Reading all of that was a doozy! So, generally I like Invisible Man but that’s because I enjoy African American literature, and it seems to be a new twist on it as well. Reading other novels such as Raisins in the Sun and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings showed the side of female African American protagonists. Invisible Man, on the other hand, shows a male protagonist who goes through some aggressive circumstances, and the book seems much more chauvinistic than I had intended. For example, we’ve already gone over the stripper after the violent boxing match. Now, in the new reading, the Narrator (still unnamed, I’ll get into that later) sleeps with a married woman! What is that showing you about the females in this novel? Even though the novel really doesn’t say alot for anybody, her husband hardly even recognizes the Narrator as he is allowed to slink out of the house, but I think woman in Invisible Man take a real bad rap.
Also, when the Narrator is knocked unconscious from an explosion, following a fight with Mr. Brockway, he can not give his name to the doctors working on him. What is that? I think maybe Ellison wrote himself into a loop, and had to go about without revealing who the Narrator really was. It was a nice twist to put that he couldn’t even remember his mother’s name, but it still felt like a gimmick, and a rather bad one at that! Also, why so much tension over the unions? They do take jobs away from independent workers, but people really resort to drastic violence when approached with this ordeal. The Narrator has had several run ins now, I think he should actually avoid all of this trouble! Is it all really necessary?
Here is another thing that Ellison seems to focus on- the color white. Yea, it’s intentional that the color white is used so often- The Narrator works with white paint all the time, and recieves real recognition when he wears white overalls… I think the matter of fact is that people like the color white. It definately is a metaphor, but when it is used so frequently, it kind of seems redundant, don’t you agree? The Narrator keeps focusing on this, and focuses on other events in his past… while many events he takes in stride during the present. Only moments of real violence and aggression do we see a more ‘take charge’ Narrator, but other times he just takes the blows and keeps it all inside, which isn’t healthy! Maybe that’s why he focuses so much on the past, he can’t let it go.
Overall, I think the book is alright so far. It’s not exactly my favorite, but there are certain points which are interesting and what the hell, it’s something different. Very different, from other African American literature I have seen thus far. It really isn’t all that exciting, except for certain moments where he bursts with sexual or aggrevated emotion. He really does seem invisible, sometimes.
