A few last words...

Lindsey S.

The entire novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison passes some important points and insights into life to the reader. The first is invisibility. The novel seems to cause the reader to question not only the narrator’s existence, but also their own as well as everyone around them. Is anyone around us “invisible” similar to the narrator in the novel? If we think about it, the narrator believed he was invisible because his actions and thoughts were being misconstrued and used by the Brotherhood. Does anyone ever fall into this? Of course people do. Sometimes people choose to have their “true selves” be invisible or it is placed upon them by outside forces such as society, peers or school. This relates to Shakespeare ‘s The Merchant of Venice which we are in the middle of now and the occurrence of masks, whether physical masks or emotional masks.

There is one statement that I personally feel sums up the messages that Ellison was attempting to portray to the reader, whether purposefully or accidentally, while writing this novel. I feel it preaches to not trust everything at face value and that many things that we come across day-to-day are not what they truly seem to be. The narrator thought the Brotherhood was a respectable organization out to help the minorities of the world climb their way to a better standard of living. The narrator thought that Bledsoe truly wanted him to return to his university after gaining some job experience in New York City. The narrator truly believed that he could make a difference in the world and change what so many people believed was unable to correct. Every one of these things turned out to be lies. It was as if the world was against him, but he had no knowledge of it. This can be applied to life through everyday occurrences and things that as seniors graduating and ready to pursue college are experiencing. In respect to scholarships for college, how does one know if an organization is trustworthy to give personal information to and if they truly are going to consider you for a monetary prize? Some scholarship organizations can turn out to be a fraud. The Brotherhood was a fraud as well, in addition to Bledsoe.

The novel seems to be a journey of life: One, very long, tedious journey. Even though he crawls into “invisibility”, he is “not blind”. (576) This is where he feels he should be in life. He has searched through trials that all ended in failure and for once, he is where he is comfortable and cannot be deceived by another human being. This invisibility is not only a bad thing; it seems to be a good thing for him as well. The invisibility seems to allow him to see who he truly is without anyone else sneaking a peek. He doesn’t have to worry about someone taking advantage of him again by knowing his personality and weaknesses. He can live his life alone in invisible peace.