Invisible Man Reading Questions: Ch. 16-19

Chapter 16

1.     List all the images of blindness in this chapter. What do you think the narrator means when he says he has become “more human?”

“We’re blind as bats…”

“The light was so strong that I could no longer see the audience..”

“They think we’re blind..”

“Then..we’re in the dark again..”

“…Uncommonly blind journey..”

-When he says he has become more human he is saying that he has begun to realize and understand and live the real world. He has awaken.

2.     How does the narrator use the image of blindness as the central theme of his speech?

The narrator uses the image of blindness ad the central theme by first beginning with his past and saying things like, “They think we’re blind”  and then how since they were born they were marked as blind:” Think about it, they’ve disposed us each of one eye from the day we’re born..” He tries to tell the audience that since they have one eye they should stick together. The speech sounds motivating and keeping them strong and together.

3.     Be prepared to discuss the speech as a further expression of the narrator’s developing identity.

4.     The rewritten quote from James Joyce is often discussed. Do you think that it is the duty of an individual to represent a particular race, gender or group? Do you believe it is more important to concentrate on developing ones individual identity?

I believe an individual should represent a particular race or gender, because if someone of a race is being  oppressed, how will they break off? In school, we have SGA that is designed to represent each class. Their duty is to be ONE voice for 100 students. To express their concerns and problems and create solutions.

I also believe one should find their own identity first before trying to help others because if you don’t know who you are, how will you help others find themselves?

5.     What is The Brotherhood’s reaction to the speech? What is your personal reaction? What criticism of The Brotherhood is implied here?

The reaction of the brothers are not as positive as the audience’s. They tell the narrator that emotional tactics are not good and that people should be told things that are rational. They have bad critism towards the speech and to me it seems like they are jealous of his speech because it had a lot of impact on the audience.

My personal reaction towards the speech was good, I like speeches that come from the heart, it motivates me and it has a longer impact on me.

Chapter 17

1.     How much time has passed since the narrator’s speech?

Four months has past.

2.     Describe Brother Hambro.

Brother Hambro is a “tall friendly man, a lawyer and the Brotherhood’s chief theoretician”.

3.     What is Ras’ political doctrine and why is it in conflict with that of The Brotherhood?

He has been organizing Harlem in a racist basis, preaching “black nationalism” and ordering his men to fight against any organization that goes against his beliefs/ purposes.

4.     Who is Tod Clifton? Why do he and the narrator become friends? Note that “tod” means death in German.  Why does Ras spare Clifton’s life?

-Tod is a handsome young black male. He is a hard worker. Him and the narrator are allies, they are both against the Brotherhood’s policy of fighting evictions.

-Ras spears Tod’s life because Ras he loves who he is, he finds him perfect and he wants him to come join him, he also wants the narrator, but they don’t want to join.

5.     Ras pleads with the narrator to become a part of black unity and leave The Brotherhood. His arguments are similar to those of Black Panthers and others who came to the political forefront in the 1960’s. The Communist Party did, in effect, betray the Blacks who helped build the party in the 1930’s. What side do you believe Ellison is supporting?

I believe Ellison is supporting the side of Ras, on how they will be betrayed by the white just like the communist did.

6.     What is significant about the portrait of Douglass that hangs in Brother Tarp’s office? How is Tarp like Douglass? Like the narrator’s grandfather?

The portrait is significant because it’s suppose to be an inspiration to the narrator about the achievement of Frederick Douglass and struggle of fighting for equality in America. Trap wants the narrator to fight against equality. Trap follows and believe in Douglass’s views. Trap is like Douglass and the narrator’s grandfather because he doesn’t want the narrator to follow bad footsteps and betray his own.  

Chapter 18

1.     Consider the symbolism of the link of chain Tarp gives the narrator. It what ways does it link the narrator to Tarp? To his past? Is it significant that Westrum rejects that link?

Trap and the narrator are alike because they both moved away from their hometown and although the narrator didn’t want to he started a new life just like Trap. The link is related to the narrator because it reminds him of his past. It reminds him specifically of his grandfather and his childhood.

I believe it is significant that Westrum rejects it. Westrum probably doesn’t want to be reminded of his past.

2.     What seems to cause the fight between Wrestrum and the narrator? What do you think is the REAL reason for this fight?

The fight starts because of Wrestrum. He accuses the narrator of being individual and trying to get fame. But Wrestrum contradicts himself since he is the one who was telling him to do the interview, maybe Wrestrum was just telling the narrator to do it just to make him feel better but he didn’t think he’d actually get the interview and it makes him mad since Westrum has always wanted one.

