MacKethan

Christopher Dewar Heard MacKethan

Professor John Monaghan

AP Literature and Composition

21 May 2019

A Close Reading of ​Invisible Man​ Pages 178-179

“​Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a

mimicry, their passions a quotation.” (Oscar Wilde) The readers of Ralph Ellison’s ​Invisible

Man​ will find the story of a young black man pushing past just what Wilde has condemned in

order to become his own person. This story however, does not stop at this young man, it reaches

the likes of every black man in America, just as John Stark would argue any good novel or epic

will do, including ​The Odyssey​, and ​Invisible Man​. Just as Odysseus represents the country of

Ithaka, and the brilliance of its people, the young man in this story represents the difficulties that

all black men face in America. Ellison did such a complete and amazing job portraying the

adversity black men in America endure that one could open to almost any page and find such a

theme, as well as many other attributes of a work of great literary merit. Such a feat can be seen

when one opens the book to pages 178-179. Careful study of this passage can help a reader to

better understand the meaning and themes of the work as a whole.

Invisible Man​ starts with the unnamed narrator, The Invisible Man, or IM for short,

claiming he is invisible to the perception of those around him due to their biases. Therefore he

has decided to live in the basement of a building stealing electricity from Monopolated Light and

Power Company while he writes the story of his experiences.

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IM’s tale begins with him about to give a speech to an important group of white men in

his town. Before he begins his speech he is forced to participate in a battle royale with 9 other

black individuals. IM gives his speech while injured, and is then rewarded with a scholarship to a

prestigious black college.

At college, IM is asked to drive around Mr. Norton, a wealthy trustee of the college. IM

drives Norton to the location of the old slave quarters where they meet an incestual man named

Trueblood. IM is then punished by Dr. Bledsoe, the president of the college, for showing the

trustee such a shameful thing. IM gets expelled from the college never to return, however,

Bledsoe does not tell IM that last part, instead, he tells IM that he can return to college in a year

once he has spent that time in New York.

IM travels to New York and is met with issues trying to get work with the letters of

recommendation that Bledsoe gave him.

Immediately before the passage that will be analyzed begins, IM is making his way to

deliver his last letter to a man named Mr. Emmerson. On his way there, he meets a man named

Peter Wheatstraw who carries blueprints that a company did not end up using. IM is against this

because it represents plans which have not been followed through with. He then arrives at a

diner, and the counterman offers him the special of the day, pork chop and grits. IM assumes that

he is only being offered pork chop and grits because he is a southern black man, and thusly

decides to refuse them and order orange juice, toast, and coffee. This is where the passage

begins.

After the passage, IM leaves the diner and goes to Mr. Emerson's office. It is here that

IM learns that Dr. Bledsoe’s ‘letters of recommendation’ were actually letters of condemnation.

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Mr. Emerson’s son, the secretary that told IM the truth of the letters, recommends that IM look

for a job at Liberty Paints which after some initial hesitation, IM does.

IM works at Liberty Paints for a short period of time, but quickly gets injured on the job.

The narrator wakes up having surreal visions in a hospital. During his recovery, he is kindly

taken in by a woman named Mary who encourages him to become a credit to the race. One day

he walks past an eviction in Harlem, and gives an impassioned speech about the eviction.

Brother Jack, the leader of an organization called The Brotherhood, witnesses IM’s speech, and

asks that he join the brotherhood. IM becomes a speechman for the organization. IM meets Tod

Clifton, a youth leader in Harlem, and Ras The Exhorter, a man who believes in black

nationalism and believes that the fact that The Brotherhood has whites in it makes it invalid.

As IM continues to work for The Brotherhood, he is eventually accused of putting his

own want for personal achievement above that of the group, and is therefore reassigned to the

women's movement during the investigation of his nonexistent selfish actions. When IM returns

to The Brotherhood’s main movement, he is met with great change. Clifton has left The

Brotherhood, and now sells Sambo dolls on the street illegally. Clifton is shot for resisting arrest

for his illegal actions. IM then delivers an awesome speech about Clifton’s life and death, which

The Brotherhood scolds him for because the organization did not approve the speech before

hand. IM then learns of the new aspirations of the organization, and decides that he needs to get

revenge on The Brotherhood. He decides to have sexual relations with Sybil, the wife of an

important member of The Brotherhood in order to gain information on their happenings. IM then

finds that all of Harlem is in a riot, destroying the town. At the riot, Ras encourages people to

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lynch the narrator, so he flees, and eventually falls into a manhole where he remains. This brings

the book full circle. IM started in a basement underground and ended in a manhole underground.

