The somber yet absorbing start of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man reveals a narrator who is driven and whole-heartedly affected by the past. Whether it be the life and death of his ancestors or his own previous mistakes, the narrator doesn’t let the bygone moments of life pass by without analysis. The ghost of his grandfather is not only a memory or a warning, but a looming figure that constantly haunts and pesters him. The protagonist is an individual who is trying to get by in life like any other, although the shadows of his past seem to always be lurking by, ready to blur the present.

The first chapter of the novel begins with a sort of historical and biographical introduction to the narrator, one with a strong emphasis on slavery and freedom. Ellison states, “And yet I am no freak of nature, nor of history…I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed” (15). At this early point of the novel the protagonist makes it clear that he doesn’t necessarily look down on his race or his past, but instead looks down upon his former embarrassment. This assertion is a driving force throughout the entire first chapter, as a sense of back and forth between being ashamed and being proud persists. Soon after the narrator begins discussing his grandfather, who advised him to live with his head “in the lion’s mouth”. Hearing his grandfather label himself as a traitor on his own deathbed alters the way in which the narrator perceives himself throughout the rest of the chapter. This is evident when Ellison states, “When I was praised for my conduct I felt a guilt…It made me afraid that some day they would look upon me as a traitor…The old man’s words were like a curse” (17). And from this moment in the novel and on his grandfather’s words truly remain as some kind of curse, clear throughout the events to come.

At the beginning of his speech to a rowdy group of white men, the narrator proclaims, “We of the younger generation extol the wisdom of that great leader and educator” (Ellison 29). Although these words may seem like the typical first phrases of a graduation speech, there is an implicit sense of insecurity in his words. The narrator has a tendency of always appealing to or remaining on the good side of the dominant group, whether it be those who are white or those who are simply older. It seems to be a bad habit of the narrator, one that he can’t help but have in a society and time that oppresses the African American. As the chapter comes to a close and the narrator, his fingers “a-tremble” receives a college scholarship, unease endures. “Keep This Nigger-Boy Running” is the message the protagonist receives through his grandfather in a dream, a dream that he continues to have for many years.

In the introduction to New Essays on Invisible Man, Robert O’Meally states, “What is the shape of history?… How does one know the self? The other?” (9). The questions posed by this quote ring true throughout the first chapter of Invisible Man, as intellectual issues faced by the narrator and the universe alike. It is a difficult question of history and science, art and politics, and finding one’s overall purpose in society. Invisible Man’s narrator struggles to make his way through the rough American plain that is the Harlem Renaissance period, but by keeping a firm eye on his past he may be able to do himself and his grandfather some justice.

In the prologue to Invisible Man, we are introduced to the narrator we assume we will meet again at the conclusion of the novel— one who walks through the world under a sort of cloak of invisibility, comfortable in a solitude he must know from years of experience will remain intact no matter how many people come near him. For most of the novel, the man with whom we are acquainted is far from invisible. Though he is always sure to show deference to those above him in status, he constantly finds himself in situations where he is forced to assert his presence. An invisible man could not be expelled from college or fired from a job, for he would always escape the notice of his superiors. Yet our narrator has both of these experiences. Our narrator seems not to come into contact with invisibility until about a third of the way into the novel, when he arrives in New York.

The first description of New York that appears in Invisible Man is of the subway. Straight off the bus, the invisible man gets on a subway to Harlem. Here, he is overwhelmed by the crowd. “Moving into the subway I was pushed along by the milling salt-and-pepper mob, seized in the back by a burly, blue-uniformed attendant about the size of Supercargo, and crammed, bags and all, into a train that was so crowded that everyone seemed to stand with his head back and his eyes bulging, like chickens frozen at the sound of danger” (157-158). Looking back at the prologue of Invisible Man, it seems fitting that the narrator’s first taste of invisibility should be in a crowd. There he says, “It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves. Then too, you’re constantly being bumped against by those of poor vision” (3-4). It would be logical to think that one who is invisible would be completely isolated from society. But Ellison shows us from the beginning that his narrator finds himself unseen mostly when surrounded on all sides by people. He sees it when he bumps into people, just as one does all the time on a crowded subway. At first, the narrator is mostly wary of this ability to escape notice.

Ellison’s simile about people on the subway, “like chickens frozen at the sound of danger,” reflects the fear the narrator feels at being in such close contact with so many people. He finds himself pressed against a woman and fears the accusation he is sure will come, and the prejudice which will ensure her word will be believed over his own. But instead, the narrator finds himself protected by a sort of invisibility. “[…] when I took a furtive glance around no one was paying me the slightest attention. And even she seemed lost in her own thoughts” (158). In this instance, in the narrator’s eyes, not just he but everyone is a chicken, and everyone is invisible. The crowd is just as insignificant and vulnerable as he is. It must be later that he acquires an invisibility which, rather than putting him on common ground with everyone else in New York, forces him into a solitude with which he makes peace. At its outset, the narrator’s experience with invisibility inspires only fear. So, invisibility is something the narrator must find himself fighting to accommodate, rather than something he settles into.

