When reading the prologue of this book, the one thought that
sparked my mind was emphasis of "blind." The invisible man, thus far, nameless, seems
to suffer from this disease of blindness- being a black man. The invisible man
is not blind to his environment, rather vise-versa. It is sad to hear that
during this time period, full of Armstrong Jazz and blues, was the racist side-
undermining the African Americans and framing them as "bad." The one
incident the invisible man faced when the white man accused of
"muggling" annoyed me. Perhaps it was because of the ignorance the
man faced, more so society at that time period. It's weird how this
"invisible man" does everything secretly and unknowingly- hence the
title, the invisible man....first of all, he lives under, in a basement and
steals power from a company. Now this is a bit ironic. Why? Well first of all,
these white tenants refuse to go anywhere close to the basement, showing how
egoistic and status-obsessed they are. Nonetheless, they are technically blind
to all that is going around, especially with people unlike their kind. Another
interesting aspect that I noted was the importance of time and illusion- he
mentions that whenever he is high, under the influence of marihuana he loses a
sense of time, but I feel it was more than just this. With such intoxication,
one no longer is part of this egoistic, self-centered world, he is part of his
own world- one that is invisible to everyone. It is ironic how to society he is
invisible, yet he impacts their life to a certain extent. Take for example the
tapping of power- the whole town is searching for the man behind such crime,
yet they can't find him. He is almost like a ghost- a spirit who does actions,
without anyone finding out.
Now moving on to chapter 1, which i find rather disturbing
and cruel. I question the beginning of
the chapter- why is a white girl (who is suppose to have a higher rank than a
black man) exposed in the center of these men? What is the significance of
this? Another point to consider is, why do they me young experience this horrendous
defeat for money...that is fake? It seems that through this chapter, and
including the prologue, a motif of power is seen. Firstly, power is what he
steals from the white men, yet when in the rink, he is hurt from this
electrical power that is running through the coins that the young men fight
for. Another symbol that is noticed is the illusion of dreams. In the prologue,
the narrator states that he uses drugs to feel a sense of relief and when he is
dreaming in chapter 1, he dreams of his grandfather giving him something to
laugh about. These illusions are what keeps him going, keeps him calm, and
perhaps sane.
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