The Iowa Review
Volume 1
Issue 2 Spring
1970
Invisible Man: Somebody's Protest Novel
Thomas A. Vogler
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Recommended Citation
Vogler, Thomas A.. "Invisible Man: Somebody's Protest Novel." The Iowa Review 1.2 (1970): 64-82. Web.
Available at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/iowareview/vol1/iss2/29
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Article 29
Man:
Invisible
I had a notion
This simply because
at
time
the
see
not
did
Novel
A. Vogler
Thomas
whom
Protest
Somebody's
it somehow would
not
I did
understand.
see?you
in the name
than
any more
the man
be of help to that Kurtz
He
was
you
do.
can
say
. . .?
(National
see
you
for me.
see him?
you
?
Conrad
you see the story? Do you see anything?
Oh
a word
just
Do
I
Do
Anthem)
and Faulkner both dead, this is not a time of recognized liter
Hemingway
are too easily
The
ary giants.
public, and critics too,
preoccupied with literary
next
heir
to
the
with
the
vacated
throne.
Publishers want their
giantism,
finding
With
to
books
that
what
only
be
they
reached
own
should,
lives
minor
to
and
to
a
Its
Man.
used
other
hand,
its
advocation
a white
of
ing"
In
age.
they
1945
be
find
in which
context
to
the
on
of action,
craft
and
middle-class
sellout,
or
its
or
careful
ravings
of
a
can
citizens
On
experience.1
of
avoidance
off by the activists
the
difficult
Invisible
like
novel
Black
of
contemporary
even more
a
discuss
of the Black
analysis,
can be passed
in our
value
of
distinctly
were
out
books
like these, but not
by examples
problems
it to the level of a documentary
insistence
Faulkner's
it has become
read
social
contemporary
can
contem
a
to be
seemed
of
something
to
feel
that
Our
Melville
seventeen
and warned
to
reading,
to
terms
in
and
bring
continue.
all
want
Readers
perspective.
as
cherished
po
partly-realized
nor
too much,
but
idolized
ignored,
to our
to them
of their
relationships
on
not
can
attempts
ought
of a historical
advent of "Black Literature"
long-term
relevance
to reduce
plicit
traditions
own
in our
the belated
find
we
claims.
making
to be
they
should
should be chastened
frightened
With
the
to his
of print. We
overly
writers.
work
about
point
looked
be
awareness
best
writer
vantage
however,
whose
the
with
timid
very
is what
reading
from
the
writers
tential,
read
not
are
writers
porary
are
and
sell,
the
as the
"buggy
private
ego
trip.
be
the
ex
jiv
This
latter trend is accurately prophesied at the every end of the novel.2 Most intol
erable, perhaps, is the approach taken by some critics of both colors, that the
novel is "pure" art, that a Negro writer has finally written his way into the main
stream
In
the
spite
some
of
of
literary
the
etherealized
present
stockmarket,
literary
existence
a "modest
tradition.3
of what
literary
Time
magazine
these
boom,"
in the
calls,
are not
good
jargon
times
of
for
64
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writers.
the
are
There
the
and
hardest
craft,
writing
rather
than
as
as many
available
suicide
kinds
of literary
seems
to write
the first novel,
to be, not
thing
reader
for the one
self and
for one's
imaginary
and
licist,
problem
termine
There
the
publisher,
audience
the
for
the
is for
the
them
to find patterns
is a reasonable
to
counterpart
In many
for
creative
with
to
talk
of
evaluation
as
least
enced by what
Though Ellison
more
to
of
of
of
Eliot,
the
and it
But
too
the
easily
the
pointed
themes
out,
it
is "natu
of
ten
writers,
one."
in a
in
the
kind
The
limitations.
of
cannot
novel
good
and
synthesis
be
contemporary
has roots in the 19th century
he
what
20th;
the
the
change
the discovery
is as much
writes
that
influ
of
aspects
negative
stood that fiction must
which
quotations
Benito
will
epi
Cere?o,
to get at
help
under
like Melville,
Ellison,
in order to fulfill both
be negative
as
in the novel.
The
undergoes
is an essential
which
invisibility
I would
and
however,
change,
his
book?for
the
an
to bear
man
invisible
of
seems
he
style,
uses
two
from Melville's
One,
also from Melville,
another passage,
the more
Ellison
invisibility
discussing
his
of
understanding
to Melville.
of Invisible Man.
suggests
Before
change.
like to suggest
an
develop
relationship
nature
from
Mailer
to masticate
expect
those
desire
the
he has read as it is by what he has seen and lived through.
in many ways, and even copied his stories
is close to Hemingway
important
the
suggests
other,
some
as
is
that is good,
discrimination.
itself. In addition, Ellison
at the beginning
graphs
part
that we
important
in order
hand
other
serious
without
experience
the experience
at
the
On
contemporary
pletely
those
from
problems
or
Fitzgerald.
urge.
Man
in
like Invisible
novel
contemporary
a novelist
we
like
face when
discussing
can be
com
no
writer
hand,
really
good
a
about
obsessed with
This
and good writers get lost or dis
critic of contemporary writers is
Norman
expert
of any
difficulties
different
volves
the
of
the
then,
As
this mistake.
the mind
approach
ways,
Wharton
by
even
to
vulnerable
it
easily become
quite
pattern becomes a definition of what is good,
torted because they do not fit the mold. The
especially
wiser
rally
rather
than
But
to include everything
followed
when
urge
reviewer,
the writer's
enough
comprehensive
enough
the
serve.
editor,
Critics
thinking of the literary stockmarket.
what
are
under
will
who
at
remain
to
but
the
the
agent,
pub
is not
of a
enough
they
novelty-seeking
men
de
relations
in an arena where
to be
for the writer
largely
public
or more
than
less than
will
sell
his book
whether
100,000
5,000
copies.
own way
to
are committed
in their
who
is also
the
of the critics,
problem
stand,
with
are writers,
there
its artistic and moral
:
obligations
is the grand truth about Nathaniel Hawthorne. He says NO! in
thunder; but the devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men
There
who
say
condition
yes,
of
the frontiers
lie;
and
all men
who
say
unincumbered
judicious,
into Eternity
with
are
they
in
Europe;
no,?why
travellers
in the
they
but a carpetbag?that
nothing
happy
cross
is to
say, Ego.
There
is a nice
"Ego";
65
but
the
Criticism
here
comparison
into the darkness with
passage
with
a briefcase
also
suggests
the
invisible
containing
the
dark
man,
crosses
who
all the clues
impulse
of
to his
resistance
his
frontier
identity
which
or
con
to
tinues
in works
fiction
permeate
contemporary
to
that violence
agree
is hostile.
to which
vision
society
a continued
rary world
presents
seem
ists
and
They
affront
seem
the means
be
further
to agree
and
that
to man,
Man.
Invisible
like
must
distortion
The
of
novel
a
projecting
that
the
his
response
contempo
must
therefore be at least in part that of the rebel.
is a
There
standard
psychopathic
perimental
the
novel,
then
patterns
that
environment
are
animals
in a
placed
a
bears
to
trained
or
neuroses
to
produce
In
animals.
trainable
to
resemblance
react
in which
situation
known
experiment
in most
domestic
psychological
behavior
striking
in certain
to
ways
are
reactions
the
the
With
some,
the
until
between
conflict
American
can
only
are
too
to
exhausted
The
and
self-annihilation
toward
to
"a will
the
confront
other
world,
even
animals
of their cages
of
calls "the
Ellison
what
to
then
experience
equivalent
going
and
animal
to do, but
inevitably follows.
the walls
against
continue.
the
trained
with
and reality has produced
expectations
Negro
impulse
be overcome
by
their heads
ex
of
stimuli,
The
impossible.
to mix
refuse
solipsistic?they
react by batting
or
die
they
is
reaction
for eating. Others
world
certain
makes what attempts it can to go on acting as it has been
with continued frustration a nervous collapse of some kind
and
an
which
underground,"
his
evaluate
experi
ence honestly and throw his
into the guilty conscience
findings unashamedly
America."4 His Invisible Man is a record of that agony, and of the discovery
the realities that must be faced before a genuine identity can be achieved.
