an invisible man

in·vis·i·ble

inˈvizəbəl

unable to be seen, not visible to the eye; treated as if unable to be seen; ignored or not taken into consideration

What makes an invisible man? Can he be invisible in a sense that he is a wallflower - unnoticed by all but still in existence? Or is he invisible to a point that his own existence is questionable? 


For the unnamed narrator of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, he does indeed exist. His invisibility, however, comes because "people refuse to see [him]" (3). Their refusal stems not from their physical eyes but their inner eyes, the eyes that give perception to their sensation of sight. These inner eyes are the ones that give interpretations to what the physical eyes see. While his outward appearance is ignored by the physical outer eyes, the inner eyes attributes to the sight their own mental images, "figments of their imagination" (3).

His obsession with light comes from his belief that light gives form. Without light he has no form, and according to him, "to be unaware of one's form is to live a death" (7). This is symbolic to one's understanding of his or her own identity. Living a death is a paradox, but so is not knowing yourself; after all, the one you're most familiar with should be yourself. Without your own being, you have no being. However, this is hard to achieve for the narrator as he sometimes doubts his existence. He sometimes seeks attention from others, striking his fists, cursing and swearing, but "alas, it's seldom successful" (4). His desire for attention is the result of being ignored a majority of his life. He wishes not for praise and approval but just to be noticed.

The speaker tells us how "truth is the light and light is the truth" (7), drawing a parallel to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Enlightenment was achieved through exposure to the sun, the largest source of light, while those who were unenlightened were lit only by the glow of a fireplace, a seemingly artificial light. The narrator's desire for more and more light represents his desire for knowledge, for experience, for life. As he's formless without light, his form must be maintained by truth, and for him, truth is not only light but also life. He places emphasis on experience over innocence, regardless of the nature of the experience. 

During a sermon, the speaker hears a congregation of voices crying out about blackness and the sun, describing the sun as "bloody red" (9). Through this description, it can be seen that these people find experience to be undesirable and painful. Blackness, or darkness, is interrupted by the bloodiness of the sun, or light. However, the voices continue to say that "black will make you... or black will un-make you," (10), expressing ambivalence towards the argument of experience versus innocence. The ambivalence is shared by the narrator, who expresses that he has been acquainted with such feelings. 

Despite his encouragements that he's unperturbed with his invisibility, the narrator makes it known that he is still upset. He finds solace in the works of Louis Armstrong, specifically the line, "What did I do to be so black and blue?" His anger towards dreamers and the "innocent" ones is apparent, his belief being that "that kind of foolishness will cause us tragic trouble" (14). Because of his experience with invisibility, he knows not of the life of dreamers.