The passage begins with IM describing “A seed [that] floated in the thick layer of pulp

that formed at the top of the glass.” A seed is the fertilized reproductive organ of a plant, clearly

making reference to IM’s dream at the end of the book where Bledsoe, Jack, Emerson, Norton,

and Ras castrate him, removing his own reproductive organ. This represents each of these

character’s role in bringing IM to the realization of his place in society: invisible due to his dark

skin tone. Bledsoe allowed IM to think he was on on the same level as Bledsoe himself, which he

was not. Bledsoe is an anomaly in that he acts and is treated as though he is white. Brother Jack,

and The Brotherhood as a whole, used him to manipulate Harlem into collapse, like the strings of

a puppet. IM was not a person to Jack, just a tool; one could say that IM’s humanity was

invisible to Jack. Emerson was so obsessed with the formalities of not knowing someone that he

almost could not bring himself to do the humane thing for IM and tell him the truth about

Bledsoe’s letters. It is arguable that the only reason Emerson told IM is not because he

eventually saw IM as a person who deserves to know, but rather because he was very attracted to

IM and wanted him to “join my[his] guests” at a party that evening. (149) Norton did not see IM

as a person, but rather a tool for forgiving himself for his own incestual thoughts of his daughter.

Norton told IM that “you are my fate,” yet he did not believe this. (44) He believed that if he

could help the fate of blacks in general, he could maybe forgive himself. Even when IM was

right in front of him, IM was never a part of Norton’s life or fate, because Norton could not even

see IM for what he is: a person. Ras contributed to IM’s realization of his invisibility by showing

him an example of the amount of impact IM could have made if he were not blindly following

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The Brotherhood’s cause. IM could have caused or stopped a riot large enough to destroy

Harlem, if he had so chosen to do so on the condition that he had enough drive as an individual

to gather his own following. IM realized that he did not have enough of an identity to make that

decision for himself.

The white seed, as it floats through the thick pulp towards the top of the glass, could also

represent the social class structure in America. The seed, representing white men in America,

naturally floats to the top of the glass, leaving the rest of the juice, the minorities of America, to

be forever unseen behind the pulp at the top of the glass. The pulp, as evidenced by it and its

modifying verb, formed, being the only two latinate roots of the sentence, are the complicated,

and intricate systems in place to hide the discrimination from public view. Latinate roots tend to

represent a more complicated and intellectual history than do Anglo-saxon roots, therefore the

systems in place are also complicated and hard to understand.

The next sentence of the passage reads: “I fished it out with a spoon and then downed the

acid drink, proud to have resisted the pork chop and grits.” Ellison chose to use the phrase

“fished it out” rather than another phrase in order to contribute to the fishing motif that exists

throughout the book. For the most part, the fishing motif represents IM’s search for an identity.

One could say that he is fishing for an identity in the environment around him. The use of a

spoon to fish it out is also quite important due to the limited use of the word throughout the

book: it is only used 3 times. The first is in this scene, the next is when he is buying a yam, and

the seller is “pour[ing] a spoonful of melted butter over the yam.” (204) This is important

because a yam with melted butter is a traditionally southern snack, just as IM is rooted in the

south. IM is embracing his birth given southern identity. The last time the word spoon is used in

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the novel is when IM is being introduced to the idea of the Brotherhood by Brother Jack, and he

adds “three spoonfuls” of sugar to his coffee. (229) Brother Jack calls IM “brother,” which leads

IM to be “repressing an impulse to call him down about the "brother" business.” (224) In this

situation, IM dislikes that Brother Jack immediately calls him “brother,” because he is assuming

that Brother Jack is stereotyping him by his skin color. IM, however, will very quickly become

the identity of The Brotherhood, and although it is unknown, he probably had a name that started

with brother during his time in the brotherhood. These three scenes each represent something

different: the current scene is IM denying his past identity, the second scene is IM holding onto

his past identity, and the third scene is IM denying his future identity.

