As we continue reading through the Invisible Man, we still don’t know the narrators name. We start off in Mr. Emerson’s office. The narrator has high hopes but as he is in Emerson’s office another man is attending the narrator. The narrator is shock that he is being asked if he can consider attending another college. At this point the narrator is angry and just wants to speak to Emerson. Once the narrator has knowledge that the man in the office is Emerson’s son, the narrator now understands that he isn’t wanted in the college. To Bledsoe, the narrator will never been enrolled at the college again. At this point Emerson’s son believes he is a horrible position because he now has to decline the narrator for wanting to work. With having a “recommendation” that clearly states the narrator will never be enrolled at college again, clearly shows the interviewer that the interviewee is not capable of doing anything for the company. Even with having such a tragic event happening to the narrator, he moves on but later does through an even more tragic event. At one point the narrator wakes up in the hospital not really knowing what is going on around him. The narrator is unable to provide his name and is constantly in and out of consciousness. The doctors are unsure of what is the best treatment for him. The doctors are in between giving him surgery while another doctor wants to use his machine which performs lobotomies without surgery. Considering that the invisible man is a black man that is completely unaware of what is going on around him, the doctors want to use this opportunity to perform anything on a patient not considering what the patient wants done. I wondered while reading this if the doctors were thinking of performing the treatment without the surgery because he is a black man and the doctors just wanted to perform a treatment under very little or no supervision. The narrator still having no memory of who he is yet the doctors usher him out without having him ask any questions of what is going to happen or what is going on with him. At this point the narrator is put into the world with no memory, and is feeling completely disconnected from his mind and his body. 

Racial bias is a thing and a topic that unfortunately still exists and is certainly relevant till this present day, it’s very sad to see that regardless of all one could be or what one could achieve, color is still the first thing that is seen, a society that continuously strips one of their identity and refuses to see the individual for who they are other than the color of their skin.

In Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison introduces the character without a name which might be shocking but truly serves a purpose, the lack of a name for the character bears witness of his lack of identity, though it’s not of a physical sense rather of a social sense, this lack of identity relates to Du Bois’s concept of double consciousness whereby one feels their identity is divided into parts obstructing the sense of a unified identity. This social invisibility that Ellison portrays marginalizes one by color and is present in reality for African Americans which testifies to Fanon’s ideology of experiencing trauma daily yet our nameless character in Invisible Man is able to deal with it comfortably. The struggle to continuously alternate one’s character in order to fit in will only lead one to lose part of one’s true identity, the limitations of vision on how one’s viewed eventually caused the character to be unsure of how to behave around white people and always conscious of having to change to fit in only led him to begin to question his real identity. It was clear to observe that the complication of inner self wasn’t restricted to just racism but also to general ideologies. The character sees himself as an invisible man and reckoned with the belief that its beneficial to be invisible and concealed anyways, since he is unable to function accordingly to his true personality it is safer to embrace the invisibility in an attempt to flip the stereotype, a strategy in which he eventually found docile.

As he attempts to find his true place in the world he emerges from “hibernation” as a complex individual who is willing to offer his own contributions to the society whilst hoping that utilizing his knowledge will encourage others to affirm and acknowledge the reality of the external beliefs and behaviors. Ellison related the still relevant topic and social problem that is present in the society, he illustrates and points out how racial discrimination is deeply engraved in Americans.

Marisol Manica

We begin to see the narrator start his journey North to New York City. A land of dreams and opportunities. On the bus we hear of Crenshaw and the vet talking. The vet warns the narrator to avoid the Nortons. While the narrator does not seem to listen to the vet, he does not understand why he is telling him to be careful. Crenshaw told the vet he talked to much but to me the vet seemed wise. “The force that pulls your string until you refuse to be pulled any more,” the vet said. This is the perfect line to represent what was happening in that time period. White folk were taking advantage of black men. They knew they wanted to succeed and would do anything, so they will put their string until they had enough. Which is what happened to our narrator. They basically mocked him, embarrassed him at the speech ceremony. The narrator did nothing because he just wanted to give his speech and show his community he had a lot planned for their future. The vet said what many were afraid to say, many knew at the time getting involved with white people was only asking for trouble. The vet warned them of that.

We see his grandfather come back in chapter eight, reminding him of the past. The narrator seems to avoid at all cost what his grandfather went through. He does not listen to the advice of his grandfather about him not betraying his people. We see the narrator attitude changes with many whom he encounters. On the subway he was afraid of being next to a white lady because she would scream abuse, second in the house he is staying his attitude with them is different. He wants them to value, and treat him to high standards. Which is why he refuses to tell them he has not found a job. And with his family he lies about having a job. the narrator is at cross roads, he split between two identities. He wants to fit into the white crowd so badly but at the same time he wants to go back to college to be a leader for his people.

