | 12/11/2011 5:50 PM | IM's Ice Cap I found IM's metaphor of his conscious resembling an ice cap freezing his emotions (end of Chap 12) to be insightful. He addresses how throughout his recent events (Bledsoe, Emerson...) an explosion occurred his his head, melting away his "self-control, that frozen virtue, that freezing vice." While I had suspected that IM was losing patience with the way his life was going, in this section he finally addresses his deteriorating control, and fear that the ice in his head would "form a flood in which I threatened to drown" |
| | 3 | 12/11/2011 5:31 PM | Cheesecake! In 1st hour last week, Mr Chisnell made the point that you can randomly pick any detail in the book, and analyze it thoroughly. To prove this point, we delved into the cheesecake around page 289. We played with the imagery that went along with the cheesecake, such as being perched on top of coffee, being wolfed down by Brother Jack, and all of the connotations associated with this type of food. The cheesecake image fits right along with the rest of the food motifs throughout the novel. Even earlier in the same chapter, the IM was scorning his classmates for separating themselves from foods they really like, like yams. Ellison is able to transform food into these images and motifs that we can easily relate to race problems, culture issues, etc. |
| | 4 | 12/11/2011 1:36 PM | The Yams In chapter 13, Ellison focuses a lot on the yams the IM eats and what effect they have on the IM. The IM is first overcome with homesickness, then he celebrates the freedom he has in eating while walking down the street. These two things are contradictory-if he wanted to go back home, he wouldn't be able to have the freedom he does up there in the north. He then comes to a realization about his own people, and how easily they're subdued. He wolfs down the first yam, then goes back to buy 2 more. They turn out to be frostbitten, and so he throws them into the street. These yams turn out to be extremely significant for the IM, because I think they bring about a bit of a revelation-he realizes he can now think for himself about what he does and doesn't like. These things won't be determined for him anymore-or at least, he won't let them be.
I feel like that all made no sense, but I don't know what to add. |
| | 10 | 12/11/2011 12:38 PM | Colors I noticed how important the role of colors is in this book. When the Invisible Man is describing his college he uses all sorts of colors as descriptive words. When Trueblood is describing the rape of his daughter he uses many colors to describe the visions he was witnessing. As I was reading this I tried to link the importance of colors as descriptive words and colors in the novel. The obvious connection is to the importance of black and white to the black and white race. These two colors describe everything, so it would only make sense that the Invisible Man and Trueblood would think that we as the reader need to know the colors of unimportant objects. |
| | 0 | 12/11/2011 12:38 PM | Huckleberry
While I was reading the conversation between the IM and Emerson’s son on pages 179-188 I had no clue what he was talking about, it was all over the place. Emerson’s son was talking to the IM about the letters Bledsoe gave him to pass out then he was talking about Huckleberry. In the conversation he mentions the Club Calamus and is stuttering unable to get the point across. At the end with the part about Huckleberry Finn Mr.Chisnell explained the story with Jim the slave and Huck and their adventure and specifically the part on the raft. All this finally clicked in my head helping me to realize what Emerson’s son was trying to say, it was attempt for Emerson’s son to admit that he is gay. Also I think that Emerson’s son was trying to compare how African Americans were similar to homosexuals and how they are both oppressed. |
| | 1 | 12/11/2011 12:34 PM | Overalls While the IM is being "cured" after his incident at the factory, he is surrounded by everything being white. Even the overalls he is forced to wear are white. After he is released, he enters the Men's House wearing these, and suddenly is "overcome by a sense of alienation and hostility." Even though the room is filled with black men, whom he should feel the most comfortable around, he feels his overalls are drawing much unwanted attention and he knows immediately he can not live there. He also says he can see in their eyes that when they look at his overalls, they feel he has betrayed them. Overalls are a symbol of the working man, a symbol of blue-collar work and a sense of self motivation. Not only are these overalls, but they are white, which symbolizes freedom, hope, and pureness. The men inside Men's House are men who have given up on themselves, or men with extraordinary ideas in their heads, but no means or motivation to achieve them. Seeing a black man not only dressed like the working class, but dressed in white, immediately tells them that the IM does not belong with their kind. |
| | 0 | 12/11/2011 12:31 PM | Threaten to Kill IM mentions that he can't fall asleep because he is planning how to kill Mr. Bledsoe. Was he being serious? Is he actually planning to kill him, because if he is not then why would he take that job. He obviously has no intentions to become a respected African American in society anymore so why would he take that job if he didn't actually want to kill Bledsoe. |
| | 0 | 12/11/2011 11:36 AM | Ice Motif In chapter 12 and 13, after the IM leaves Mary's house, he is walking down the street deeply lost in thought. He begins talking about the ice outside, how everything was cold, frozen, and snowy. He also says that his brain had been producing an "emotion freezing ice." The weather outside and his feelings are paralleled, until he states that a burning anger began to boil up inside him and melt all of that away. He begins to argue with himself about the decisions he has made, what he is going to do, and how he feels about his life at the moment. This causes a steaming churn of thought in his brain, and while the heat formed inside his head, new ice was forming outside in the winter air. The motif with this is that ice is white, and his thoughts bring out "a spot of black anger" that glowed with extreme intensity. This also ties in with black v. white, hot v. cold, and fire v. ice. |
| | 0 | 12/11/2011 11:28 AM | Disintegration On page 353, the IM talks of the great things he'll do for the Brotherhood. He says, "If they could take a chance with me, then I'd do the very best that I could. How else could I save myself from disintegration?" This statement surprised me. He didn't seem on the verge of breakdown. Why was he suddenly feeling this way? (Have I missed something?)