But I think the memoir,
an
to describe
attempt
is titled Invisible Man,
which
as
reality
it
exists
really
is
his memoir,
rather
than
in
of
of
terms
of what he had assumed it to be. Because it was the clash between
his assumptions, his illusions about reality, and its actual shape which
made
for his
agony.5
In the novel we
most
clearly
in
the
scene
chapel
pattern
is a
form
of
greatness
upon
yourselves
in
worthy
him.
5. Here
Chapter
as the pattern
marks, holding up Bledsoe
His
the invisible man
see the kind of training
are
Barbee's
is subjected
concluding
to
re
for the hero to follow:
of
Aspire,
imitation.
your
to
each
of you,
I
say
someday
to
you,
follow
in his footsteps.
In
the
next
chapter,
Bledsoe
tries
to
explain
to
the
invisible
man
what
he
calls
"the difference between the way things are and the way they're supposed to be,"
but it is a lesson he is not yet prepared to learn. The invisible man, like most of
us,
is
living
in a culture
whose
of the kind of
development
for a feeling of self-respect.
Growing up Absurd, where
parts of society that threaten
reject them without knowing
himself responsible for much
66
incentives,
rewards
and
punishments
prevent
the
personal standards which the public ideals demand
in
He is in the situation Paul Goodman describes
the only truly healthy response is to reject those
his own possibilities
for self respect. But he cannot
what they are, and they are built in so that he is
of what he must go through.
To call a novel a protest novel at this point of history is inevitably to call back
the thirties and the great American discovery of social injustice. The roots of
much in Invisible Man are to be found in this period, in writers like Dos Passos,
the Bell Tolls), and es
Steinbeck, Farrell, Hemingway
(at least in For Whom
was a decline in novels
the
forties
Richard
there
pecially
Wright. During
dealing
primarily with the social themes of the thirties; during this period, however,
a constant
was
there
elists
adopted
new
areas
their
works.
of
discovery
the
focus
for
of
of
social
nov
which
disorganization
war
The
was
experience
another
catastrophe, piled on top of the depression, which the American novelist had to
cope with in his attempts to find a view of his place in society. Another discov
ery
this
during
plexity
lems
a much
period?and
in
took
any
an
to achieve
attempt
one?was
belated
of the Negro,
of the social problems
of
extent
the
and of the essential
view
overall
American
of
com
and
part these prob
The
society.
a theory of
of the Negro novel is not adequately
development
explained by
a
or
now
of
which
makes
white
readers
liberalism,
prejudice
growing
shedding
were
even
to
written
is
not
read
books
know
Blacks.
It
clear
they
willing
by
that the early publishers, who disguised
the fact that particular novels were
written by Blacks, were acting realistically?but
is
that's beside the point. What
clear is that in the 20th century, as in the 19th, the position of the Black citizen
in our society is the focus of social and ideological polarities that go far beyond
the
question
desires
and
of
race
that
are
of
one
life is a byproduct
in
this
in a
found
way
the
of
single
readers
view
and
of
humility
fears
Rich
From
shedding of prejudice,
essential
the
centrality
society.
and in it, if only
civilization,
to
neurotic
product.
a
alike,
of American
the
of
are
see,
life and cultural
to be
discovered
to be
forms
found
society.6
Black
that
gross
for many
national
has not been
and
tendencies,
in Western
focus
our
of Western
humanity
impulses,
elsewhere
is
the
possesses
all those
awareness
the
of
part
a
in writers
awareness,
growing
to any
the Black
problem
adequate
Negro
It
inevitable
first novel on, the movement
ard Wright's
but
is also
It
relations.
an
universal
writers
southern
county
an
and
expressing
developing
as Faulkner
had
earlier
position,
to an understand
elements
necessary
have
been
of
significance
all
their
the
of history. Ellison is like Faulkner in
ing of human nature and the movement
a
as
curse of slavery, yet still with a ves
the
land
doomed
the
South
by
seeing
aura
But
Edenic
of
Ellison
follows his Black hero out of the
simplicity.
tigial
as
Wright
consideration
South,
direct
had
and
done,
of
the
relationship
temporary society, both North
It would
as
merely
of
another
of
the
than
concerned
civil
war
to
all
Faulkner
aspects
outsider
to consider
who
can
67
Criticism
con
the function of the Black protagonist
serve
as
a
foil
to define
weaknesses
in the social structure. The situation of the Black, like that of the writer,
part of the society and reveals important things about it.
Anyway,
different
a
with
of
and South.
be too simple a view
that
more
is much
in the beginning
I thought that the white world was very
from the world I was moving out of and I turned out to be
is a
It
wrong.
seemed
entirely
people
course,
seemed
safer.
it seemed
It
different.
It seemed
much
seemed
richer
from
at
safer,
least
more
it seemed
clearer,
the material
the white
point
of
and,
polite,
of view.
I
But
didn't meet anyone in that world who didn't suffer from the very
same affliction that all the
people I had fled from suffered from and
to be
that was that they didn't know who they were. They wanted
were
I
not.
that
I
And
didn't
know
who
very shortly
they
something
I was really rich or really
was, either. I could not be certain whether
poor, really black or really white, really male or really female, really
a
or
talented
fraud,
really
or
strong
In
stubborn.
merely
I had
short,
an American.7
become
final test of the mastery of illusion and reality, and the discovery of an
as the ex
is
the ability to tell it. This is not the novelist's prerogative,
identity,
amples of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver show, and as Ellison suggests in
Brother Tarp's recognition of the "signifying" embodied in his chain link and his
his story to the invisible man
pleasure at finally being able to communicate
ever
it
tellin'
I
If Ellison has entered the
better'n
I
("I'm
could!").
thought
mainstream
of modern art, it is through his fusion of the problems of his Black
search for form and reality is the
protagonist with those of the writer, whose
central problem of most serious writers of fiction in the last 100 or so years. In
an
eloquent mood, Ellison has spoken to the best hopes of most novelists of
The
whatever
color:
Life
is as
the
formlessness,
reducing
currents
inscribed
significance
of the world;
multiplicity
is not
Man
to avoid
throughout
art," writes
. . . that
to master
and
chaos
conquer
Invisible
on a chart.
Though
of
organized
careful
a
man
in which
ship
a series
it to a course,
art
sea,
'just'
this
life's
conquers
of swells,
drawn
from
tides
all
than
stronger
alone
enables
significance
"the
the world,
"is
Malraux,
crushing
and wind
the
man
to
destiny."8
a
novel,
Negro
then,
limitation,
tempting
and
even
Ellison
while
has
been
us
giving
very
a
very
comprehensive view of race relations in both the South and the North. Look for
a moment at Tod Clifton,
remembering that it is no accident that Tod in German
means "death." Tod is part black, part white, symbolically gray like the "Liberty
Paint"
that
out
goes
of
the
to
factory
decorate
some
important
national
monu
ment. Tod's death is one of the key turning points of the book, forcing the in
visible man to the recognition that we all shall die, leading finally to the recog
nition
unique
that,
in
absurdity.
an
it
absurd
His
society,
reflections
on
is an
Tod's
error
death
to
cater
are
a
to
any
turning-point
but
own
one's
from
which
he intensifies the exploration of his own identity and begins to recognize more
fully the possible identities of others. In the crowd at the funeral oration he sees
individual faces, marked with suffering that he begins to understand:
Here are the facts. He was standing and he fell. He fell and he
kneeled. He kneeled and he bled. He bled and he died. He fell in a
68
as
spilled out like any blood; red
it dried in the sun as blood dries.
heap like any man and his blood
any blood, wet as any blood?and
That's
all.
man becomes more than the death of an in
It is the death of the best parts of the indi
society; it is "OUR HOPE SHOT DOWN,"
has been speaking for us all.