IM describes his orange juice as an “acid drink” to continue an acid motif that represents

his idea of his own identity slowly dying throughout the book. Acids are first mentioned when

Mr. Norton says, “No one is dead or dying… acidly.” (77) Directly tying the word acid to death.

Then it is mentioned here, as he is “proud to have resisted the pork chop and grits,” because of

his misguided idea about the counterman’s assumptions. Next it is mentioned as IM is entering

the basement of the paint factory, an allusion to his ideas of identity descending to hell. Finally it

is mentioned before he walks on stage to give his first speech for The Brotherhood: “I crossed

the alley to the dark side, stopping near a fence that smelled of carbolic acid.” (260) These gates

represent the gates of hell, and in close proximity to acid, it represents his ideas of identity

entering hell. The Brotherhood will strip him from any individual identity that he had in favor of

their cause.

IM describes himself as “proud to have resisted the pork chop and grits” because he

incorrectly believes that the counterman assumed he would want the pork chop and grits because

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he is a southern black man. IM thinks that everyone sees him as the stereotypical southern black

man, and that absolutely no one perceives him otherwise. This leads him to make assumptions

about all white people. But then, Ellison encourages the readers to ask themselves, what makes

IM better than the white folks who assume he is the stereotype of a southern black man? This is

proven incorrect when the counterman, later in the passage, serves the same dish to a white man,

thus showing IM that assumptions are deadly.

In the third sentence of the passage, IM continues with his false assumption, having yet to

see the counterman serve the dish to the white man when he thinks “It was an act of discipline, a

sign of change that was coming over me and which would return me to college a more

experienced man.” The second clause of the sentence is dependant upon the first, representing

how IM’s idea of his own change in identity, the “change that was coming over me,” is

dependant upon his current mindset about how others perceive him. When this mindset changes

due to the counterman serving the white man the same meal, so will his thoughts on his change

in identity. This is shown when his belief that he will become more like Dr. Bledsoe, is

destroyed by the knowledge of the true nature of Dr. Bledsoe’s letters, resulting in IM wanting to

be as dissimilar to Dr. Bledsoe as he can be.

The choice of the phrase “experienced man” is also quite important because it is a clear

reference to an idea originally developed by the German philosopher ​Søren Kierkegaard in his

text, ​Erfahrung​ which roughly translates to experience. In this text, Kierkegaard argued that in

order to truly know anything, one must experience it. This ties in so well to the themes of

Invisible Man​, that it is no wonder Ellison references it here. IM doesn’t know seemingly

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anything until he experiences it. IM does not even know his own place in society until his

experiences lead him to it.

The next sentence starts with a joke when IM states that “I would be basically the same.”

IM is only ever the same at two points in the book once: the very beginning, and the very end

when he realizes his invisibility. IM is constantly changing and transforming himself into

different things throughout the book, as emphasized by the continued contribution to the

transformation motif in this sentence: IM stirs his coffee, an allusion to the tornado in Wizard of

Oz that completely changes Dorothy’s life, and IM even directly states that he will be “subtly

changed.”

Sentence 5 starts by summarizing a theme of the book to make it nice and easy for the

readers to understand: “It always helped at the college to be a little different.” Ellison’s addition

of the word “little” in this sentence is beautiful because it so concisely encompasses the idea of

the varying outcomes of different levels of differentiation from society. If one is just the same as

everyone else, one will fade into a crowd. If one is just a little different, one gets just the right

amount of attention, just as IM does throughout the book. If one is a little too different, society

will ostracize them, and no benefit is produced, however, if one goes over the threshold of

different, and enters the realm of oddity, one starts to get benefits back. This is seen in the novel

as Trueblood’s situation - he operated almost like a zoo. People would come to hear his story,

just as people go to a zoo to see the exotic animals, and leave him with money, just as one pays

for entry into a zoo. This theme continues to be explored in the next two sentences, as IM

describes that he cannot “speak too much like a northern Negro” because “they wouldn’t like

that.”