3.     At the end of the chapter, the narrator is sent out of Harlem. Why would The Brotherhood remove a successful member of the party and send him off to lecture on a subject about which he knows so little either by training or personal experience?

I believe they sent him out because their purpose is to move up together as a group. However, some of the people in the group are envious of their own kind. They don’t like to see one of them just move up.

Chapter 19

Note that chapter 19 is a transitional chapter like chapters 7 and 12.

This chapter details the narrator’s seduction by the nameless “woman in red.”

1.     In what ways is Ellison playing with the idea that white women are drawn to Black men?

They way that he has introduced his readers to this woman. The woman seems so eager and attracted to the narrator. Her change of clothes, her apartment with a life sizing painting of a pink Renoir nude, her talk, her movement, and her excitement are all signs of her attractiveness to the narrator who is black.

2.     What reaction does the woman give when her husband comes home?

 She seemed careless and so did her husband. He didn’t even pay much attention to the narrator. She simply said to her husband, “Oh, hello dear, back so soon?”

3.     What is the narrator’s action?

The narrator was a bit afraid but after seeing what had just happened he felt like it was weird how the husband didn’t say anything but he did want to stay a few moments with her because he felt like this was an amazing moment for him.

4.     Do you think this chapter is humorous, or is it serious social commentary.

I believe this is sort of humorous but like rapper, J.Cole said, “..but every joke contains truth”

Invisible Man Reading Questions: Chapters 13-15

Chapter 13

1.     Peter Wheatstraw foreshadows the encounter with the yam seller. How do these encounters differ? What changes are revealed in the narrator’s identity? How is his change in identity linked with his desire to show Bledsoe as a fraud?

The narrator takes the yam and it shows his acceptance of his own southern heritage. He then realizes that he will no longer care of what people think and he will not seek anyone’s acceptance. He says people like Bledsoe deny their liking? Are ashamed of their heritage, like their foods, in this case yam, just so the whites can accept them.

2. In the eviction scene, the narrator makes his second speech of the novel. Study it carefully. Compare it to the first speech. Take notes about the narrator’s developing identity.

The narrator doesn’t question himself anymore about his identity, he is more sure of what he is talking about. He understands what is going on around him. He speaks about what he truly feels and what he has started to realize. It seems like he is starting to know who he is by first accepting his heritage.

3. How does the narrator meet Brother Jack? The Brotherhood is a thinly veiled version of the Communist Party. Richard Wright, Ellison’s first mentor, was an active member in the Communist Party. At Wright’s request, Ellison wrote a number of articles for leftist publications between 1937 and 1944, but never joined. He objected to the Communist Party’s limitations of individuality and personal expression.

Brother Jack invites the narrator for coffee because he liked his speech.

4. What new piece of paper replaces the letters from Bledsoe as the narrator’s identity?

The contract the narrator signs with Brother Jack because it possible holds the narrator’s future.

Chapter 14

1.     What pushes the narrator to accept The Brotherhood’s offer?

The smell of cabbage reminds the narrator of his economic situation and Mary. He realizes that he has to help Mary and repay her for everything that she has done for him.

2.     Note that the building is called the Chthonia. In Greek mythology, this is another name for Hades’ realm, the underworld. What descriptions and images can you find that convey the sense of entering an underworld type of realm? Why is entering the world of The Brotherhood like entering the underworld?

The place is full of luxuries and the people are dressed really nice. This is a whole different environment for the narrator. The Chthonia is a cold, white world , full of danger and violence.  This seems like an evil place, unfamiliar to the narrator.

3.     The phone number has been replaced by a new name in an envelope? Why? Why are we never told of this new name?

The new name is his new identity and we are never told his name because the narrator is unsure and uncomfortable about the new identity situation.

4.     How does the party scene remind the reader of how limited and/or hypocritical most whites are in the understanding of the treatment of Blacks?

It reminds the reader of how whites are limited to the treatment of Blacks by having Brother Jack want the narrator to be the leader and putting him into an unknown environment full of Whites. Brother Jack is limited to the understanding the treatment of blacks because he doesn’t realize how difficult it will be to achieve what they want.

                                                                                                                                                                               

Chapter 15

1.     Think about the symbolism of the Sambo bank. Is it related to Clifton’s Sambo doll? What about the fact that it belonged to Mary Rambo? What about the bank’s “grinning mouth” that swallows coins? Think back to the Battle Royal in Chapter 1.
The narrator examines the paper doll that Clifton was selling and he realizes that he was controlling her by invisible sting that the audience can’t see. The Sambo doll is related to the Brotherhood and how the manipulated both Clifton and the narrator. It relates to the narrator and his life because all his life others have manipulated him. The Sambo doll relates to the Royal Battle because the puppets are to entertain people just like the Blacks were an entertainment to the Whites in chapter 1.