The specific racial killing of a Black
dividual caused by social injustice.
vidual caused by the worst parts of
for on the lower frequencies Ellison
have a full portrait
In Invisible Man we
destructive
element
we
along. The question
is the
ginning,
on
forced
the
are deliberately
use
constructive
of the element
the writer,
Black,
these
as well
us
can
elements
be
if we
go
is also a be
in the end which
left with,
to which
and of the
of despair
on
and
for
role
put?the
the self which has at last been recognized and accepted, the kind of life one can
live in a realm of absurdity which is also a realm of possibility. The problem of
how all this negation can be put to use is already answered in part by the very
in the beginning
existence of the novel. It is emphasized
and end that the
is
its
and
the
the
book
that
of
also
creator,
writing of the book is
protagonist
itself part of the experience, and of the discovery of an identity, which is the
is affirmative in both the structure and the existence
subject of the book. What
of the book is that the invisible man does survive through turning his experience
art.
into
In
same
the
the
way,
injustice and suffering
the
offers
blues,
a way
of
been
a
been
the most
survival
ence
in one's
alive
Negro
contribution
cultural
important
blues "is an impulse
the
for
to keep
near-comic
tragic,
tory
mystery
aspects
in
nocence,
though,
is
acceptance
initiates,
being
finally
achieved
scene,
the
blues
the blues
express
terms
of
In
continually
suggested.
can be an
of
expression
hope:
is
that
also
art.
the
the
some
and
it in the
cases,
as
in
contradic
is a
"There
evil
of
blues."
in
The
it be
whether
expression,
In the book
tran
from it a near
joke.
and
the
evil,
joke
artistic
the
to
and
grain,
painful
like a
of
have
Ellison,
of a brutal experi
jagged
both
have
they
For
but by squeezing
in the blues or in the form and creation of a novel.
with
its
finger
something
innocence
of
the
Negroes
in
only
and
and episodes
recognizes
them
into
blackness,
agreed
like
losing
that the blues
to American
blues
turning
of
to
able
without
experience
in America
of philosophy,
The
lyricism."
of
experience,
the whiteness
to
consciousness,
aching
have
details
the painful
scend it, not by the consolation
one's
from
apart
All Black writers
mechanism
been
has
society
into the folk art of the blues. The novel,
standing
its intensity or its meaning.
in a hostile
Black
ordinary
turn daily
itself, this analogy
the
college
chapel
I closed my eyes as I heard the deep moaning
sound that issued
from him, and the rising crescendo of the student body joining in.
This time it was music sincerely felt, not rendered for the guests, but
for
themselves;
a
song
of
hope
and
exaltation.
I wanted
to rush
the building, but didn't dare. I sat stiff and erect, supported
hard bench, relying upon it as upon a form of hope.
In other cases,
69
Criticism
such as the singing
at Tod Clifton's
funeral,
from
by the
the invisible man
comes
to
closer
sense
the
recognizing
is his reaction
Here
definition.
blues
of
the man
to
that
I looked into the face of the old man who
a
felt
of
twinge
were
threw
out
the
a wonder
at
the
throat
I felt
and
a worn,
...
song.
I watched
him
the song and
his
and
now,
as
It was
in his
singing:
face
yellow
at
getting
eyes
neck
around his upturned
mass.
singing
the
had aroused
old,
see a knife welt
and I could
closed
as his
It was
envy.
was
Ellison
starts
who
wet-eyed,
the
song
though
had been there all the time, and he knew it and aroused it; and I
knew that I had known it too, and had failed to release it out of a
nameless
vague,
or
shame
Even
fear.
white
or
not
It was
protest
religion.
it was
slave-borne
words:
old
than
deeper
all the
something
were
they
same
the emotion
changed
beneath
transcendent
resigned,
by
that something
me
no
the words
emotion
still
for which
were
sisters
and
brothers
the crowd, and the old man
it. They had touched upon
joining in. Something deep had shaken
and the man with the horn had done
while
the words,
as
the old
yet
sounded
now
above,
for
he'd
though
longing,
deepened
had given
the theory of brotherhood
name.
The invisible man has found something here that the conscious quest for identity
had failed to reveal. It is only after this discovery that he is able to make of his
same
the
writing
an acute
use
sense
of
that
the
makes
of
singer
and
self-recognition
identity
blues.
the
It
that
is a means
has
society
of
achieving
unable
been
to
provide.9
This discovery
approaches
of the more
be
way
mother.
some
spirit,
and more
as
a
concepts
to man's
solutions
on
the
more
search?or
are
not
basic
need
for
quest
that
seems
it
later
almost
his
of
authority,
spite
been
has
pur
can
work
in
a
a father
or a
"quest"?for
dif
but
offer
primitive
they
own
find
his
mind
and
beyond
typically
orient
he
modern
every
in
unawares,
that
identity
almost
interchangeable;
to reach
to
around
which
point
is almost
for a
always
principle
man
invisible
conscious
fixed
father
in the blues, or in a novel which
for self discovery
comes
or
read
two
The
ferent
in
literary
Sooner
before.
suing
some
of the potential
them
own
existence.
a
The
of
lawgiver
search
some
for
kind,
a
even
if it is the stern inscrutability of some abstract principle of necessity.
In the
earlier part of Invisible Man we find figures like the Founder and Bledsoe, and
the
great
white
father
figures
of Norton
and
the
trustees.
other
Even
the
Brother
hood, at first felt as a fraternity of equality and freedom, is finally seen to be
dominated by a harshly paternal theory of history, and Brother Jack turns out to
as a brother. The mother
be a disguised father masquerading
figure typically
offers
an
missing
is
replaced
alternative
orientation
or of lesser importance
by
the
all-embracing
for
and
experience,
has
in the father figures. The
acceptance
of
the mother,
something
that
is
always
strictness of the father
who
refuses
to
reject
her child no matter how poor, weak or sinful he has become. In Invisible Man
the landlady Mary who takes up the hero and keeps him and feeds him is such
a
figure. He is trying to reach Mary's when he falls down the hole at the end,
and it is to Mary's that his feet had unconsciously
taken him earlier in the book:
70
I was
But
never
to reach
now
And
Marys.
I realized
I couldn't
that
return to Mary's, to any part of my old life, I could only
approach it
from the outside, and I had been as invisible to Mary as I had been
to the brotherhood.
The
is paralleled
fathers,
in
return
to
Mary,
is as unattainable
that he can't
recognition
all its
overtones,
religious
with
the
novel.
and
him,
The
that
the
as
man's
an
therefore
search
inevitable
of
part
a
for
his
to handle
a
and
experience
suggests,
series
of
the
by
a mother
or
father
she
offered
uses
by the tone and structure Ellison
invisible
alternative
that
the theme
is a
reflex
in
part
of
necessary
the novel. But if the novel must go through the quest because
its protagonist
must go through, it can at least do it in a different way. Ellison has
pointed out
that
"When
are
you
influenced
a
by
of
body
or
literature
art
an
from
earlier
period, it is usually the form of it that is available to you," and he has openly
the high degree of literary self-consciousness
in the
manifest
acknowledged
novel.
