3/31/14


  One of the most interesting aspects of the novel Invisible Man is that everything and I mean everything is flip flopped.  The colors white and black are flip flopped.  Not only are they contrasted throughout the ENTIRE novel, they have switched connotations and meaning.  The color white usually symbolizes purity, light, knowledge, and enlightenment.  BUT NO.  Ellison decides to make black symbolize all of these qualities.  The color black usually symbolizes darkness, confusion, and altered reality.  However, in this novel, white seems to be the color of the blind.  In the beginning, the students at the battle royal are blind folded with WHITE blindfolds.  The Battle Royal is not a pure or enlightened activity.  They poor students are blinded by the white blindfolds as they battle each other in front of the WHITE men.  Throughout the novel, the narrator seems to only be able to concentrate when he is in darkness.  At the end of the novel, the narrator is living in his cave underground.  It is in this darkness that he can truly see.  The narrator states, "And I awoke in the blackness.  Fully awake now, I simply lay there as though paralyzed," (Ellison 570).  The narrator is "fully awake" in the blackness.  He has finally awaken from a dreamlike state.  He has realized that he is invisible and he needs to do what he wants and stop obeying other people.  I talked about in my previous blog how the Liberty Paint episode shows the contrast between white and black.   The narrator fully understands that the black paint is black and blames the man for trying to trick him because the paint is supposed to be white.  However, when the narrator looks at the white paint, he becomes confused.  He thinks his eyes are playing tricks on him causing him to see the grey specks in the white paint.  White is supposed to be clear and pure white.  The narrator is always unsure of himself when he is confronted with the color white.  In contrast, when he is faced with the color black, he is aware of what is going on and knows what the reality is.
   Today during seminar, we discussed the hanging mannequins.  The point was brought up that the hanging is similar to that of lynching slaves. There is another element that is flip flopped in this section.  The hanging mannequins are actually hanging white women.  The slaves who were lynched were black and usually men.  The fact that the mannequins are not only white but women should be noted.  This could be another comment on women in the novel.  This contrast could be presented because the hanging of the mannequins is taking place in the north while lynching took place in the south.  In the riot scene, Ras orders the hanging of the narrator and calls the narrator a traitor.  Ras could be calling the narrator a white woman.  He has betrayed his own race and has turned into not only a white person but a white woman.  There are so many contrasts and elements that are flip flopped in this novel.  It would take 200 blogs to be able to discuss all of the contrasts let alone all of the other details of the novel!