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The next sentence is a parallel of a later sentence, the meaning of which will be discussed

when the later sentence is discussed. The parallelism is, however, not the only important part of

this sentence. In this sentence, IM talks about how he has to “give them hints that whatever you

did or said was weighted with broad and mysterious meanings that lay just beneath the surface.”

The first part of this statement, about giving hints, is a reference to a statement IM makes in the

epilogue: “Once you got used to it, reality is as irresistible as a club, and I was clubbed into the

cellar before I caught the hint.” The contrast between IM stating that he is going to give hints and

IM stating that he did not catch the hints fast enough represents another major theme of the book:

nothing is as it seems. At first, IM believed that he could become as high in society as Dr.

Bledsoe, and therefore be the one giving others hints, and leading them to believe in his words,

but by the end of the book, he realizes that that was never a possibility because he is invisible. In

order for people to see the hints he gives, they must first see him as a person, no matter what the

meanings behind the hints are.

Another important thing to note about the next few sentences is that he only speaks to

what “they” will think, and what he can do to intrigue “them.” He is not concerned at all about

learning things for the sake of acquisition of knowledge, or any noble reason, his only concern is

that of a child: what people think of him. This is the point at which this idea becomes obvious,

but it has been apparent throughout the entire passage. IM only wanted to change enough to

intrigue others, he did not want to change to the point at which he would be disliked, even

though it would probably be to his intellectual advantage.

In the next sentence, IM’s narration suddenly turns second person as he states that “the

vaguer you told things, the better.” It would have been perfectly acceptable for IM to say “the

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vaguer I will tell things, the better.” and yet he didn't, Ellison chose to have IM use second

person here. The reason is to assist the reader in seeing the silliness of IM’s goals right now.

Perhaps, Ellison believes, if the reader is truly placed into the situation, if “you” are placed there,

then it will grant some clarity so that the readers are able to see that IM is not talking about

wanting to be able to think and act on a high level, he is talking about convincing others that he

is doing such, no matter whether he is or is not.

The next three sentences are each questions as to Dr. Bledsoe’s actions when he went to

visit the trustees: “Did Dr. Bledsoe stop at an expensive white hotel when he visited New York?

Did he go on parties with the trustees? And how did he act?” the two adjectives expensive and

white are in rapid succession for obvious reason: to further the white wealth motif. Less obvious,

however, is why Ellison chose to put three questions here, no more, no less. It is a reference to

the philosopher and mathematician, Pythagoras. He believed the whole world revolved around

the number three. Time is divided into beginning middle and end, just as a book is. The goodness

of humanity is divided into three parts: Prudence, Drive, and Good fortune. Pythagoras also

taught, however, that most humans only experience one of these parts at once, just as IM does

throughout the book. First he experiences drive in accomplishing his scholarship to the college,

but his fortune is lacking, as he is forced to fight in the battle royale. And his prudence is lacking,

as he is only thinking during the battle royale of his immediate timeline: how will this fighting

affect my speech? Once he experiences good fortune, in the form of Mary’s kindness, he has a

lack of drive and of prudence. He feels no need to get a job, and does not think about how this

will affect his future. Then once he is prudent, in his hole at the end of the book, thinking about

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his future and what he will become, he feels no need to leave the hole, and he is… less than

fortunate to be in that position. The entirety of ​Invisible Man​ follows Pythagoras’ rules.

The next four sentences are a relevant conversation that “came back to my [IM’s] mind.”

Memory is imperfect. The mind of the rememberer often changes quotes and words to match the

image of the person being remembered. If the rememberers opinion of the person being

remembered has changed, then the memory itself will change to match that opinion. (Anderson

and Bower) Perhaps this is what is happening here, afterall, this is IM’s recollection of a

memory, leaving two possibilities for failure. It is probable that because the persons with whom

IM was having this conversation are in college, they would have decent grammar, yet their

grammar in IM’s memory is atrocious. Perhaps because IM now believes he has figured out

Bledsoe’s “secret of leadership”, he has becomes smug and started seeing himself above the

average individuals at the college, just as Bledsoe looks down on other black people. If this is the

case, then this is clearly an allegory about the human tendency to enjoy looking down upon

others.