"Let's
done
put
I've
because
a
it this
way?I'm
highly
read
the books,
I've
writer.
conscious
studied
I know
them."10
what's
been
consciousness
The
of
form and archetype leads to a deliberate and parodie use of such patterns in
Ellison's work, and contributes to its enlightened
literary humor. The invisible
man may be
or irrelevant
into
after
unattainable
duped
questing
goals, but he
will
not
visible
novel
let his
is not
Man
make
that
same
the
a
for
mistake.
more
The
a mother,
or
father
innovative
the
but
search
for
quest
a
in
In
a
group,
fraternity, a brotherhood of fellow humans in which the invisible man can find
his identity and achieve the freedom and dignity which are the real
goals of his
that of all hu
quest. The final irony of this quest is that the real brotherhood,
mans
facing death and oppression, can be joined only by renouncing all fictitious
bases
of
In
brotherhood.
his
tle-royal,
Ras
of
ternity
the
As
he moves
parts
of his
from
identity
a brother,
coming
kinds
in
identity
of
catch-all
of
fraternity
system of the Brotherhood,
paternal
demand
man
invisible
of
these
that he sacrifice
roles
offer
too much
re
must
in the bat
group of Black boys
the
Harlem
the Black
which
fra
either
he
to find a
of himself
membership.
one
tentative
which
he
the
to
role
new
"Feed
me,"
who
the
he
another,
cannot
roles
tries to discard
entertainers
dependencies.
of all the Black
the
union,
Exhorter-Destroyer?all
cannot accept or which
genuine
the
the disguised
the
this,
and his humanity?the
fellow-students,
Men's House,
but
alternative
every
press part of his emotions
attempts
accept.
bank
says
on
cast
off
earlier
with
Simultaneously
be
is an image of different
the bank which
have publicly
to
its
front,
distorted
and
it reminds
as the invisible
man's
to
caricature,
gross
just
attempt
destroy
the corps
of
musicians
who
have
to
refused
smile
while
jazz
bank
the
playing
us
into this
themselves
suggests
in order
to
prevent associations with the old image from coming back to destroy the dignity
of their art. In spite of his attempts, the invisible man cannot
get rid of the bank.
A white
woman,
and
a white
man,
force
him
to
retrieve
it
first
out
of
the
gar
bage and then off the street. So he seals it up in the briefcase with all the other
clues to the identity which he refuses to accept. The briefcase is an emblem of
himself, a container of images which he hates but cannot lose:
71
Criticism
in
"What's
that
briefcase,"
thing else I might
This
shame
and
is
same
the
me
shook
outrage
the
question
and
doctors
and
said,
they
stood
have
if
me
asked
they'd
any
a wave
at the question
still. But
of
I ran.
were
him
asking
earlier,
now
only
is
he
ready to find the answer. He is forced, in the darkness of his hole, to explore
the contents of the briefcase which are the real clues to his identity and the only
source
of
light.
The exploration, as I have already suggested, is undertaken in the act of telling
the story. In this exploration the big issues are the problems of politics, of free
the
dom, of brotherhood, of the rejection of a father and the loss of a mother,
distrust of rhetoric and abstractions which dilute experience and disguise reality.
All
of
are
issues
these
in
elements
the
formal
structure
and
pattern
novel.
the
of
But all of these are tied together by the central problem of finding his identity.
the cup; he
Until he finds it, the invisible man is like a cup of water without
his
environment
offers
takes on his identity from whatever
until,
finally,
shape
he
realizes
once
his
that
new
and
clean
now
briefcase,
battered
and
dirty,
is sym
bolically the container of all the clues that are essential to finding his true iden
tity. This chameleon-like
flexibility is one of the most typically American features
in the whole book, and it is perhaps our best clue to Ellison's
identity as an
American
writer.
is
there
the
without
From
the
in
characters
innumerable
concept
effort,
a
of
Hawthorne,
can
who
Irving,
character
or
preparation
of
versatility
legendary
This
reflection.
Franklin,
Benjamin
and
Whitman
Melville,
move
from
one
to
identity
is so basic
that
concept
through
Twain,
another
it turns
up
both
in the traditions and idealized national myths?characters
like Franklin and
are
in
writers
of
like
the
works
Ellison
who
Alger?and
rebelling from the hypoc
is a basic fact and
while
still
that
of
those
ideals
risy
realizing
metamorphosis
as
vival,
in Faulkner's
Finn,
Huckleberry
Man.11
At
of
founder
endary
a
It can
existence.
of
possibility
crucial
the
Snopes
invisible
or
the more
in
point
which
metamorphosis
world of possibilities
the
a debased,
be
family,
man's
cosmic
novel
the
or
almost
it can
college.
and
It can
ironic
man
invisible
social
be
first, he
this
sur
of
in
the
as
of humor,
of Melville's
"discovers"
there all along. At
:
opened up before him
as
triumph
source
the
humor
has been
instrument
subhuman
a
be
leg
in
Confidence
of
principle
is impressed
by the
Well, I was and yet I was invisible, that was the fundamental contra
diction. I was and yet I was unseen. It was frightening and as I sat
. . .
there I sensed another frightening world of possibilities.
Perhaps
I could tell them to hope until I found the basis of something real,
some
firm
move
them
ground
without
for
. . . But
action.
myself
being
until
...
moved.
then
I'd
I would
have
to do
have
to
a Rine
hart.
So he tries to Rinehart
to
gain
he picks
72
inside
Sybil
information
for his
it; he will
about
informant,
find a woman
their
plans.
in the Brotherhood
Unfortunately
and she has
for
the enthusiastic
the
and use her
invisible
frenzy but
man
lacks
the information he is looking for.12 Instead, she merely gives him another lesson
in his invisibility. She looks through him and sees nothing but her own fantasy
of the Black phallus, the Negro rapist. And since he is now "doing a Rinehart"
as he puts it, operating in the world of possibility, he can convince her?or let
her
convince
were
by
is a
image
she was
herself?that
raped
santa
one,
perfect
her
for
without
raped
surprise"
Claus
writes
he
fantasy
is an
serve distinct
both
was
man
that
sent
stand what
town
down
real
the
question
or women,
money
one
a Black
could move
is
that
on
lecture
the
had
in
invisible
who seduces him in her apartment is confusing
biology, offering in fact still another alternative
you
the
And
child's
they
the invisible
to
only
find
out
to under
trying
is it, Ras asks,
What
man's
is
charac
and
book,
earlier,
to join the Brotherhood.
confusing
the
the
Question,"
when
asked
the
belly.
than
occurred when
"The Woman
Ras
"sybil,
of Ellison's
economy
adventures
first adventure
The
to
was
precision
two
sexual
are
functions.
and
the
of
example
interesting
There
this
episode.
in
terization
real
it.
sex fantasy as the child
fantasy. She has been taught to believe in the Black
taught to believe in the great magic gift-giver.13
There
doing
bare
is no more
him
of
actually
on her
woman
The
ideology.
the concept of brotherhood with
that he must try and then reject
the novel.
during
women into everything? Between us
Why did they have to mix their
a
we
to change in the world
wanted
and everything
they placed
did
woman:
socially, politically, economically. Why, godammit, why
ass
struggle,
they insist upon confusing the class struggle with the
us
both
debasing
This
is the
other
They
both
attribute
side
and
of
a
these
nounced
of
those
episodes?and
on the first
with
whom
eyes, those eyes with which
The
of
consequence
this
Ras
that
of
invisible
the
novel.
man
It
is "a
they look through
disposition
of
the woman
social
inner
the
question.
and
equality
seen operating
an
discovering?was
of
the eyes
disposition
peculiar
inner
of their
of the construction
is
A matter
in contact.
to
fantasy which we have
and projected
the
on
attain
showed
to a drive
motivation
which
page
I come
motives.
human
confusion
the
sexual
human dignity.
