Yea, He is a fool, but Jonah and the Whale?

he Invisible Man, the narrator of the novel, is similar to Jonah from the Old Testament. In order to relate the Invisible Man to Jonah, it is important to understand the basis of the story. Jonah is asked by God to to visit Nineveh and stop the evil or bad behavior; although, Jonah rebelled against this as he wanted man to get punished for their sins and fled to sea. Along the ship ride, a storm hit and Jonah was blamed for such situation- in fact, they questioned his motives, his belief of god, and also asked him for advice to stop the storm. They threw Jonah off the boat, into the storm as it got worse, and the storm ceased. Such incident led the men to believe that God listened to Jonah. Taking this story into consideration, one can say that the Invisible Man represent Jonah due to his entry into a new city that takes him for a ride. When the invisible man first enters town, he felt a sense of uneasiness. He states that “the train seemed to plunge downhill now, only tolunge to a stop that shot me out upon a platform feeling like something regurgitated from the belly of a frantic whale” (158). This is stated when he is departing the subway- to him such action most likely imitates that feel of isolation and segregation from the local community as he is new to New York. Deviating from the fact that he is different from the local townspeople (parallel to the sailors on the boat), he is most similar to Jonah when he is questioned by Bledsoe about taking Mr.Norton on the drive. Just like the sailors question Jonah about how he doesn’t pray to stop the horrible storm and thinks it is his fault for the occurrence of the storm, Bledsoe blames the narrator (the Invisible Man) and states that he has “dragged the entire race into the slime!” (141). Bledsoe explains that he gave him an “opportunity to serve one of our best white friends, a man who could make him a fortune.” This shows a direct parallel between Jonah and the Invisible Man as they both represent hated being of society as well as a rebellious figure in which the normal can’t see past their action nor can they extract a meaning. The meaning of the drive for the Invisible Man was nothing but an impulse without control from the conscious- he was left with no choice; similarly, Jonah was left with no choice but to go against god’s will in order for men to be sinned- they both lived up to their desires ( to help).