Invisible Man

1. Invisible Man Chapter 24-Epilogue Conner Folstad, Brandy Vo, Victoria Johnson

2. Theme Ignorance encourages deception when people seek to hide from the truth.

3. Thesis Through the riots caused by Tom Clifton’s murder in Harlem which pushed the Invisible Man to step up and take control, Ellison shows that ignorance encourages deception when people seek to hide from the truth and how people will overcome life’s hardships as they come to terms with their past.

4. Examples 1) The Invisible Man tries to push Tod Clifton’s death to the back of his mind as he sends out members of the Brotherhood out to Harlem to help clean up the trash from all the riots. He informed the Brotherhood that the riots have all calmed down and the city is in the process of peace once again. As readers, we know this is a lie as the Invisible Man handed the brotherhood a “false list of new members” (Ellison 514). 2) Sybil comes to the Invisible Man’s apartment with the intentions to seduce him and makes a request to be raped just so she knows what it would feel like to relate to her friend. The Invisible Man hands her drink after drink in hopes of getting information out of her but soon gives up after he finds out she knows nothing about the Brotherhood. She passes out drunk and wakes up to say “’D’you do it, boo’ful?’” in which he replies “’Yes of course,…isn’t that what you wanted?’” lying that he had raped her (Ellison 523).

5. Examples 3) The Invisible Man encounters Ras the Exhorter in the heart of the riot in Harlem and knows he is about to lose his life. Ras is furious because he felt the Invisible Man has betrayed his own race. The Invisible Man then tries to reason with Ras saying “’You’ve known it for a long time…they use me to catch you…’” which Ras ignores and demands his men to “hang the lying traitor” (Ellison 558). 4) When the story comes to a close, the Invisible Man runs into Mr. Norton in the subway station. Recalling what Mr. Norton told the Invisible Man in the beginning of the novel, about how he holds Mr. Norton’s destiny, he approaches Mr. Norton in hope he’d recognize him. The Invisible Man asks him “’Don’t you know me?’” where Mr. Norton fires back with “’Should I?’” (Ellison 578).

6. So what? 1) The Invisible Man now realizes how much power he holds within himself as he manipulates the people that have used him as nothing more than a tool in their games. He moves in baby steps to see what he can get away with. By handing the Brotherhood his fake list of members, he realizes how much trust they have in him as their leader and doesn't question his actions because they feel he is uninformed with their motives. 2) His whole life, the Invisible Man had been taught to please the whites and do what he was told in his white dominant world. When he was given the chance to violate a white man’s wife, he was in conflict within himself. His old ways shined through in which he thought about doing whatever she wanted him to do and prove a point to the Brotherhood, but his inner conscience won over and he decided against it because deep down that is not him.

7. So what? 3) Realizing that the Brotherhood didn't have his best interests at heart, the Invisible Man felt betrayed by his own “family”. Ras the Exhorter doesn't have sympathy to a man that went against his own race, so he showed no mercy. In the Invisible Man’s attempt to calm Ras down, Ras was ignorant to the facts and reason. He chose to ignore everything. In a way, he turned his back on his own people too. 4) Mr. Norton indirectly represents a piece of his home life and everything he knew before going off to Harlem. By physically experiencing the change that has happened between them, the Invisible Man confirms that his past life didn’t really matter and never did. The Invisible Man realizes that no one is in charge of someone else’s destiny, the experiences you take away from home and the life you live is irrelevant to the control of someone else.

8. Second Theme In order to move on with one’s life, a person should forgive or abnegate all their past experiences.

9. Second Thesis When the Invisible Man literally destroys his past, Ellison shows the reader that in order to move on with one’s life, a person should forgive or abnegate all their past experiences.

10. Examples 1.) "The briefcase swung heavy against my leg as I ran, going away, leaving Scofield cursing his lack of bullets behind me, running wildly and swinging the briefcase hard against the head of a dog that leaped at me out of the crowd, sending him yelping away"(Ellison 553). 2.) “'What’s in the briefcase?' they said, and if they'd asked me anything else, I might have stayed still" (Ellison 565). 3.) "I moved slowly off, toward the darker blackness, lighting my way by those feeble torches" (Ellison 568).

11. So what? 1.) The Invisible Man is starting to be weighed down by his past. The briefcase, a concrete symbol of the weight the Invisible Man must carry do to the wrong-doings in his past, is “heavy” and forces him to “swing the brief case hard against the head of a dog that leaped at him”. The Invisible Man still clings onto to his past in this desperate moment, resolute to never forget. However, finally, this burden will become too heavy for this one man to bear, and he will eventually move to destroy the briefcase and all that it means for him. 2.) This passage shows the Invisible Man is ashamed of his past and his upbringing. The thugs assume that the Invisible Man holds something valuable, and the Invisible Man, ashamed that it is not, refuses to show them what his suitcase contains. He hates that he clings to the past the way he does and his pride stops him from admitting his folly. This pride makes him forgo his safety and throw himself into the mercy of thugs.

12. So what? 3.) Finally, in order to save himself from the “dark”, the Invisible Man must burn his past. Starting with his high school diploma and ending with the last evidence of the Brotherhood, the Invisible Man lets go. Though is not a healthy decision for the IM and thrusts him into a hole, it at least makes him honest. He is finally able to come to terms with the fact that he does not belong in his past, and he must become his own man.

13. Conclusion In order to move on from your past, you must accept who you are and where you come from. Once you accomplish this you can have inner peace.