The principle of invisibility
in
them?all
gradually
their physical
eye
for
the
eyes upon
reality."
man
invisible
is not
that people see nothing at all when they look in his direction, for they know that
at what they ex
something is there. What they do is look through that something
pect
created.
to
see, what
The
first
think
they
concrete
inner
is there?the
example
of
this
eye
error
of
sees
vision
a fiction
comes
it has
that
in
the
itself
Prologue,
when the invisible man bumps into a tall blond man who insults him and curses
him when asked to apologize. In the fight that follows the white man is almost
killed, but not by the invisible man. "Something in this man's thick head had
was
sprung out and beaten him within an inch of his life," and that something
insulted
and
had
the
which
of
he
the man's own prejudiced
concept
Nigger
cursed.
The
with
73
Prologue
almost
also
every
Criticism
introduces
the
character,
and
problem
the critic
of
names
which
suffers
while
the
trying
reader
encounters
to write
about
nameless
the
the
novel.
once
Thoreau
about
the
was
system
idea
the
an
wrote
essay
by the American
the system of naming practiced
admired
Thoreau
of
protagonist
to praising
voted
that
to wait
had
everyone
de
largely
Indians. What
until
he had earned a name through some significant action, or until he had revealed
a name to be chosen that
adequately reflected
enough of his basic personality for
his individuality. The "invisible man" is an earned name in something like the
same
as
sense,
derground
characters
the
"Jack
as a
time
in
the
like
rectly
For
"Tod"
Clifton
symbolic
when
example,
for
meaning
slang
also
his
name
underground
hibernation.
Most
of
period
are
or
as
*s his
Bear"
nature
character's
symbolic,
novel
tne
earned
in
function
or
the
the
names
which
often
are
they
sees
he
we
are
un
his
for
given
clues
serve
as
these
names
Sometimes
novel.
More
"Mary."
of
or
names,
because
names
to
are
so much
not
di
suggestive.
we
at Brother
look
is money.
"jack"
The
we
Jack,
name
should
that
remember
the
emphasizes
a common
element
financial
in the relationship between
the invisible man and the Brotherhood. When Ras
it was money or women
the
Exhorter
asked
whether
that could blind
("race")
a
man
was
to
racial
his
the
his purity of
invisible
that
identity,
Negro
outraged
motive could be questioned. But the whole scene takes place in front of a garish
that
sign
cashed
"checks
says
here."
Brother
first
Jack
showed
when
up
the invisible man was out of money, and his first reason for joining the Brother
hood was for the pay they offered. Without knowing it, at the same time as he is
trying to get rid of the bank because it is the image of the paid entertainer de
basing himself for money, he is taking on an analogous position within the Broth
erhood. This is emphasized at the end, when Brother Jack is disciplining him.
".
You
. .
you
were
Rinehart
not
hired
to
hired
think.
Had
you
forgotten
If
that?
to me:
listen
so,
to think."
to
it can
but
be
if one
looks
name,
significant
misleading
in
"Rind"
for
"rine"
the
of
the
(or
("pure")
help.
pronunciation
is a
a lot of rind,
If a person
American
has
it means
word.
he
good
slang
If he is a rind,
it means
is thick-skinned
lot of nerve.
in a sense
he
ranging
the German
novel)
has a
were
not
is another
rein
all the way from not caring what other people think to not caring what
happens
to them. This is the rind in the Rinehart in the novel, and the invisible man
points to it just before hunting up Sybil:
Now I recognized my
and heart. I'd plunge
wouldn't they gag.
As
not
it turns
cynical
out,
enough
it
however,
to
keep
invisibility. So I'd accept it, I'd explore it, rine
into it with both feet and they'd gag. Oh, but
is the
up
the
invisible
role.
man
"Such
who
games
gags
were
on
the
rind,
for Rinehart,
for
he
not
me,"
is
he says, and he washes off the lipstick inscription he had meant to leave behind.
to agree with the Brotherhood
Meanwhile,
by doing a Rinehart, by pretending
in order to undermine it, he does in effect agree, and becomes a
betrayer of the
Harlem Brothers while working in his own interests. The irony of this role is that
in the very moment of seeing Sybil's fantasy of the Black
rapist he is himself at
one.
to
live
the
is like the nameless
Rinehart
tempting
"spiritual technologist"
74
in Barth's End
Black Doctor
which
paralysis
action.
works
only
as
of
that
own
his
of
attitude
liberal
conventional
one
must
important name
"Emerson" is another
aware
of the Road,
until
the
for role
his
arbitrary
and one Ellison
He
deliberately
when
relations,
race
of
consequences
in Invisible Man,
namesake.
towards
a "Mythotherapy"
offering
face
uses
it
the
son
is acutely
to undercut
of
the
Emerson
old
tries to befriend the invisible man. Young
(to suggest the historical continuity)
Emerson tries to find him a place in the great Liberty Paint company just as
Norton had tried to help him find a place in the American
society, but both
Norton and Emerson have an image of the Negro which limits their possibility
of sharing any kind of reality with the invisible man. Emerson even wants to
that he
find a place for him in his own confused private life; after announcing
had "a difficult session" with his analyst the evening before, Emerson goes on:
"Some
are
things
too
just
for
unjust
he
words,"
said,
a
expelling
or ideas. By
plume of smoke, "and too ambiguous for either speech
the way, have you ever been to the Club Calamus?"
think
"I don't
It's
there.
There's
heard
of
I said.
it, sir,"
It's very well known. Many
a rendezvous
artists
for writers,
of my Harlem
and
all
kinds
of
friends go
celebrities.
like it in the city, and by some strange twist it has a
nothing
continental
truly
ever
I've
"You haven't?
flavor."
we
fey tone of this speech alone is enough to destroy what little respect
it a bit
Calamus
takes
the
Club
reference
but
have
had
for
Emerson,
might
further. The allusion is to the group of Whitman
poems commonly called the
Calamus Poems and dealing in a subtle but unmistakable way with the theme of
The
In
homosexuality.
other
is
here
words,
still
another
or
fraternity
Brotherhood
that is being offered the invisible man, and as the historical Emerson's ideas are
cosmic appetite is
debased in his 20th-century
"son," Whitman's
androgynously
to a
reduced
when
he
sexual mystique.
stylish
". . . I'm Huckleberry,
says
Emerson
makes
it even
. . ." in
see.
you
more
that
hopes
later,
explicit
the
invisible
man will be another Jim, and perhaps have read Leslie Fiedler. But the invisible
man can't be Jim because he is already too busy being Huckleberry himself with
out
knowing
Characters'
it.
names,
and
the
institutions?even
the
names
club
of
and
names,
like
things,
the
the
names
Sambo
of
factories,
places
be
doll?can
explored
and
in
in this novel. The Brotherhood has its parties at a place called the
definitely
Chthonian Club, which is a classical reference comparable to that of the Sybils.
to the underground gods and spirits; and true
realm belonged
The Chthonian
an
is
influence as we learn from seeing Bledsoe
Ellison
for
power
underground
and Brockway and Brother Jack in action, as well as the invisible man writing
in his
hole.
