Initial Thoughts: Invisible Man

I remember how, until I began high school, I enjoyed nothing more than reading. I liked short, exciting books and laboriously lengthy novels alike. Now with five AP classes, a demanding part-time job, an internship, college applications and scholarships, relationships to maintain, and various physio-psychological issues to address, I must sadly admit that I haven’t read for pleasure outside of summer vacation in years. But because I’m trying to be scholarly and responsible this semester and have begun reading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison earlier than the night before it’s due, I have begun to feel something of the literary pleasure I used to know so well.

Immediately after finishing the Prologue, I was fascinated by the character of the speaker. He was this incredibly cynical recluse, living not in the dark as recluses often do, but in a room papered in light bulbs- like he is the one person who knows the truth, though he has not gained his knowledge through the proper channels, like his electricity is begotten illegally. He has “illuminated the blackness of my invisibility-“ (13) I pondered over how literally I should take that. The light bulbs reveal his skin color, which he seems to pinpoint as the cause of his invisibility. Can he be seen in this light? Is he therefore invisible outside of his “cave” because the rest of the world is shrouded in darkness and ignorance? What is so special about this character that makes him the holder of truth?

I’m confused by another race-related assertion made by a character. The speaker’s grandfather, on his deathbed, insists “I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I gave up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.” (16) His speech here is so violent and defiant, yet contrasts so much with itself, that I’m left baffled. I know the saying “kill them with kindness” but don’t understand how it is applicable in race relations. Is the old man being ironic or does he really believe that a complacent attitude will overthrow the power of the Caucasian oppressors? The old man describes his perfect behavior as treachery. I’m confused until I read more- again and again, the whites encourage black people to sink into low behavior. The glistening politicians egg on a savage fight between young black scholars, they finance the incestuous and disgusting Trueblood’s existence, and fight to keep The Golden Day alive and kicking as an example of the blacks’ “inferiority.”

The questions I have about Invisible Man I am sure will grow more intricate upon further reading of the novel, and I’m excited for this. My dive into the novel, with all luck, will mark the beginning of a happily renewed relationship with literature. Now back to Chapter Two!!