In Invisible Man, the entire story is told from the perspective of an unnamed African-American narrator. It's appropriate since it's his life that we're entertained and intrigued with but the question of the accuracy of the events that are recalled rises up time and time again. I, like Jonah, can draw several significant comparisons to the cult film Fight Club. Has all or even any of it happened or is he just subconsciously making stuff up like his Fight Club counterpart? We learn in the prologue than he tried marijuana for his first and last time (so he says) but who's to know he hasn't decided to give it another chance? Or maybe he's even drunk at times when writing rigorously on his typewriter. We, as readers, don't know the answers to any of these questions which is why we are prey to the narrator's whim. That being said, there must be a solid basis of truth for everything he's telling, assuming that he's not completely insane or delusional of course.
For each event, all the background given appears to be legitimate. The narrator being invited to deliver his graduation speech to the town's elite whites is realistic but when he gets there, things become very surreal. The whole battle royal scene is really drawn out in a way that makes me skeptical of the narrator's ability to remember so vividly. Every second of the nightmarish fight is described with incredible detail, almost as if his past self is narrating. While the idea of white people of the 1940s having something like this for entertainment is in no way far-fetched, the circumstances of all the other fighters (with blindfolds on) ganging up on him is improbable.
Then there's the day out with Mr. Norton. Driving around one of the rich founders of his college for a summer job is pretty normal but it just doesn't seem rational that the narrator would inexplicably lose attention and end up at the familiar shacks home to the infamous Jim Trueblood. Prior to his realization he's really focused on driving and conversing with Norton so why would he suddenly veer off into a known red zone? To me, it seems like a plot device for the narrator to have to take Norton to the Golden Day where things get even more bizarre. Even before he enters the bar/brothel, we can tell things are going to get worse. A group of mentally unstable black veterans just happen to pick that same moment to visit the bar and consequently become the catalysts for the surreal action about to take place. The wild and frenzied atmosphere inside would definitely not have existed had the vets not been there. Again, the pace is slowed down noticeable into a dreamlike reality, leaving us readers confounded.
Obviously there are countless more examples but these just happened to be the first ones. Ellison purposefully incorporates them through interspersed intervals characterized by the all-too-familiar surrealism. Hopefully, as we delve deeper and deeper into the novel, we can get some long-waited insight into what's real and what's not.
Sometimes I'm blown away by the most dreamlike chapters and, although I'm aware that this was written at a much later time, I've never imagined the narrator siting there imagining this. Interesting that you say he might be drunk or otherwise. It makes me wonder what the narrator was thinking, doing, how he was sitting, or if he had his Louis Armstrong records playing in the background.
ReplyDeleteAnd how aware is he of this symbolism? I think at this point, we can admit that Invisible Man is laced with black and white imagery and other various metaphorical aspects (the Jolly Bank, for example). This has to be more than confusion in recall. Is the narrator aware that he is pushing a message -- perhaps, while he seems to be reporting facts only, he is delivering subtle analysis as well. I find that strange, especially since he has no interest in publishing this or impressing a lesson on others. Then again, after what he's learned about invisibility, I guess that wouldn't matter.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for the plug, and the reference to his experience with marijuana is super interesting. I am pretty sure the episode involving the jolly bank entirely takes place in the narrators head, as a representation of a lot of his own ideas and fears manifesting in a way he can understand, and while it matters to the narrator there are no other characters that acknowledge its existence. Again, my question becomes if the narrator will notice this, or if the events involving the jolly bank are actually real.
ReplyDeleteI sort of blogged on this topic too. I think the surreal chapters are the most entertaining to read, but at other times they seem almost lazy, where Ellison is just trying to throw in more ironies and foreshadowing to further his story, without really paying too much attention to a linear plot. Like I said, I think this novel is an acquired taste much of the time.
ReplyDeleteHowever if as you insinuated, this story really was partially or mostly of his own invention (and we learn about this before the book concludes), I might shift my view on this novel to something more positive. It would definitely make the experience a lot more though-provoking for me.
I agree that it is often hard to distinguish between reality and what is happening in his head. I think that this is especially present in the really surreal chapters like the ones in the paint factory. The whole sequence in the hospital with the electric shocks and all of the doctors asking him questions could easily have happened inside of his head and not really happened to him.
ReplyDeleteEllison is in a way imitating Wright's style of not providing specific characters. This allows him as a writer to represent not just a single person but an entire group of people. Ellison makes the narrator anonymous and unknown to the reader in order to make him seem more relate able, or at the same time makes the narrator almost impossible to sympathize/empathize with.
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