Where
does
gives it to himself,
we
are
to know
him
The
invisible man
75
Criticism
Ras
get
his
name,
as the invisible man
for what
in action
he
with
its vocal
nearness
to
gives us the name we must
"race?"
He
call him by if
is.
is an image collector or symbolist,
gathering
up into
his
all
briefcase
a
reader
concrete
the
emblems
of
container
similar
his
and identity. The
clues
and
images
of
reminders
and
to finding his real name
serve as clues
into
expanded
can
that
experience
is for the
itself
book
events.
and
actions
is the battle royal
after the Prologue
The first example of an action-as-image
scene which opens the story. If we explored this scene far enough, we could
find in it a pr?figuration of almost everything else in the novel. Before the battle,
In the
the boys are forced to look at the naked blonde dancing for the whites.
each
other
battle we see a group of half-naked Black boys, blindfolded,
fighting
in a ring for the entertainment of a group of white citizens. Afterwards they fight
on the electrified rug. The coins they
again, still among themselves, for the coins
desire the most, the gold ones, turn out to be brass, but there are enough dollars
to
around.
go
the
Afterwards,
man
invisible
and
forward
steps
tion
in
suggestive
are
These
schools.
segregated
in themselves.
the
if we
But
bare
look
of
bones
closer
the
can
we
he defends the
through educa
are
they
more.
The
and
scene,
see
care
his
gives
speech (with one prophetic verbal slip) in which
fully-prepared
status quo of the Southern Negro who is trying to better himself
much
naked white girl with golden hair suggests and prefigures the whole problem of
money and sex. Her golden hair, like the fake golden coins, holds out a promise
of a world which can never exist for the invisible man because it too is brass. The
blindfolds on the boys are white blindfolds, and the darkness they are fighting in
is a darkness imposed upon them by the white
spectators who represent the
whole society:
were
They
under
man
one
is
the
the
During
control
one
brawl,
comes
who
speaking
forward
to us
happened
pastors.
the
for
amusement
the
boys,
invisible
to
afterwards
to
speak
the
against
this
of
representative
his blind
loosens
man,
out a little bit of what
is going
as
crowd,
on. And
the
it is
invisible
in the novel.
this scene seems to be primarily
In the first few pages of the book,
of what
fashionable
in their brawl, but it is all directed
the
of
fire chiefs,
doctors,
judges,
the more
of
and
of
so that he can make
fold enough
this
lawyers,
one
a great deal of violence
They unleash
themselves,
even
merchants,
teachers,
audience.
all there?bankers,
to a few
people
at a
particular
in
"smoker"
some
a
description
small
uniden
tified southern town. But as we read through the book, with this scene planted
in our memories, we gradually realize that in it is condensed the whole world of
the novel and almost all of the American society. The final scene, the race riot
in Harlem, is in large part a repetition of the beginning scene, but one which we
can more
easily
relate
to
the
larger
context
it
represents.
Instead
of
the
coins
on
the electrified rug, there is the safe on the third rail showering the streets with
sparks. Instead of control being in ordinary citizens, it is in Brother Jack who
represents their interests in controlling the Blacks. Instead of Tatlock and the in
visible man battling it out at the end for supremacy, we have Ras and the in
visible man, finally silencing his fanatic appeal to race by throwing a spear
through his jaws. The riot is probably the most impressively sustained section of
in
the whole novel. It is still carefully kept to the elements already prefigured
the
76
brawl,
yet
expanded
into
a comic
apocalypse
of
enormous
proportions.
It be
as a drunken
gins
consumer
of
orgy
wish-fulfillment
is a fantasy
which
Christmas
the street lights were out.") and Fourth of July combined. At
("At St. Nicholas
the peak of their frenzied rebellion the looters are still being controlled and
:
manipulated by society's official symbol-makers
"With all them hats in there and I'm going to come out with any
a Dobbs? Man, are you mad? All them new, pretty-colored
thing but
Dobbs?"
a side
"Git
of
bacon,
a woman
Joe,"
a
"Git
called.
of
side
bacon,
Joe,
git Wilson's."
Even Ras, who now calls himself the "Destroyer," has made himself up from the
scrap heap of cultural detritus as Quixote made himself up from scraps and
the
of
pieces
old
equipped with
them
African
of
composite
and
cowboy
African
movies,
lion skin, spear and shield, "one of the kind you see
stage-prop
guys
is a
He
Romances.
in
carrying
the
. . ."
pictures.
moving
are
they
Although
riot
ing against society, no one knows how the riot got started, and the only damage
of their own tenement.
they do is to themselves, in the pathetic burning-down
The only difference, save that of scale, is that at the end the invisible man does
not step forward and give a speech
prepared for him by the cultural myths, but
instead disappears down his hole and creates a book which could only be written
after he had recognized his invisibility.
a
On
the
scale
we
fact,
there
smaller
In
novel.
can
see
the
is a whole
same
kind
scale
of
of
images
at work
significance
at work
at
throughout
almost
every
point
in Invisible Man. Small ones, like the statue of the Founder removing the veil
it is
from the slave, but seen in such a way that it is impossible to tell whether
or put more firmly in place?echoed
man's
invisible
the
later
removed
by
being
as he makes his first official Brotherhood
spotlight blindness
speech. Another is
the recurring image of the mounted police, controlling the animal power of their
black horses through a more efficient power and technique. In the invisible man's
is a map
office
Brotherhood
us that the real America
be
natives
Some
there,
of
they
Toro
along
seem
images
they are registered
though
man,
these
not
will
they
are
not
bar,
there
with
the
noted
are
other
the world
of
by
with
the
figure
to be discovered,
is yet
be
to be
as
two
for
the
the eyes and consciousness
containing
posters
contents
bullfight
miscellaneous
to
expected
intended
clearly
quite
through
him
we
natives
the
of Columbus,
there may
find.
reader
Al
alone.
of the invisible
In the
special
significance.
are described
matter-of-factly
any
which
of
reminding
and that although
the
room.
first
The
poster
El
shows
a
large black bull, being skillfully controlled by the matador. The other poster
shows the tables turned, the bull finally discovering the illusion of the cape and
tossing the matador high into the air. This ismuch like the fight between a prize
a yokel described in the
fighter and
Prologue, where "the yokel, rolling about in
the gale of boxing gloves, struck one blow and knocked science, speed and foot
work
as
cold
as
a
welldigger's
posterior.
long shot got the nod." The bullfight
a
77
silent
comment
Criticism
on
the
discussion
The
posters,
going
on
smart
money
hit
the
canvas.
The
and their echo of the prizefight,
in
the
bar
between
Brother
are
Jack?
the invisible man. They are also a predic
who is trying to discipline him?and
tion of the outcome of the contest which will be fulfilled later in the novel.
Another
condensed
of his
which
limp
the
to take something
to a
tenced
life
is
pr?figuration
doctors
can't
in
suggested
prison
gang.
where
to a man
wanted
who
sen
and land and was
children
Nineteen
scene
the
link, telling him the story
no"
"saying
lost his wife,
a chain
on
For
explain.
from him, Tarp
in
carefully
the invisible man his severed chain
Brother Tarp gives
he
later,
years
said
no
again,
and kept saying it until he broke the chain and left. Still limping, and still "look
man because "it's got a heap
ing for freedom," he gives the link to the invisible
of signifying wrapped up in it and it might help you to remember what we're
really fighting against." At the moment of giving him the link, Tarp stops calling
him son and calls him Brother "for the first time." The ceremony is
a man
son his own
on
to his
father's
which
watch,
passing
not because
he wanted
the old-fashioned
time-piece
accepted
seriousness
but
and
because
of unstated
of the overtones
itself,
like
the
son
for
lemnity of the paternal gesture which
marked
cestors,
creteness
to his
a
high
nebulous
that if I had returned home
me
have
my
given
burr-headed
long,
his
of
point
and
chaotic
at once
and
present,
future.