Within the italicized memory, there are several important notes to be made. The first is

that Doctor Bledsoe is referenced as “​Ole Doc.​” This is a clear reference to Doc, the oldest and

wisest of the seven dwarfs. This quite strongly contributes to Doctor Bledsoe’s characterization

in that being a dwarf, Doc would never be able to operate like a normal human in society, he

must live in the woods, even if he is extremely wise. On the other hand, those that get to know

Doc, such as Snow White, learn to respect him. This is very similar to how at first glance, many

whites may see Doctor Bledsoe as just another black man, and write him off, but those that know

him, such as the trustees, respect him, and invite him into their community. The second is the

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statement, Doctor Bledsoe “​don’t stop for the red lights.​” Although it is extremely unlikely that

Doctor Bledsoe is above the written law in New York, it is symbolic to the fact that he is above

the unwritten social law in not only New York, but everywhere in the United States at the time:

white is right. Doctor Bledsoe is not affected by this social law, because he is as respected as a

white man by the trustees. The third is the reference to Doctor Bledsoe’s “​good red whiskey​” and

his “​good black cigars.”​ The colors red and black are juxtaposed to the adjective “​good.​ ”

Normally, the connotation of the colors black and red are negative with associations with death

and anger, yet here they are described as good. This is to emphasize how out of the norm Doctor

Bledsoe is. The fourth is the comment that Doctor Bledsoe, when he goes to New York, probably

“​forgets all about you ole know-nothing-Negroes down here on the campus.​” This statement

further separates Bledsoe from the concept of a “Negro,” a derogatory term for a black man.

Bledsoe is then put literally above the students when they are described as being “​down here on

campus​” and he is described as being “​up North.​ ” The fifth important note to be made is the

simplicity of the literary device alliteration, and its use to describe the students, further

emphasizing how simple, and lesser they look when compared to Doctor Bledsoe. The sixth is

​ ister​ Doctor Bledsoe.”​ The Mister portion of Doctor

that “​he makes everybody call him M

Bledsoe’s name in this context goes unitalicized to emphasize it’s irregularity, and

inconvenience. Generally, when someone gets their doctorate, the title Doctor replaces their

current title, Mister, Miss, or Mrs. Doctor Bledsoe makes sure that those around him know that

he holds all the power by forcing them to say an additionally long, unnecessary, and improper

name. Mister Doctor is also the antithesis of the infantilization that most black people are struck

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with, such as the title, “boy.” Mister Doctor is the furthest away from “boy” as one can possibly

get.

The next two sentences are where the aforementioned parallelism comes to fruition. The

two sets of sentences, “The thing to do, I thought with a smile, was to give them hints that

whatever you did or said was weighted with broad and mysterious meanings that lay just beneath

the surface. They’d love that. And…” and “I smiled as the conversation came back to my mind. I

felt good. Perhaps…” This parallelism is to emphasize further how immature IM is being at the

moment. While remembering events from college, he has a feeling for himself. He says “I felt

good,” not “I portrayed myself as though I were feeling good,” he just simply feels good. This

sounds simple, but it is very important that IM not only do what “they’d love,” but what will

make him feel good. This is something that IM does not do for most of the rest of the novel, and

is the root of many of his future troubles.

In the next two sentences, IM discusses the possibility that it is “all to the best that I [he]

had been sent away. I [he] had learned more.” In these sentences it is important to remember the

perspective from which this story is told: by IM himself later on. These sentences are only

comedic to those for whom this is not a first reading of the book due to the fact that those who

are reading it for the first time do not understand the scope of how much IM learns in New York

about not only the world around him, but also himself. If IM had stayed at college, perhaps he

never would have discovered his own invisibility. Thus this catalyzes laughter by the

understatement of his words.

Near the end of the next sentence, IM states that he can “see the advantage for Dr.

Bledsoe,” which strongly contributes to the sight and blindness motif throughout the book. This

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is a point in the book in which IM feels as though he can see things for how they are, however,

he is mistaken, and soon to be punished for believing that things are how they seem.

The next sentence further deifies Doctor Bledsoe by saying that “he was never out of our

minds.” It is a common turn of phrase in many western religions to say that God is everywhere,

in one’s mind, in one’s heart, and in one’s actions. Bledsoe has taken the place of the previous

God figure at the college, the founder, and is therefore seen as a partial God, although not

literally, by many of the students.

