I keep thinking back to the
prologue how it’s like a classic comedy film/ Adam Sandler beginning. A
dramatic event occurs, I suppose in this case, his “mugging” escapade, or even
his description of him sitting in his room zoning out hard to his record player
under his 1,000 lights. Then we get the record scratch (maybe the Armstrong
song is over lmao) and the freeze frame of our narrator facing the camera, with
a voice over asking “wonder how I got in this mess? If I’m gonna tell you, we’ve
gotta go way back.” (Some twenty years, to be exact (Chapter 1 page 1 line 1)) And
that is when “Invisible Man” flashes across the movie screen.
If you’re having trouble
visualizing this, here is the best example I could find. I don’t really watch
this show but it pretty accurately parodies the trope, which, after doing some
research I guess is never really used how everyone thinks it is… It’s not used
in an Adam Sandler movie, nor is is typically used at the beginning of a movie,
in fact, the only example of it being used at the beginning of a movie is in
The Lion King ½. That’s not super important, though.
What I’m trying to say is, each
chapter of the book is actually an individual anecdote grounded by a lesson on
invisibility. It’s as if each chapter marks one step closer to the Narrator
realizing his true self. The first few chapters are obvious, as they’re
disconnected, and clearly hold “morals” to each event. For example, Chapter 1
is shows his grandfather giving his advice and the battle royal, which
illustrates the invisibility the narrator experiences when the white men
disregard his actual speech, and the actual reason he is even there, for
entertainment. Chapter 2 shows Trueblood’s invisibility through black on black
crime, and how little the white population is concerned with internal issues.
Except that Trueblood seems to know how to pull on the heartstrings of the rich
white men who want to “elevate” the population, and receives donations, similar
to how Bledsoe manipulates his demeanor to maintain his power. And Chapter 3
features the vet, who really sticks it to Mr. Norton, and gives the Narrator
his two cents on how much of a walking zombie he is for not seeing the
underlying facades everyone is putting up.
These stories help to show the
Narrator how many people wear tinted lenses, and some are able to manipulate
their skewed view. Although later chapters flow into one another, each of them
has a unique event that further enlightens the Narrator to the reality of
ignorance, and how to control it to his favor. For example, chapters seven through
ten seem to progress linearly, but each one has a “lesson” to learn. Chapter 7
has the Narrator on the bus with the vet and Crenshaw. The two discuss crime in
the north, and the vet tells the Narrator he needs to forget the Mr. Nortons,
not just “Mr. Norton” but the Norton’s. As if he will meet more people like
him, and need to avoid them for his own sake. Chapter 8 is pretty open to
interpretation because there isn’t any climactic event to unpack, but maybe it
could be enlightened by Chapter 9, with his visit with Emerson. If that is the
case, then maybe Chapter 8 is meant to show the hidden influence of Bledsoe as
well as the “hidden” bosses in the chapter conspiring against the Narrator.
Emerson shows the Narrator this in Chapter 9, and the Narrator finally begins
to develop a conscience and a sense of defiance against the hidden bosses.
Chapter 10 in the factory’s black and white imagery make commentary on the
whole “there is no white without black” power structure in the U.S. at the
time. Even further, though, we see how the Narrator’s new personality is
dangerous. His lesson in this chapter may be that he is allowed to be violent.
I’m sure there are plenty other
possible lessons the Narrator has learned in other chapters. Maybe you can
think of some! I’m curious to see how our Narrator becomes the guy from the
prologue.
You're doing a great job of tracing the various large and small steps toward the embrace of invisibility that we see in these early chapters. I don't want to give anything away, but I'll only say that your reference to people "wearing tinted glasses" as a way of formulating how invisibility is a "condition" of *others'* eyes will prove coincidentally relevant a little later in the story. Keep your eye out for the tinted glasses!
ReplyDeleteThis was a really cool observation, I like how you compared the different chapters to short lessons that the narrator learns. I think that this especially works because when you think of how people usually tell stories, they don't tell everything in one smooth piece, they tell all of the little stories that stand out from their lives. Because this book is being told by the prologue narrator looking back on his life, this style really fits because he is telling the important stories as he remembers them.
ReplyDeleteIts really interesting how you really examined how the book can be seen in an episodic format. We briefly touched on this in class for the first few chapters, but I hadn't realized just how much it happened in the book. I'm kind of confused on how the record scratch and the episodic format relate though.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post. The entire novel does have kind of a weird format but the more we read it the more it seems to make sense. Having just finished reading the book, all of the little lessons he learns seem to make more sense, and it's interesting to watch how the same patterns keep repeating but he learns something different every time.
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