The amount of metaphors, symbolism and imagery used in Chapter 11 in the novel “Invisible Man” when the protagonist ends up in the hospital, it’s intense. We don’t know why he is in the hospital, but the description of what he goes through and what he feels, can be interpreted in different ways as well as be connected to the idea of double consciousness and loosing your identity. The doctors of the hospital preformed electric shock therapy on the protagonist “I was pounded between crushing electrical pressures”, but in the pain and unconsciousness the protagonist mistaken them for saviors “They would care for me. It was all geared toward the easing of pain. I felt thankful”. Such a turn in his thought made me stop, and think back to history moments where groups of people were put in daze and taken advantage of. Further more his later imagery of not having enough room, and feeling cramped, and latter ever forgetting his name can be figurative language for the type of things oppressed groups have experienced. Chapter 11 “I found myself back in the clinging white mist and my name just beyond my fingertips” is another strong metaphor for the constant struggle and efforts to maintain your identity in a society that tried to prevent that.

Another strong metaphor can be seen in “A pair of eyes peered down through lenses as thick as the bottom of a Coca-Cola bottle, eyes protruding, luminous and veined, like an old biology specimen preserved in alcohol”, the presence of symbolism of the “Coca-Cola, eyes protruding, luminous and veined, like an old biology specimen preserved in alcohol “I don’t have enough room” the feeling of being trapped the protagonist feels, can be a metaphor for the coke epidemic that effect minority communities in a negative revolving door of abuse and instability.

Overall the chapter shows how blindness and the loss of your identity can happen and what it can result in. Thankfully at the end of the chapter we learn that despite loosing parts of identity, not being heard, the narrator overcomes his efforts to obeying an ideology he followed (referring to devotion to college and its ideologies). I was relieved that despite such experience, he was able to over come certain fears and in a way become free.

Blog Post #3 on Invisible Man

In Chapter 5 of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man the narrator, along with other students, goes to a chapel, where the visitor was waiting. During the service, Reverend Barbee speaks. He talks about the founder comparing him to Moses and says he “showed them the way.” Right away relating the founder to an important religious figure and liberator, making it seem like the Founder saved the black community. When Barbee tells a story about an attempt on the founder’s life, there is religious imagery which harkens back the conversion of Saul into Paul. Barbee makes the founder into a figure that was also meant to help all black people out of bondage. Finally, when talking about the mourning for the Founder, Barbee holds the Founder as a godlike figure, and even white men paid respects to the Founder, showing that they respected him. The Founder’s successor Bledsoe was also painted as a perfect figure as Barbee transfers the founder’s legacy onto him. They are both seen as figures to be idolized.

After Barbee trips, the narrator realizes he is blind. Barbee’s blindness could symbolize that Barbee is blind to how the Founder and Bledsoe really are. Or the blindness could be something that Barbee hides behind while creating an illusion, with his words, for everyone to get lost in. The blindness, also, is yet another thing that connects him to a real, famous poet of the same name, Homer.

As the narrator is leaving the chapel, we can see he fell for the illusion that Barbee painted for him, as he believes that some like Bledsoe, who has no flaws, will show him not mercy.

Blog Post #1 on How It Feels to Be Colored Me

People think of race as something that you are born with, something that is always there but Hurston starts her story by saying that she “became colored” therefore flipping this notion on its head, Hurston was not “colored” until people made her feel that way.

As a kid, Hurston was mostly protected from racism since she lived in a town where everyone was the same race as her. However, white tourists would pass through and treat her differently from the black residents. For example, giving her change when performed while the black residents would reward her with affection. Showing her the differences between an audience and a community. Still, here she was Zora, just Zora.
However, when she leaves her hometown, she starts to face racism as she started her “colored life”. But, while people try to group her with African-Americans she tries to push herself away from that group by embracing her female, blackness and believing that the world is still open to her. She doesn’t want to try and be a different race and she believes that she can succeeded.
Towards the end, she becomes one of two things, “Cosmic Zora” she isn’t colored, she is who Zora wants to be seen as. However, she mostly becomes the brown paper bag, ordinary and filled with ordinary items

At the end when she writes about herself as a brown paper bags, she also brings up other bags. The three colors of these other bags are white, red, and yellow and while those are bright colors, they are also colors that are usually associated with other races: white is associated with Caucasians, red (although it is offensive) is associated with Native Americans, and yellow is associated with Asians. Then she mentions that if the contents were emptied out and then the bag were refilled, it wouldn’t make much of a difference because though we are different colors, under that color we are the same.