Before and After

I’m starting this blogpost before having read the final reading. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I look forward to the resolution that Ralph Ellison gives or doesn’t give me. Invisible Man has been one of my favorite books to read at school so far. Unlike some other novels, it hasn’t been overly confusing, instead striking a balance between a one-sided spiel and a convoluted book. I have loved the clear focus on the narrator and it has been an honor to have the experience of watching him grow throughout Invisible Man.

Ellison excels at making a truly human character, someone who makes both good and bad decisions but, above all, is relatable and understandable by the reader. The narrator starts off as a naïve go-getter ready to make his mark on the world. In spite of adversity, poor circumstance, and unlucky events, he keeps jumping into life. Unlike Bigger Thomas in Native Son, the narrator never blames anyone for his misfortune. His perseverance and flexibility are what made him such an appealing protagonist to me.

The cyclical storyline has been one of the one interesting aspects of the novel. The narrator is constantly unconsciously referring to past events and experiences. Only towards the end of the novel do we get his personal recognition of his grandfather’s dying words. Up until then, the reader has to be extremely perceptive of the subtlety of the underlying plot. The entire novel builds up to the reader’s first glance of the protagonist during the prologue. We finally dig down to the core of being an invisible man in the middle of society. I look forward to seeing what the final chapters uncover.

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Well I finished the novel. The most important part for me was seeing the narrator realize the injustices cast upon him that the reader has been noting the entire time. He makes the final breakthrough that uncovers the Brotherhood's true colors, giving the narrator freedom once more. Finally, he is able to see his own life as the reader saw it and realize the deeper nuances. I love that the narrator is now able to make conscious and independent decisions about his own actions, stepping out to make an independent impact on the world. Now I really want to see where he goes with that! 

Life Changing

My title might be a bit ambiguous considering just how many different turning points we see in the narrator's life. Part of the reason is that we are following him for a large portion of his life, which is completely different from our view of Bigger in Native Son, who we only saw in a short span of time. Particularly, I wanted to focus on the point where the narrator of Invisible Man decides to throw away the social norms he believes in.

Even after arriving in New York, the narrator is still naïve and idealistic. He doesn’t let anything stop him from his path, zooming in on his main objectives and working towards just that. While in the South, he was the model of the meek African-American man that the white society wanted, up North he starts developing new ideas about his place in life. For example, when grabbing a bite to eat at the drugstore, he specifically chooses against buying the suggested meal in favor of what he thought of as “normal” fare. He purposefully didn’t buy the food he would have enjoyed on the sole basis that he wasn’t the Southern black man everyone saw him, wanting to show that he was different.

Emerson revealing the truth of Bledsoe’s “recommendation” letter, the Liberty Paints factory accident, and the harrowing hospital experience all leave their marks on the narrator. Afterwards, he is no longer dead-set on a goal. Instead, he starts living life a bit more free, allowing himself to do what he wants to take pleasure in his existence. For once, the reader starts seeing some body to the narrator’s personality, his “rebirth” changing the very basis of his being. Now, completely opposite of his actions just a few weeks before, the narrator indulges in some fresh baked yams. First buying one and walking away, as he finishes the yam the narrator realizes, but ignores the restriction he put upon himself. The taste of the hot yam makes him homesick, imagining the shock his peers from home would have if they could see him eating such lowly food. Whereas before he imagined the respect he would garner at the college with his Northern mannerisms, now he is on the flip side of that. His mind goes as far as to blame all Southerners for shunning the things that they enjoyed for the sake of public image, even recognizing that he himself fell victim to that trend. With, “I yam what I am!” the narrator moves into a new phase of his life where he frees himself of the requirements of class, education, and refinement to truly be himself. It might have taken nearly two decades of his life, but now the narrator is climbing out of his shell and showing his true colors to the world. 

Shocked by Humanity

       Bigger is by no means an average human being. He has had many extenuating circumstances that affected and controlled his development in a dog-eat-dog world where he was the bottom of the food chain. The oldest male in his household, society dictates that he has to take responsibility for his mother and two siblings, but as we see Bigger is clearly conflicted about any decision he tries to make. This is particularly dangerous since his younger brother looks up to him and Wright’s protagonist is far away from being a good role model. It shows the power dynamic that perpetuates the petty violence that controls Bigger’s life. Afraid of standing up to the consequences of his actions, Bigger beats up Gus to get out of robbing a white man, leaving himself no choice but to take the job chauffeuring for the Daltons. Overall, the start of the novel clearly sets up how secluded Bigger’s life has been, living in poverty his entire life and resorting to crime to survive without a better option on the horizon. 

       Taking a job working for a rich white family was perhaps the smartest decision Bigger ever could have made (just thinking of average circumstances, not what actually happens in Native Son). Mr. Dalton even turns out to be quite the philanthropist¹, giving Bigger a raise before he even starts work. Now, Native Son is far from an ideal world, but even there it is possible to make the right decisions and lead a good life, as evidenced by the previous chauffeur working for the family for ten years. Truly, the catalyst of the novel is the jarring transition from a poor African-American life and culture directly to that of a rich white family (Bigger even notices this himself when first going to the Daltons, realizing how conspicuous he looks in their neighborhood). It was hard enough for the protagonist to figure out which door to enter the house was for him, and being thrown straight into the family lives of strangers would be hard for any man. Mary’s mannerisms and Jan’s communism were the finishing blow (although getting drunk certainly did not help Bigger’s decision making skills) that threw Bigger off completely and commenced the downward spiral that resulted in Mary’s death, beheading, and incineration (and by extension, Bigger’s own demise). Perhaps a slower transition into higher class society would have benefited his long-term prospects, or at the very least a less radical family to work with².

       Although he was a product of his environment in many ways, Bigger was still a human. Some might argue against free will, but from a first person view you always have a choice to make, and in the end, live with the consequences. Although there was plenty of shock for the new chauffeur on his first day of work, there are many ways to deal with surprise in life that aren’t so criminal or terminal. Even Bigger himself had shown bursts of good decisions that show him capable of making the right choices. I kept this mindset throughout reading Native Son, and while I feel somewhat sympathetic to Bigger’s case, the whole tale of insane events could’ve been avoided altogether³.

¹Perhaps Mr. Dalton’s use of his money wasn’t the most effective to reach the general population, but you can’t argue that he wasn’t a philanthropist. Donating to the NAACP in its early years is undoubtedly helpful, but just not directly to Bigger and his world view. If we focus just on the conditions the protagonist had growing up, Mr. Dalton by no means helped him, as seen by the constant worry of Bigger’s mother about the overpriced rent and the direct trouble that caused.

²I say this because of all the trouble I noticed Bigger had in his first meeting with Mr. Dalton. Bigger Thomas had spent his entire life being educated about a certain norm that people must meet, and those societal norms covered both his own life and that of the higher class that controlled it. The Daltons with their progressivism and modern thought were completely contrary to what everything in Bigger’s life had told him was standard. Had he been more lucky (or less, depending on how you look at it), he might have ended up in a stereotypical white family that was just as racist and traditionalist as most of society was at that time. What could have happened then?

³What might be even more striking than the circumstance or events of the case depicted in Native Son is Wright’s masterful setup of the novel. Reading it is quite a shocking experience in of itself, especially at the start where Bigger’s actions move just as fast as his crazed thoughts, but rarely did I doubt what I was reading. The detail of his background and his environment that so influenced the events of the book made me forget just how insane it really is for someone to act this way. Perhaps Wright using the case of Robert Nixon as an influence made Native Son all the more realistic, just like how any good lie has a bit of truth in it.