But similar to another recent post of mine, this is an aspect of losing oneself. Piling invisibility, blindness, and disintegration on top of one another, that sounds like the IM is really losing himself, or he's worried he will! This is definitely a motif I will keep track of thoughout the book. |
| | 0 | 12/11/2011 11:12 AM | Baseball During IM's speech, there was a man who continued to use baseball references throughout the event. At first, the IM wonders, "Is he with me or against me?" which I also wondered, but it turned out that the man was in support of him--though I don't know if he was the entire time, or near the end of the speech.
Well, these references to baseball got me thinking. Of course, we all know baseball to be the "American" sport, "as American as apple pie," as they all say. Everyone in America loves baseball, and it was a uniting force through our trials and tribulations over the years. Even during WWII, the public was kept entertained by the Women's Baseball League. Could the reference to baseball be a way to bring the people together in the Brotherhood's cause? Especially when the IM uses the metaphor for his own benefit, what is the benefit he gets from it? Thoughts? |
| | 4 | 12/11/2011 10:48 AM | "True Beauty" Once again beauty is defined by the color white, most importantly, the skin color. Throughout the course of the book i have interpreted white as power, influence, and wealth. But now it is also associated with beauty. In chapter 13 (page 262) the invisible man passes shop windows advertising "ointments guaranteed to produce the miracle of whitening black skin. " you too can be truly beautiful," a sign proclaimed. "Win greater happiness with a whiter complexion. Be outstanding in your social set."
I think this sign is really intriguing. Instead of changing society so that it treats all people equally, people are changing themselves so they can fit in. They want to be "beautiful" and "outstanding". But instead of being proactive and trying to make a difference, they buy some silly product to make themselves feel better about their situation. |
| | 2 | 12/11/2011 10:39 AM | Optic white paint/Lucius Brockway/Society I realized today while rereading chapters 10-11 that the optic white paint is a microcosm of Lucius Brockway and the factory, and that both are microcosms of society. With the paint, the process was to mix ten drops of the "dope" into a large container of paint. The dope was a very dark black color, which was odd to think went into "the purest white that can be found". Society is mostly made up of white people, but what makes them white, and what makes society white? The answer is people who are not white. If everyone in the world was the same color, we wouldn't think anything of color. white people are white because in contrast people are black. Black people are black because white people are white. Society is white because it is made up of mostly whites, with some blacks. Lucius also fits this model as he is one of very few black men working in the factory, yet his job is integral to the production of the paint. "caint a single doggone drop of paint move out of the factory lessen it comes through Lucius Brockway's hands." He even helped the founder coin the motto "If It's Optic White, it's the Right White" and admitted it's similarity to the saying "If you're white you're right." |
| | 5 | 12/11/2011 10:38 AM | IM: a leader or a follower? In sixth hour on Friday, I raised this subject with not too much feedback. Is the Invisible Man a leader or a follower? On the one hand, we could argue the Invisible man is a leader, in how he is much "smarter" than the other blacks of his time. He is motivated to do important things in the world; he wants to make something of himself. However, does a leader really consider himself to be "invisible"? How can one be a leader, when they fall submissive to the wishes of another race? How can one be a leader when he is continuously pushed around, with no protest? How can one be a leader when they continuously fight for attention and reward from the higher power? What do you guys consider to be a leader? Do you think the invisible man is a leader or a follower? |
| | 1 | 12/11/2011 10:32 AM | Names On page 379, IM says something that is so true. He says that "things are so unreal for them normally that they believe that to call a thing by name is to make it so." IM is absolutely correct here in saying that it is unreal to think that calling something a name makes it so. A name is just a few letters that are put together to signify something, but reallly it has absolutely no meaning to it. Words can only have meaning if they are juxtaposed against one another to actually make something that means something. Putting a name on something does not make it so at all. Anybody can call anything whatever they want but that does not change what it is at all. Names are just given so that the population of people can understand one another when referring to certain things. Things only have their names because the people have come to a common consesus where they agree what something should be called and that is it. I could call apen a rock but either way it is still something that I write with except that if I said "hand me that rock" nobody would give me a pen and I would just sound crazy. |
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