Invisible Man is one of my favorite books of all time, and I never get tired of hearing people interpret Ellison’s exquisite language and storytelling for themselves. For me, Ellison’s thoughts can be summed up in his first paragraph of Invisible Man, where he writes, “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” Although directly related to the race of the narrator, this idea of passing and invisibility is timeless and universally relatable. In many ways, we all have intricate pieces of ourselves that remain invisible to most only because people do not want to see them... if that makes sense.
In the first 100 pages are typically quickly turned by readers, but there are many bizarre pieces. The contrast between the fight scene and the narrator’s speech is absolutely haunting and largely unrealistic. Mr. Norton, particularly in his interactions with the vet inside the Golden Day, is an extremely mysterious character. Personally, the story of Jim Trueblood absolutely fascinates me; despite his unforgivable misgivings, I am always inclined to feel a twinge in my heart for him.
In addition to the overarching theme of social choices, Invisible Man plays largely on human consciousness, psychological experiences, and personal identity. I have explained on a few occasions how I believe Steinbeck to the the great American novelist, but I believe Ellison is the great human novelist. Invisible Man is triumphant in the unifying idea of individual consciousness and identity.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with Ariel's point about the timelessness of invisibility. In ways, people voluntarily make things about themselves invisible by not discussing them or making them evident. For example, I believe that everyone has something in their past that is embarrassing. Many people let this be invisible on the outside. Continuing, I feel that it is okay to be invisible in some ways. Conformity creates an invisibilty in the members of the conforming group since there is a created "normalcy" and those people thus are unable to distinguish those who are "normal" as different than the conformed group.
ReplyDelete