The character addresses the central conflict of self-identity with assured clarity. This conflict is that one can only define themselves in comparison or relation to others. It is very easy to analyze other people and to typify them, much easier than typifying yourself – Henry Adams and Gertrude Stein show us how the manageability of their characters is facilitated by using third person. First person characters suffer from lack of dimension because they are overwhelmed with interpreting all of the story and other characters and therefore experience no removed analysis of themselves. In fact, this is how every person must live their lives – I exist in relation to other people. I gauge myself based on their reactions and then measure my setting using myself as a constant.
Our speaker holds his hand up against life’s inevitable format: I refuse to consider myself in relation to my wake. He realizes his invisibility - Think of an earthquake that is invisible and is reflected by the memory of the damage it inflicts – and wonders if he exists at all if he lives in a state where he causes no reaction. Does a tree falling in the forest make any sound? “I…did not become alive until I discovered my invisibility,” (11) he says, framing the progression of the story.
“The end is in the beginning and lies far ahead.” (9)
The exposition is crucial to our unraveling of the purpose, which is obscured by very vivid imagery. Though everything makes little sense now in a linear way, it reflects the speaker’s own self-discovery. As he removes himself from society and becomes more self-aware, his poignant sentences will become more sensical. We should remember to hold on to tokens like “ ‘To whom it may concern…keep this nigger boy running’ ” (35) until later.
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Your comment is one that captures what this book is all about. By taking oneself out of the larger picture and becoming more aware of each and every situation that comes by their way without passively analyzing it, is the way to ultimately develop true self-identity in society. We exist in society based on our relationship to different objects and people in whatever manner fits our self concept. Perhaps this is why I enjoy reading third person narratives instead of first person narratives, because this delineation only serves to solidify the narrator's perspective of the events taking place in the story.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the contention that the narrator believes that his identity only exists in comparison with others. As such, we get the whole spiel about being invisible at the beginning because the narrator has decided to create a new identity which society does not easily realize. Instead of being a subversive yes-man like his grandfather, he takes power into his own hands, and takes the fight to those who disrespects him. Instead of trying to become a power broker among blacks like Dr. Bledsoe, he tries to create an equal human relationship. These actions put him outside of the pigeon hole that blacks are supposed to exist inside, and as such, he becomes invisible to a society that can not understand him.
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