Invisible Man
1

Race is experienced in Invisible Man in a variety of ways. In the beginning of the book, the narrator describes himself as “invisible”—as being flesh and bone and yet going unseen by people. He goes unseen because he is a black man and people choose not to see the black man: they do not want to get involved in that world. Instead, they expect the black man to tread softly and to not make much noise—and so that is what the narrator does, though he has suffered from the occasional outburst of violence.

The narrator’s journey of identity is shaped from beginning to end as a result of race. Prior to going to the university, the narrator is forced to fight in a battle royal for the amusement of the white elites in the South. This is his first big step in his life’s journey towards isolation and invisibility; it is a step in which race and violence are linked in his experience: blacks fighting is a cheap amusement for whites and there is no getting around it—partaking of the rules of the system is the only way for a black to get anywhere. So the narrator does as he is told and goes to college—but even there he gets into trouble because another white elite wants to see what black culture is really like: the narrator shows him, and that causes a problem for Dr. Bledsoe who is disappointed by the violence that ensues. Bledsoe states, “Your poor judgment has caused this school incalculable damage. Instead of uplifting the race, you’ve torn it down…I gave you an opportunity to serve one of our best white friends, a man who could make your fortune. But in return you dragged the entire race into the slime!”—all this because the narrator simply did as the “white friend” asked him to do: show him the underside of the black world. As a result, the narrator is chained with a shackle, which Dr. Bledsoe calls a “symbol of...…Brotherhood is, as Ras states, controlled opposition meant to keep the blacks invisible and quiet. Finally, the narrator adopts a disguise, which doubles his invisibility, as he attempts to undermine the Brotherhood—but he ends up in a fight with Ras and sealed in a coal mine by a pair of whites. For not being invisible enough, his punishment is entombment. His experience intersects with his grandfather’s words, “I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction”—in the sense that by being invisible he is like his grandfather who gave up his gun during the Reconstruction Era. By giving up arms, he gave up his defense and right to be treated as a real person. To be a real person in America, one has to fight for it—that is the lesson of the novel—otherwise, one is a traitor to one’s race—an invisible man.…