The “battle royal” depicted in Chapter 1 is a complex, surreal passage that makes great demands of us as readers. Each element of the scene seems richly symbolic, from the blindfolds to the coins to the striptease to the speech that culminates it. What are some of the implications of this scene? What do they tell us about how racial and other differences (gender,class) are constructed and maintained in this society? What’s the difference between the way we might read this episode and the way the IM himself reads it in the moment?

While I read this chapter, I could not help but think of Zora Neale Hurston and her attitude towards racial inequality. I thought of the scene where she describes purposefully performing for the enjoyment of white spectators. The battle royal scene in this novel differs exponentially from Hurston’s recollection of such event. Hurston embraces her expectations to perform, whereas in Ellison’s account of such performance is not only forced, but extremely violent. The boys are pinned against each other like a modern day cockfight. To escalate the severity of the situation, they are blindfolded. In a way, this removes their identity from themselves, as well as from their counterparts. It’s easy to swing at something you cannot even see and even easier to keep swinging when you cannot see the blood being shed, or when your own survival depends on it. I took this element as a motif interpreted literally to represent the “Invisible Man” Ellison used to title the book.

The implications of this scene are plenty. The first being that black people are the inferior race and in being so are seen as less than human. The white men in this chapter first took advantage of the narrator’s excitement towards pursuing an education, and then used fear to manipulate him into degrading himself to do as they say. The fear was not primarily of death, but of not being able to deliver his speech. Early on here, the connection and thirst for education is established and continues throughout the novel. The fight and the rug was done purely for their enjoyment and its intention was revealed at the falsity of the coins thrown over the rug. Another interesting moment was the introduction of the naked woman. Although she holds more privilege than the narrator and his friends, it is not highlighted in this chapter. She is also objectified and used as entertainment for the men. Fear stops her from refusing to be thrown about and touched in a way in which the narrator observes is not okay to her. She is used as a sex symbol to further the humiliation the boys are being succumbed to. This tells me that these social constructs are primarily founded on fear and promises of lending out privilege. What I mean by that is like dangling a carrot in front of a horse to get it to move. It is the same idea with the speech and the narrator. However, the fear and violence used by the white men is another necessary element in achieving these societal hierarchies.

In the moment IM does not seem to read into the connotations of what is occurring. He does not look at the white men with hate, but instead aims to gain their approval. Throughout all of the terrible events, he continues his focus on delivering the speech, which drives his behavior in said events. As we read it, we are disgusted with the events that are transpiring and are aware of its underlying fuel of hatred and inequality.

I wanted to share this fascinating article on the NBA and the black image in popular culture by the Asian American writer Jay Caspian Kang. He really digs into some of the issues that Ellison deals with in his novel and, from another angle, the impetus to critique one’s own position as a writer engaging blackness that Rankine and Loffreda discuss. For me, Kang is doing an exemplary job here of exploring his “racial imaginary” and linking that exploration to antiracist work without resorting to cliches or feelgood nostrums.

Ball Don’t Lie | by Jay Caspian Kang | The New York Review of Books

Thus far, we’ve read multiple accounts on what it means to define one’s identity in relation to race, history, and the social implications that follow. Of all of these, Ralph Ellison, Franz Fanon, and Zora Neale Hurston magnetically drew my attention to the contrast between silence and sound, along with the influence both of these can have on the speaker’s ability to act. While Fanon feels stifled by the burden of silence, and Hurston feels free through her soulful relationship with music, Ellison bridges the gap between the two, emphasizing the bittersweet “blue” beauty of both silence and sound. These moments, found at times in the brief tension between the notes of a song, or in the hum of quiet contemplation, allow the narrator to explore his identity and empower him into action.

One of the more significant themes in Ellison’s Invisible Man is this responsibility to separate oneself from those things that inhibit action, follow what you believe in to make change, and inspire others to do the same. “I believe in nothing if not action”(Ellison, 13) the narrator reminds us, whenever he feels the need to explain why his narrative has taken a particular turn, and one of the first experiences he shares with us is his listening to Louis Armstrong. Explaining how Armstrong “made poetry out of being invisible” and how “my own grasp of invisibility aids me to understand his music”(8), the narrator dives into a beautiful description of how the notes flow, transcending time, and moving the listener to not only hear, but feel the sound. He and Armstrong are both made invisible by society, but they can communicate a feeling that is imperceptible to most listeners who only hear the obvious notes. The narrator describes how “the unheard sounds came through…and waited patiently for the other voices to speak…I not only entered the music, but descended, like Dante, into its depths”(9). This powerful silence in between the notes of sound may not be detectable by everyone, but once it has woken the narrator, it serves as somewhat of an anthem for what he believes he must do. 

Although Fanon likewise explores this significance and weight of sound, he ultimately feels overwhelmed by its burden, while Ellison finds a way to tame and use it. Both Fanon and Ellison’s narrator reject the humility they feel pressured to accept like amputated victims of social circumstance, but Fanon ends his essay on a dejected note: “the disemboweled silence fell back upon me…without responsibility, straddling Nothingness and Infinity, I began to weep” (Fanon). The narrator in Invisible Man however, contemplates the meaning of silence, emptiness, and invisibility in a different light. Drawing parallels between the imperceptible notes of Armstrong’s music, and the silence that followed in the hour he spent quietly contemplating, the narrator concludes that “it was a strangely satisfying experience for an invisible man to hear the silence of sound. I had discovered unrecognized compulsions of my being”(Ellison, 13). Unlike Fanon’s surrender to the heavy silence, the narrator embraces it and uses it to gain strength. 

Similarly, Hurston explores the power music can have on those conscious enough to pick up on it’s nuances, though unlike Ellison’s narrator, she doesn’t utilize this awareness to take action. Recounting a moment in time where she sat at a jazz ensemble performance, Hurston takes us on a musical journey similar to that of the narrator’s in Invisible Man. Using breathtaking imagery, she illustrates the soulful highs and lows, the tension in the silence between the notes, and the transcendental experience that results. In disbelief, she explains her white neighbor’s response: “the great blobs of purple and red emotion have not touched him. He has only heard what I felt…He is so pale with his whiteness then and I am so colored” (Hurston). Ellison’s narrator experiences music in a similar manner, but he takes the experience a step further by allowing it to light a fire in him, inspiring him to take action as a result. He states: “there is a certain acoustical deadness in my hole, and when I have music I want to feel its vibration, not only with my ear but with my whole body”(Ellison, 8). While “at first [he] was afraid; this familiar music had demanded action”(12) that he felt he might not be capable of, his belief in action proves much stronger than his fear. 

In the end, Ellison’s narrator embraces his exploration of both silence and sound. Although silence may at times be overwhelming just like Armstrong’s soulful music can be almost unbearably blue, the narrator, feeling a passionate responsibility to be the voice of the unheard and the invisible, decides to swallow his fear and take action.