And
a con
promised
now
I remembered
instead of coming north my
old-fashioned
grandfather's
stem.
so
his an
joined him with
father would
its
with
Hamilton,
winding
Tarp is both his spiritual father and brother, for they are looking for freedom
no to slavery which has left its mark on each of them. Had the
together by saying
invisible man stayed in the South, in his own father's and grandfather's tradition,
a "burr-head"
have
Although
some of these images are like
guideposts
of
the
ingful
them.
remained
a slave
he would
of
pattern
larger
to the
invisible
After
each
of
development
one he
after
gives
more
aware
tially
where
speeches.
An
the
there
he
moment
In
brawl.
of who
and
event,
of
the
each
is and
he
to summarize
example
in
gives
the
speech
The
novel.
all
in
him
some
mean
degree
in his
reaction
pattern
summarizes
which
most
naive
he
recognition
of
these
until
is
can
speeches
the
poten
the
includes
to
state
his
speech
is at least
means
experience
in a book which
progression
it.
knowing
for the reader, reminding
a
succeeding
his
what
the whole
tentative
without
ones
are
larger
is a consistent
the
novel,
man,
significant
as of
that
is able
he
the
and
point
the other
be
seen
ex
in Chapter 13. After
having had his old identity wiped out through the boiler
a
un
own
a
to
in
he
find
his
of
but
self-conscious
plosion,
identity
begins
feeling
ashamed acceptance of some of the shabbier aspects of Harlem
life. He eats a
yam
on
the
streets,
without
fear
of
being
seen.
When
he
comes
on
the
eviction,
he is at first embarrassed by the naked exposure of all the odds and ends of junk
that tell the story of the life this old couple has lived. But gradually, as the furni
ture and debris pile up, he begins to realize that the
belongings of the couple tell
the story of his race, going all the way back to the Free Papers dated August,
1859. Even the consciousness of shame instilled in him from the day he was born
can't obliterate the feelings of identity he gets from seeing these things:
78
And it was as though I myself was being dispossessed of some pain
ful yet precious thing which I could not bear to lose; something con
a rotted tooth that one would rather suffer indefinitely
founding, like
than
the
endure
violent
short,
with
this
is vague
but
And
removal.
of
eruption
sense
of
that
pain
dispossession
would
a
came
its
mark
of
pang
vague
recognition.
The
recognition
and
intense,
the
shows
intensity
in
up
the
speech
or fully
to fight for a feeling he still cannot define
and his willingness
he makes
accept.
Most of the actions and images I have been discussing have a plausible existence
in the real world, and the important thing is the sensitivity of vision we bring to
them.
No
there
is
matter
how
the
always
in Invisible
places
we
can't
In
ideas.
impression
a
event
real
the
where
however,
Man,
read
the
without
cases
these
seems
Ellison
see
afterwards
we
while
are
seems
action
is trying to convey, where
the ideas Ellison
that
of
can
we
calculated
subtly
to be,
effect
the
are
There
reading.
to
secondary
decidedly
so
the priority of the ideas dominates
attempt
to share
to
translate
the
Ishmael's
into
the
what
he
back
action
attitude
towards
in it at all, yet unable
calls "hideous and intolerable allegory," not believing
resist the comic indulgence of his appetite for it.
to
The clearest example here is in the factory hospital scene, where the doctors try
to remake the invisible man into the mechanical man he had been before, the sub
in the boiler
servient southern Negro who died when he attacked Brockway
room. When he wakes in the hospital his mind is a blank, and he only gradually
aware
becomes
the
that
are
doctors
to
trying
a machine-induced
achieve
pre
scene is
frontal lobotomy that will return him to his previous state. The whole
as
a
to
return
childhood
followed
the
by rebirth, including
cutting of
presented
the umbilical cord (the electric cord attached to the stomach node),
followed
by
an
alcohol
pointedly
him.
into
morphosed
an
by
the way
rubdown
tell
On
the
new
of
licious
the
subway
car
to
Biblical
the
a new
hospital
who
Adam,
the
the
from
the
man,"
even
doctors
is meta
man"
"new
own
his
predicts
fall, had fallen," he says, and then looks across the
fall. "And I felt that I would
aisle
home
man,
"You're
nurse.
efficient
see
"a young
blonde
platinum
at
nibbling
a
red
De
apple."14
The same serio-comic intent is behind the 1,369 light bulbs that are made so
much of in the Prologue. The light bulbs are his means of fighting the Monopo
lated Light and Power Company, and Ellison's way of illustrating the effects of a
on
self-recognition
the
power
struggle
finding his own light by burning
revenge
finally
on
out
the
of
power
monopoly
their
control.
He
that
that
can't
he
most
occupies
of
in the briefcase,
the papers
has
overthrow
suffered
them,
the
under
but
he
novel.
for
can
first
After
he can begin
to take
so
long.
undermine
He
is
and
weaken
them by draining off part of their power. No writer would go to this
extent for the sake of an idea alone, and there is a very pointed humor in much
of Ellison's "allegory." The ironic, joking tone of the blues is continually showing
through,
as well
lation of words.
79
Criticism
as
the
pleasure
Ellison
For a final example,
obviously
consider
gets
from
the description
the
virtuoso
manipu
of eating dessert
in
the
The
hole.
man
invisible
is
He's
there.
sitting
he's
blue,
he's
why
wondering
blue, and thinking what it means to be blue. And he's listening to Louis Arm
strong playing and singing, "What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue." He has
just made a big point of being in the great American tradition, and now he is de
his
scribing
favorite
dessert
of
sloe
ice
and
gin
cream.
we
As
visualize
him
pour
ing the red liquid over the white mound, we suddenly get the point of the color
scheme he has been building up to emphasize his Americanism,
and the sub
merged but deliberate joke helps to establish the tone of the whole Prologue. The
is almost
effect
but
clever,
gratuitously
is a
Ellison
always restrict himself to the obvious
Brother Tobitts into two bits.
fierce
he must
after
take
the
He
discovery.
has
his
preserved
he
can't
I am," or turning
He is also a prophetic writer, and that is why I must conclude
or frame which makes up the novel's
beginning and end. The
a picture of the invisible man after he's finished
writing the
his present state. He has discovered
that he is invisible, and
that
and
punster,
level of "I yam what
with
the envelope
us
Prologue gives
book, a picture of
taken the first step
anger
and
his
suffer
it in art, and has even more fully grasped his identity in the
ing by embodying
is
But
what
he to do with his identity after this, and after all the em
process.
on "the possibility
in
the
that even an invisible man has a
phasis
Epilogue
to
We
role
know
that he is in hibernation,
and we
socially responsible
play."
can't help wondering with him whether he will come up to find the smell of
death or the smell of spring in the outside air. The invisible man doesn't know;
is
he
a
for
prepared
a new
and
rebirth,
but
life,
not
has
been
yet
born
into
it.
35 years ago Henry Roth published Call it Sleep. It was an extremely
a first novel almost unbelievably
were depres
good novel, and for
good. Those
About
sion
and
times,
work.
While
been
a
it wasn't
those few who
waited,
they
discovered,
raising
so
novel,
protest
there
was
it looked forward with
did appreciate
Roth
however,
birds
game
near
a
not
great
anticipation
and
disappeared,
Maine.
