Monday, July 14, 2008
Invisible Man Prologue Comments
Wow- wonderfully insightful and thought-provoking comments so far. I can tell it's going to be a great year. A comment tally update will be listed on the last Color Purple post. If you're ready to start commenting on Invisible Man, then, by all means, start your comments here and get ahead- getting done early is a beautiful thing. Here are some possible prompts to reply to when reading the Prologue (taken from an AP guide to the novel):*How would you describe the tone of the first two paragraphs?*What is ironic about the narrator's encounter with the blond man?*What does it mean when the narrator says that the blond man "had not seen [him]"?*Who are the "sleeping ones"?*Explain the narrator's desire for light in his hiding place in the basement.*What is the relationship between the music of Louis Armstrong and the narrator's sense of invisibility?*What does the narrator learn about the struggle for freedom during his conversation with a former slave?Again, you may also comment on any other insights, questions, or observations you make as you read. Connections to Color Purple would be pretty cool as well. I'll post some background on the novel soon to help get you started. Looking forward to hearing from you.
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9 comments:
The narrator feels invisible because white people refuse to see him as an individual human being. Instead he is treated as a stereotype of what white people think black people are. Despite the narrator being a well educated and respectable man, the white people he comes into contact with refuse to see him as this and continue to treat him as their idea of a stereotypical black man. The blond man refuses to see the narrator when he refuses to see that the narrator attacked him in order to be seen as an individual instead of the cruel word the blond man called him. Instead the blond man reports the attack as a mugging, because he believes that a black man would only attack a white man to mug him. The blond man’s story makes it seem like the narrator is feeding into a stereotype when in fact he is attempting to do exactly the opposite.
The narrator describes people as being "sleeping ones." This is because they do not realize him to be another person nor do they realize themselves to also be invisible. I believe that the narrator does not want to be invisible. This is because he has all the lights in his basement, like he wants people to see him. The narrator says he has an ongoing battle with the Monopolated Light & Power company for a long time by taking their light for free. I believe that he wants the power company to notice that he lives, and to do this he steals a large amount of power.
The narrator claims himself 'invisible' and gives an example of himself being physically invisable when he is bumped into by a blonde man. He claims the man had not seen him. What he meant was he did not recognize him as an equal in society so didn't respect him and not hit him, but in reality, the man did not physically see him at all. This only angered the narrator even more; he was bumped into out of what he thought was sheer disrespect, and was not seen, exaservating his insecurity in being 'invisible'.
The tone of the first two paragraphs is matter-of-factly. The narrator realizes that he is invisible and just states it. He doesn't try to hide it, he just knows that he is invisible and accepts his invisibility. He decides that this is why he understands Louis Armstrong's music.
In the first two paragraphs, the narrator straight-forwardly admits his "invisiblilty" and shows his acceptance of who he is. His encounter with the blond man shows how he realizes the existence of racism against him as a black induvidual, and the blond man didn't treat him as a person, but as a black man (or "invisible man"). The ones whom he calls the "sleeping ones" are pretty much all racist white men who can't see the person inside of a black's outer skin color.
I also find the last paragraph of the Prologue very interesting on how it's written. The narrator puts a more sensible insight on how his encounter with the blond man was the blond man's fault, because he was the one who chose to bump and insult the narrator, and the narrator feels irresponsible for not killing him. But ironically, if he would've enforced "justice", it wouldn't better his position in society because he would be stereotyped as a typical black man killing a white man.
The first two paragraphs of the prologue give insight to a major idea that comes from the novel. The narrator obviously explains that he learns something through his travels. I think he is trying to foreshadow that from all of his life's situations he concludes that he is invisible because "people refuse to see me." It seems that he is refering to that people see not his true character but rather their own beliefs about him. This is probably a major theme to the novel which is that in his society people will not see him as himself but rather what they believe or what they want to believe of him.
The blond man did not see the narrator on the street because it was dark, not because the blond man was ignoring the narrator. Also, the narrator tries to have as much light as possible in his basement in order to prove that he does exist to the world, even though others still cannot see him in that basement.
The narrator describes
the "sleeping ones" as other African Americans who do not realize that they are not seen or acknowledged by others. They are "invisible" like the narrator, but do not realize that they are.
The narrators desire for light in his hiding place in the basement is because the narrator believe that the light will allow him to be seen and acknowledged.
When the narrator says that the blond man "had not seen [him]", the narrator really is implying that the man had ignored him for social reasons. Initially when the narrator calls himself "invisible", it is a metaphor for being ignored because of his race, which is black. Blacks were treated as lower human beings than the whites, which is why when the narrator bumped into this blond man, the man insulted him, as if it was the narrator's fault. Even after being attacked, the blond man persisted with his insults, showing that he had no respect for the narrator.
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