In chapter nine, this chapter stood out to me the most. We get to see the American value system. And what i mean by that is when Emerson son says loyal Americans. We clearly hear the irony in his voice, meaning loyal only when it benefits them. We see the son talk about this freedom, and how the narrator should be happy he is telling him not to meet with this father. But how dare he right? How is Emersons son trapped? And why does he hate it so much?We see that system of value of playing the victim/hero card. Pretending to know what African Americans have gone through, we see that throughout a lot of the world and even in this novel, where white people seem to believe they understand the hardships African Americans have had. We also notice, another thing when he says can you and i talk and be honest without knowing one another. This point made me angry. At first when everyone meets you are going to put on your best smile. It called leaving a great lasting impression. No strangers, who have never met are going to be honest everyone is going to try and be fake. And how could the son expect the narrator to be sincere when he has a lot at stake. He is an African American who needs a job and is misjudged by the whole population. If he wanted to be honest it would go no where, it would prove what society already thinks. When the narrator went off on the son it showed a change in his identity. He stood up for himself, for his race. He finally seemed to understand that people are not what they appear. He himself needs to write his own destiny and do things for himself. This chapter encountered a realization from the character, he had been so naive. He finally sees societies true colors.

In Chapter 9, when the narrator is on his way to Mr. Emerson’s office, he encounters a man pushing a cart full of blueprints. Their interaction is confusing at face value, yet is representative of something greater. Upon deeper examination, it is evident that their interaction is a commentary on the narrator’s main life struggles.

When the narrator first hears the man’s blues singing, he is reminded of his family back home. These are memories that he says he has “shut out of my [his] mind” (173). Clearly, this isn’t a pleasant memory. This negative association represents the narrator’s struggle to be honest with his family while wanting to please them at the same time. His parents expect greatness from him as a college student, so he tells them he already has a job in New York even though no one has offered him a job yet. Pressure to make his parents proud motivates him to tell this white lie. The narrator also likely feels pressure to interpret his grandfather’s advice and carry on his legacy, even though he may not exactly know what his grandfather meant by living life stealthily and fighting a deceptive war against authority. The blueprint man’s singing reminds the narrator of familial expectations.  

Next, the blueprint man asks the narrator if he’s “got the dog” (173). The narrator is puzzled by this inquiry at first, and then just answers in the most straightforward way: that he does not “have the dog.” In response, the man says, “maybe it’s the other way round…maybe he got holt to you” (174). This contrast is important. Historically, the dog is man’s best friend, and at the same time, the dog is a wild animal that has been domesticated and stands in opposition to “civilized” man. The lack of a dog by the narrator’s side communicates his feeling of loneliness; far away from his family and school friends, and with Bledsoe turned against him, the narrator has few friends available. At the same time, the narrator is somewhat innocent–he is just beginning to navigate society and figure out his role in it. He doesn’t know how to act in certain situations. For example, his mistakes with Mr. Norton show that he doesn’t know when to override honesty for security. The narrator shows Mr. Norton too much of the neighborhood because he hasn’t yet determined how to make the foreign environment seem “tame.” He has not yet “domesticated” his presentation and figured out how to code-switch. Of course, the designation of himself and his community as a “wild” other is based on misinformed white characterizations.

It is also significant that the man is disposing of the blueprints he has. The man explains, “every once in a while they have to throw ‘em out to make place for the new plans…plenty of these ain’t never been used…folks is always making plans and changing ‘em” (175). This lack of permanency is also reflected in the narrator’s life, as he is also in the midst of making and changing plans. The discarded blueprints also represent false hopes. The narrator has false hopes throughout the novel: namely, in New York, he hopes that he will find a lucrative job but is actually sabotaged by Bledsoe.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is an intriguing yet complex piece of literature that allows the reader to get sucked into a world of his nameless protagonist. I found it extremely riveting to read a story that the protagonist is invisible which lead me to question, if he is dead and  simply a ghost roaming the earth. But I soon realized that it was way more profound than a simple explanation.

In the prologue, the protagonist says, “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” He is invisible because people refuse to see anything but the color of his skin, he is belittled as a human being for the color of his skin. He is trapped in a box of stereotypes and the reason he is invisible because people refuse to open their minds and accept differences in people. Ralph Ellison’s explanation of why his character is invisible is closely related to how Frantz Fanon in the beginning part of his piece explained the emergence of the triple person and the feeling of being seen. The triple person is his body, his ancestors and his race which means that not only is a person seen as one but is seen as a history of their race. Being seen and judged by others is the reason why there are differences in people and why their is a triple person. In Fanon’s and Ellison’s pieces both referenced that even though they were being watched, the attention of others in someway was validated or a liberation. Ellison uses the word invisible while Fanon simply just states that it feels like they aren’t there because they are not seen as anything else but their skin color.

Another part that I found interesting while reading the chapters was when the protagonist was in the chapel and he was either hearing the words of priest or having a moment of reflection but either way he explained the power of others. “…whom we knew though we didn’t know, who were unfamiliar in their familiarity, who trailed their words to us through blood and violence and ridicule and condescension with drawling smiles, and who exhorted and threatened, intimidated with innocent words as they described to us the limitations of our lives and the vast boldness of our aspirations…this was our world, they said as they described it to us, this our horizon and its eart….and this we must accept and love and accept even if we did not love. We must accept — even when those were absent…” I found this quite powerful in the sense that Ellison illustrates the lives of many black people during this time because not only are they not treated the same but they are also taught one way of thinking whether they want to or not. The protagonist goes to an all black university that was founded and funded by very wealthy white men which seems to me like a big scheme to keep the blacks with the blacks and not allow them to advance anywhere else. Seeing is a very crucial element which seems to run through all of the pieces we have read but seeing in the eyes and words of others closely relates to R.W Emerson’s Back to Nature. “…We, through their eyes” is exactly how Ellison would summarize this passage and would agree with how blacks are treated and taught, by being cut off from reality to make it seem like their life is the reality.