So much irony

In chapter 13 of Invisible Man I was struck by the scene where the crowd is beating up the Irish man, called a "Paddie," and what woman with a West Indian accent's reaction was.

Actually that's putting it lightly, I was shocked. Reading it, her words, "Strike him, our fine black men, Protect your black women! Repay the arrogant creature to the third and fourth generation." This line, her speech encouraging violence, hit me so hard because it sounded like the type of argument used by Southern white men as to why they had to use violence against black men. They wanted to rape and harm their women and they needed to protect them, and the only way to do that? Murder them, beat them senseless, and put such strict social guidelines so that the "risk" was minimized.

This is one of the times when I think Ellison is trying to shock us. Trying to use irony and almost wink at us saying "Hey, look at what she's saying. Get it?"


Not only is this an argument used in the South at the time but one we see in Native Son during the manhunt. This and the narrator running along the rooftop is one of the times we most see Ellison nodding toward Wright's work.



The entire chapter has things that are meant to make the narrator angry, the whitening ointment, the eviction of the elderly couple, and the white man hitting the woman. All of this makes him feel a sense of shame and anger yet he stands up and pleads that they are law abiding citizens and so should be allowed to let these people back in to pray. Unfortunately his words don't stop the violence but only seem to insight it.

Dishonest Narrators

Reading books where the narrator goes insane but you aren't realizing it can be incredibly frustrating in my opinion. But with Invisible Man from the beginning we get the result without the cause, which posses the question of how the hell did he get to the point where he is sitting in a tiny room surrounded by blinding light?

For some reason this bothers me less, it feels more honest. I don't know if would like this book as much if it had not featured the prologue. But still, I'm really worried.

I don't know if most people get worried while reading books, but I tend to a lot. I like figuring out puzzles, so when I've figured it out, or at least think I have, I kind of panic. This is something I did with Native Son as well, though that was due to kind of already knowing the plot and just wanting it to stop.

The narrator in this book however, and the book in general, as much as I want to pretend that it will all be ok and the little baby steps he's taking today will turn out into a seemingly logical result of this man sitting in a basement full of light, I kind of doubt it.

 I've tried to read this book as if he is sitting there typing all of it out on some old typewriter or scribbling on whatever paper he can get his hands on. This concept presents a problem for believing what the narrator says. If he truly is sitting there writing all of this out, connecting the different strings and levels of this story, then why on Earth would I trust what he is saying? He would already have gone mad at this point.

 With the vague nature of the first part of the book it is possible that he is distorting many of the facts. Or that time, and the shock treatment, has so damaged his brain that he actually doesn't remember things the way they were but only in this fashion. Having to question so much in this book makes the narrator's nonquestioning manner almost painful to watch.

Also, even though I don't agree with the way he is choosing to use his invisibility, that doesn't discredit his idea. The invisibility is a mask of sorts, possibly one that reflects what the viewer wants to see. The lessons that he has picked up by this point are obvious in the person he has become. He has so taken on an outward sense of invisibility so that he could find himself.

But where does that leave the reader? Maybe you'll go just as insane trying to figure that out. 

Slightly out of order blog posts

So do to writing in notebooks and not actually putting things online I will be writing the next few blog posts backwards. However, I will start my first official blog post with ideas considered in African-American Literature today.

The poem We Wear the Mask by Paul Dunbar discusses the importance of hiding our true feelings from the world and creating what we want them to see despite suffering. In the novel Invisible Man there are two characters that I would distinctly like to talk about in relation to masks, the necessity of them, and our reaction to these characters.

The most obvious character during this point of the book in relation to masks is Dr. Bledso due to his actions in chapters four and six where we see him manipulate situations by controlling his emotions expertly. Dr. Bledso does this to further himself in the world and you can't really argue that it hasn't worked. Dr. Bledso sees his mask as a very important part of his identity, possibly all of his identity, and is dumbfounded when the narrator is shocked by his actions and the narrators willingness to please without the thought of how it could help him.

An interesting character to contrast Dr. Bledso with is Mr. Norton because at least how the narrator sees him it appears that he is not hiding his true emotions. Mr. Norton is not afraid to talk with the narrator about why he donates money to the college, share about his daughter, or show emotion to the story that Trueblood tells him. The reason for this seeming honesty I believe stems from the fact that the narrator is socially below him and that he has established himself and can afford to be seen as weaker. Mr. Norton already has a social positions, solidified by the fact that he is white, and has no more status to gain.

Further evidence that Mr. Norton isn't hiding behind a mask is that he does not question or mistrust the narrator when he takes him to real slums of the area around the college. If he were wearing a mask he might be more skeptical of others because he knows that his own outward actions are not completely honest.

Between these two characters the reason that one can afford to not be deceptive is because of initial social status, especially race. Now that both of the characters are in stable places in their careers there is still a difference because Dr. Bledso must, at least appear, reliant on other people to keep his life's work going.

Due to the poem and these two characters I feel that the lack of a mask is something that people who are securely in a social status and not looking to go up any higher can afford not to have. In relation to this a humorous quote comes to mind about the difference between eccentric people and crazy people, how much money they make.