Invisible Man :: Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

One obvious base that I picked up when I read Invisible part was the bailiwick of invisibility. I think the theme of invisibility has different meanings to it. One meaning is that invisibility suggests the unwillingness of others to butt against the mortal as a person. The narrator is invisible because people bring in in him only what they want to con, not what he really is. Invisibility, in this meaning, has a strong sense of racial prejudice. White people oft do not see black people as individual human beings. Another meaning of the theme of invisibility is the idea that it suggests insularity from society. While the narrator is in his hole, he is invisible. He cannot be seen by society. He is invisible because he chooses to remain apart. Invisibility, in this meaning, is similar to hibernation, with the narrators choice to remain in his cave and think. This meaning of the theme doesnt relate to me, but in a way, relates to the poet, Emily Dickinson, who wrote, The Wind Tapped ilk a Tired Man. Dickinson withdrew from the world in her early twenties and became a recluse. Its equal Emily chose to be isolated from the rest of the world, just like the narrator in Invisible Man did. The third meaning is that invisibility indicates lack of self-hood. A person is invisible if he has no self, no identity. If a person doesnt have a soul, spirit, personality, etc., then they come along like a ghost, a thing who is cold and invisible.Invisible Man may be read as a story somewhat the narrators development. It is a first-person narrative, and because you experience the novel through the narrator, you establish to know him better than anyone else. One pattern of development is that of innocence to experience. At first, the narrator is extremely innocent and does not understand what is happening to him. He does not believe people are bad. He does not see that Bledsoe is making a fool of him. As he suffers, he learns. With experience, he begins to see the world more as it really is. Experience teaches him to be a better judge. This relates to me, because experience is a major importance in my life. Four years ago, when I first started forensics, I was innocent or inexperienced. But as I started experiencing new techniques of how to present the speech, I acquire more and, therefore becoming a better judge.