Augusta,
has
With
reaction,
but
to Roth's next
only
recently
the
rediscovery
and tardy acclaim of Call it Sleep, many readers have naturally wondered why
Roth has not written anything for so long. It turns out that he has been trying
to write
I like
off
above
and
all
but
on,
His
can't.
and
others,
that
problem,
is
he
redemption,
is
says,
but
that
I haven't
"There
the
is one
theme
fable."
Invisible Man is clearly a prelude to and preparation for something like redemp
tion, and therefore an extremely dangerous and difficult novel to follow. It may
be that Ellison has written himself into a corner, or it may be that in his next
novel he will find the fable for us. It seems to me that, if any of our contem
porary writers can find it and express it, he can. But it has to be there first to be
it exists or not cannot be answered until it is found. Ellison
found, and whether
has been working on his second novel for a long time now. Whatever
he is do
ing, there is some evidence that it will be apocalyptic, that it will attempt to show
us
either
tration.
the
We
pattern
shouldn't
carefully planted
with
80
the white
man,
of
our
forget
redemption
that
the
in the Prologue
the
invisible
or of
our
alternative
of Invisible Man.
man
says:
and
destruction
to
a
vision
of
In his reflection
continued
redemption
frus
is
on the brawl
let us
He,
dream
was
say,
in a dream
lost
is
alas,
world?which,
But
world.
too
only
real!?and
didn't
he
control
that
didn't
he
rule me
out
I have been
of it? And if he had yelled for a policeman, wouldn't
taken for the offending one? Yes, yes, yes! Let me agree with you, I
was the irresponsible one; for I should have used my knife to protect
the higher interests of society. Some day that kind of foolishness will
cause
us
All
trouble.
tragic
dreamers
and
must
sleepwalkers
the
pay
price, and even the invisible victim is responsible for the fate of all.
But I shirked that responsibility; I became too snarled in the incom
notions
patible
that
buzzed
within
I was
brain.
my
. . .
a coward.
FOOTNOTES
1 "To read such a
as
for example,
Ellison's
novel
of 1953,
Invisible
brilliant
book,
Ralph
is to find,
in all the
one's
of immersion
richest
the sense
Man,
satisfactions,
among
concrete
of Negro
materialities
life. One hears
in the
the very buzz
and hum of Harlem
of
Indians
and
native
his
West
and
all
his
the
racy, pungent
speech
grotesquerie
hipsters,
little backwater
of a remote
the dreary
Southern
of empirically
absolute
the book
Indeed,
Tightness.
of the manners
observations
and
idioms
and human
styles
in his
account
opening
in it a certain
kind
has
of
acutest
the
as can
fact
Nathan
pression,
2 Cf.
Leroi
to
mitted
could
be
them
to
dicting
individuals
mediocrity
noting
it with
Vol.
4 "Richard
its grotesque
social
reputed
class, which
of literature
com
are
writers
those
always
that
limited
automatically
available."
Ex
(Black
Blues"
with
Baldwin,
148-49.
Expression,
(Black
Criticism
at the same
while
...
is one of those
this point,
hero
( "Ellison's
itself before
and
Classic
Expression,
can
there
Form,"
be
contra
time
catastrophic
is
and sanity."),
Sum
Literature,
peace
Contemporary
p. 325).
Tamarack
Ellison,"
Ralph
No.
Review,
32,
Summer
1964,
11.
p.
p. 324.
"Notes
for
a
Novel,"
Hypothetical
Nobody
Knows
My
Name
(N.Y.,
p. 316.
of What
Discovery
"a species
of breakdown,"
records. He wrote
Go Tell
typewriter,"
on
insistence
3.
9 In "The
81
middle
imitations
message
must
rid
10, No.
Expression,
8 Black
a
the white
society
Literature
"Negro
Interview
pp.
and
where
all Black
Literature,"
were
artistic
and
models
literary
Negro
debilitated
spiritually
Wright's
1961),
on
to
acceptable
of which
Nancy
mer
1969,
James
a
"The
for
a
Tischler's
6 Black
of
Myth
because
p.192)
3Worth
5 "An
"The
Jones'
socially
the most
pression,
calls
Negro
college
is
full
packed
that comprise
of Negro
life in the American
and it gives us such a sense of social
metropolis;
in the
be come by nowhere
manuals
of academic
stiffly pedantic
sociology."
A. Scott,
Ex
and Haunted
Tower
of Richard
Black
Jr., "The Dark
Wright,"
ed. Addison
298.
1969),
p.
Jr. (N.Y.,
Gayle,
the ethos
7
of
as
the
it Means
and
It on
invisible
how
to be
he was
the Mountain
man
writes
an American"
oured
of
"armed
his
story
Baldwin
describes
what
to Bessie
it by
listening
two Bessie
with
Smith
listening
to Louis
he
Smith
records
Armstrong.
is a passage
There
goes
have
experience
from
quoted
"He
had
sound
came
help,
a sound
his
from
sure witness
he
III of Go
to
the
the
invisible
rose
which
rage and weeping
now
set free, but bound
in
rage
eternity;
to
startled
which
yet spoke now,
John's
of the
and
the
patience,
longest
night;
lash; of humility
and birth
dishonored,
with
hummed
murder;
where
in almost
man's,
from
of
cruel
the Mountain
the
John Grimes
same words
under
most
his
the
filled
his
bleeding,
grave,
rage
cracked-open
and weeping
with
weeping
no
language,
of boundless
melancholy,
the strongest
water,
deepest
that
had
of
soul,
the dungeon
most
of
11 It can
dition
Review,
also
be
12 In classical
inspiring
influence
one
14 This
where
as in Sister Bernetta
of a book,
subject
Form
and Daniel
and
Hoffman's
Poetry,
or
sibyllae
sibyls
was
Their
function
times
essay
Baldwin,
fantasy.
be an American
pays,
scene
no
the
voice?
bitterest
the most
chains,
love's bed defiled,
the darkness
Yes,
were
to
Metamorphic
Quinn's
in American
Fable
in
young maidens
lonely
dwelling
utterances
forth
while
give
prophetic
on
the
and
his
Tra
Fiction.
caves
under
or
by
the
frenzy.
or
is a more
version
of this same
Negro"
sophisticated
Hip
at the White
Black
that "to
Boy Looks
Boy,"
acknowledges
to be a kind of
means
is
also
male
which
Negro
phallic
walking
symbol:
in one's own
for the sexual
of others."
personality,
insecurity
"The White
in "The
is reminiscent
the poet-Faust
imagines
of Hart
meeting
Crane's
Helen
"For
the Marriage
in a New
York
some
I
yet, suppose
evening
forgot
fare and transfer,
yet got by that way
in traffic.
Without
recall,?lost
yet poised
I
Then
find your eyes across an aisle,
might
Still
with
those pr?figurations?
flickering
And
The
Prodigal,
Half-riant
82
time
5-6.
springs.
of an enthusiastic
13 Mailer's
that
pp.
the
in Modern
and
It
heart.
from
absolute,
wretched,
most
sudden
death.
bloody,
unspeakable,
in the water,
in the fire,
the body
the body
the body
tree.
looked
of
armies
of
down
line
these
the
darkness,
army
upon
army,
John
"
are these?
soul
Who
(p. 228)
whispered,
10 Tamarack
I
that
now
it was
to this
that his ears were
life, but
only
opened
come
that could
that
from
darkness,
darkness,
yet bore
only
now
in his
of the light. And
and so far from
glory
moaning,
it in himself?it
heard
It on
Tell
to the
comparable
Ellison:
it all
heard
that
such
any
was
in Part
an
now,
yet uncontested
the jerky window
before
frame.
of Faustus
subway:
and Helen,"