IM Reading Questions: Chapters 10-12

Chapter 10

Ellison says that beginning with chapter 10, the novel begins to rely heavily on expressionism. In very simple terms, expressionism uses concrete objects to attempt to objectify abstract inner feelings. Therefore, objects in the novel function as complex multifaceted symbols. Remember that chapter 10 and 11 are not to be perceived as realistic, but rather as expressionistic.

1.     Consider the racial connotations of Liberty Paints. Think about the company name, trademark, slogans, government contracts, and Optic White. What do you think the company symbolizes?

I believe that the company symbolizes a place of pure racism and patriotism. The company symbolizes the support of what some people think the right/ pure America SHOULD be.

2.     Why has the company been hiring Blacks?

So that they don’t have to pay union wages.

3.     Think about how Optic White is manufactured. What do the 10 drops of “dead black liquid” symbolize?

I believe that the 10 drops could symbolize the idea that although whites don’t admit it but the need of having the blacks in order to do something, in this case the 10 drops are need to make the white paint perfect. However, when the paint and the 10 drops of black are mixed the black is invisible.

4.     Note that Lucius Brockway works deep in the basement of the factory, hidden from view. Is this symbolic? How is Brockway like Bledsoe? How is he different?

This shows the oppression that whites had over blacks. The irony that the company promoted that white was right and that they only accepted white but then again they had blacks working, doing all the hard work, being the ones that are actually the main engine of the company. Brockway is similar to Bledsoe because they are both sort of important to the company or the school; they are both equal to white men but controlled by them. They are different in the way they think, Bledsoe is more arrogant and highly believes he is in control and that he owes everything. Brockway is insecure about having his stabilized work position.

5.     How is Brockway himself like the 10 drops?

He is like the 10 drops because he is invisible, people don’t know he is there not unless they have to meet with him. The white people need him to continue and keep the company running but no one know of him, he is mixed into the white paint, becoming invisible.

6.     After the explosion on p. 230, the narrator is thrust “into a wet blast of black emptiness that is somehow a bath of whiteness. How does this immersion of a Black man into a world of whiteness continue the expressionism of the chapter?

The narrator

Chapter 11

The expressionist images of chapter 10 are black and white. Here they are death and rebirth.

1.     What images of this chapter echo the Battle Royal?

When the narrator is put in a therapy machine that was electrically shocking him. The professional people were enjoying the narrator go through pain and losing his identity.

2.     The doctors at the factory hospital shock the narrator until he enters a warm watery world. Look for other images of the womb and birth.

-The narrator cries when he receives shocks, just like babies cry when they are born.

-“My mind was blank as though I had just begun to live”

3.     Afterwards, the narrator is a blank slate with no memory or identity. How do the doctor’s questions develop this image of rebirth?

He doesn’t remember anything about himself. He has lost his own identity; he can’t even answer questions the doctor asks him.

4.     Why has the narrator been reborn? What aspects of his old identity have died?

His past has died and the person that he was. People are mostly known from who they are and where they come from and therefore IM forgetting where he came from is important because it has made him become reborn again as a new person. I believe he has been reborn because it is a start of a new beginning where narrator can go away from trying to become visible and ignorant.

5.     Buckeye the Rabbit is the same as Brer Rabbit. Remember the reference to the Tar Baby in chapter 10? In realizing that he is Buckeye the Rabbit, the narrator finds the wit and strength to escape from the machine. How is the machine like Trueblood’s clock? How does Buckeye the Rabbit embody the folk wisdom of the narrator’s childhood? How has he been reborn into the identity he at first denied upon arriving in New York?

The machine is similar to Trueblood’s clock. They both want freedom from society.

The narrator has been reborn and he is now aware of how the world is divided by race.  He isn’t trying to seek to be visible anymore.

6.     What lesson has the narrator learned?

He has learned that people aren’t trust worthy and that he shouldn’t be afraid because he shouldn’t expect anything good from important men.

Chapter 12 (transitional bridge between the two halves of the novel)

1.     In what way is the narrator childlike?

Behaviors: He is like a child because he isn’t independent anymore. Mary is the one that is caring for him.  There was also a scene in this chapter in where he encounters someone that looks like Bledsoe and pouring something on him.

2.     How does he permanently close off the link with his old aspirations and dreams?

He loses his ambition on these dreams and aspirations when he moves out of the Men’s house and into Mary’s.  He also stops listening to the voices in his head and wants to begin a new life.