We have FINALLY gotten to a point where our narrator is conscious of his invisibility and how people are treating him. It's been a long ride but honestly the pay-off is pretty nice. I think the main thing that really got him to see his invisibility is his own tendency to see people's humanity. Invisibility in an essence is the removal of humanity from a person, whether you are the invisible one or the one who is cannot see another, the basis is that you see a figure instead of a person. I feel like the narrator doesn't really see anyone in his life as human for a long time; Bledsoe is a goal, then an object of hatred, the veterans are all just crazy figures, Mr. Norton is a figure of white power, Jack and the other brothers are just an avenue into history, and it's not until he gets to Harlem that he starts to really see people as people. Most importantly in my opinion are Brother Tarp and Tod Clifton.
The narrator sees Brother Tarp after they talk about his time in slavery and how he escaped. Before, perhaps he was another invisible man to the narrator, but afterwards, the narrator truly sees Brother Tarp. This is not to say that he knew everything there was to know about Brother Tarp, rather that he recognized the 3-dimensional nature of him and realized that there was more than met the eye, and made an effort to understand it. He respects Brother Tarp and sees how his history shaped him. I think one very important part in seeing people clearly is seeing and understanding their past, and the narrator's insight into Brother Tarp's past helps him see Brother Tarp.
And then there's Tod Clifton. At first, Tod is also invisible to the narrator; he is just seen as a pretty boy with a nice voice and ideas that coincided with the narrator. The narrator sees him as a partner, but doesn't see him as a man. That is, until the incident with the dolls and the abrupt ending of Tod's life. Only then does the narrator fully realize Tod as a person, which he expresses at the funeral and at the meeting with the Brotherhood. He recognizes that they put Tod onto a pedestal and turned him into a symbol, stripping away his humanity. He recognizes that Tod was much more nuanced, and that he was "full of contradictions" and that is the nature of humanity. Most importantly, the narrator pronounces him a man; not a hero, not an angel, but a man. He had flaws and the narrator acknowledges this and sees that he must have had complicated circumstances. Again, he doesn't know everything about Tod - far from it - but it's his acknowledgement of that and that there was more to Tod erases his invisibility.
The question of seeing humanity in people is the reason why the Brotherhood is blind; they can only see the numbers and big picture - they can't see the people as people.
I completely agree with your statement/definition of what invisibility even is. We tend to think about invisibility as something put on the narrator, but I think what is interesting about your post is how you point out the ways in which the narrator was treating people as though they were invisible. It is incredibly easy to archetype and stereotype people in this novel, the crazy vet, power hungry Blensoe, mother Mary (wow I just got that reference), but one thing the novel seems to point out is that there is always more beneath the surface of these archetypes. The crazy vet actually has a point, and is free in ways beyond the narrator's best dreams. Power hungry Blensoe seems to be suffering from an extreme type of internalized racism caused by feeling so powerless in society that he will do anything to get ahead. I could go on, but I just think that it is interesting to look at how Ellison explores invisibility through other characters as well. (Almost as if he knows the readers will easily stereotype the characters, and pulls a "I got you" moment.)
ReplyDeleteI think this is true not only of the Brotherhood, but of most of the other groups we see in the novel. This is especially the case with Dr. Bledsoe, who, like the Brotherhood, is at least theoretically attempting to improve conditions for people. Yet, what is the one thing we see him do? Harm the narrator, an individual, in favor of the reputation of the college, even as Norton says that he will do his best to protect the narrator, and tells him not to worry.
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