Invisible Man.

The book Invisible Man is a book about a black man telling a story of how he is ‘invisible’. Right from the start of the book there are undertones of how the black man of this time is invisible, or blinded. There are numerous example throughout the book of people being blind, blindfolded, or simply invisible. He feels that it is not himself who is the blind one, just others cannot see him, mostly because he is black.

At the very beginning of the book the narrator, who remains nameless throughout the whole book, is humiliated because of a blindfolded boxing match. They are electrocuted by and electric mat, and all while being blindfolded. The fact that they were blindfolded is not there for any old reason. I find it to be a reflection of the ignorance that the white people in the book have in this particular section of the book.

Another example of the theme of blindness, is when the narrator is looking at the breathtaking monument of Booker T. Washington at his college. The monument is either pulling a blanket off of a child’s head, or he could be putting it on. I feel like maybe the importance of this is that maybe Booker T. Washington is trying to help the child to see, so he is taking off the blanket on his head. Of he could possibly be putting the blanket over his head to sheild him, or blind him, from the cruelties of how black people were treated at the time.

Later in the book the narrator is a public speaker for a congregation called the Brotherhood. He tries to share his knowledge to the people in Harlem where he makes his speeches, and tells people inspiring things. The other members of the Brotherhood don’t like how much the narrator is saying to the crowds, and later the narrator finds out that the brotherhood was behind the violent riots in Harlem. Something that the narrator thought was good for him to partake in, is completely the opposite for what he stood for. Perhaps it is another example of blindness.

Racism is behind all of this “blindess” throughout Invisible Man. The fact that black people didn’t get the same treatment as the white people blocked black people for standing up for what they believed in, and getting treated fairly. The invisibility has to do with race also. Because the narrator is black, he is invisible. He is invisible because people around him don’t see who he is, or what he does simply because he is black.

Throughout the book the one common theme seems to be race. Because that has to do with his invisibility, his blindness, and his unfair treatment. The unfair treatment is reflects his race, and other peoples ignorance. As the narrator says in the beginning of the book, he is not the invisible one, the other people just refuse to see him. And that about wraps up my blog post of 500 words.