Building on the previous sentence, “That was a secret of leadership,” further deifies

Bledsoe because he controls knowledge and ignorance in this situation through his secrets as

well as controlling individuals through leadership.

Furthermore, the word leadership itself is quite important, as it is mentioned only 5 other

times in the book: First about Bledsoe’s “Intelligent leadership” (104), then twice about Mary’s

“constant talk about leadership and responsibility” with IM, and the final two were about Brother

Jack and his ideas of “Sacrifice and leadership.” Each of these three characters served as

motivation to IM, just as a leader does to their people. Bledsoe at first was IM’s role model, then

became his motivation for succeeding despite his hinderance. Mary motivated IM to become a

credit to the race, and the guilt brought on by her generosity was that which motivated IM to join

the brotherhood. Brother Jack first gives IM money, work, and a cause to work towards, but that

does not last. It is Brother Jack who was the most influential in pushing IM towards realizing his

invisibility because he used IM like a tool.

The next sentence heavily contributes to the thinking motif that occurs throughout the

novel: “Strange I should think of it now, for although I’d never given it any thought before, I

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seemed to have known it all along.” At this point in the novel it is funny he claims to think so

much when in fact, he has yet to have much individual thought throughout the novel thus far.

When IM claims he knew of Bledsoe’s secret all along, he is simply experiencing hindsight bias,

and for anyone who knows what that is, this will be funny. Hindsight bias refers to the human

tendency to believe that one knew something all along after the results are found.

In the next sentence, IM discusses why he did not come to such conclusions earlier. He

theorizes “the distance from campus seemed to make it clear and hard, and I thought it without

fear.” Clear and hard is clearly referring to some sort of glass or window. Perhaps this is the pane

of glass that he can see clearly through back to college, but cannot pass through, therefore

foreshadowing his lack of return to college. The end of the sentence furthers the thinking motif.

The next sentence begins with the phrase, “Here it came to hand.” The phrase “came to

hand” in American horse racing refers to breaking through at the last minute into first place,

therefore referencing IM’s dream about his grandfather: keep this ni**er boy running. This is

also a reference to the Atlanta Exposition Speech in which Booker T. Washington said the races

“can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”

(Washington) This represents how IM and Bledsoe’s relation is. It is just like the white man and

the black man in the 1920’s: Bledsoe has all the power, and IM has none. The coin is also in

hand. This could be making a statement about how the only real difference between the fingers

on the hand of race is that one holds money, and therefore power, and the other does not.

The sentence continues on to say, “Here it came to hand just as easily as the coin which I

now placed on the counter for my breakfast.” IM placing the coin on the coin on the counter is

very similar to the ancient Greek practice of placing a coin on the lips of the dead so that they

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may enter the underworld. This represents how IM’s “Us and Them” mentality is about to be

undermined, one could even say killed. The next sentence is the height of IM’s “Us and Them”

mentality, as he literally says the phrase, “Is it an insult when one of us tips one of them?”

In the beginning half of the next sentence, however, there is also an important note to be

made: IM “felt for a nickel,” but “took out another dime.” The inclusion of a dime here is an

allusion to W.E.B DuBois’ ​The Talented Tenth​, which described his belief that if 10 percent of

black people become higher professionals, it will become self growing and sustaining. Ellison

disagreed with this idea, and therefore placed it here, when IM is not looking for a dime, but he

gets one anyway, representing Ellisons belief that even if there were a talented twentieth, it

would still not be sustainable due to the fact that the problem is not just the precedent, it is the

ideas that reside within people’s minds.

The final sentence of the passage begins with three instances of the sight motif, which

contribute to two greater ideas in the sentence: “I looked for the counterman, seeing him serving

a plate of pork chop and grits to a man with a pale blond mustache, and stared; then I slapped the

dime on the counter and left, annoyed the dime did not ring as loud as as fifty-cent piece.” The

three references to sight, “looked,” “seeing,” and “stared” make it obvious that IM’s eyes are

being opened to the idea that he should not assume that everyone sees him only as a black

southern man.

Ellison chose to reveal that the other dining individual is white by describing his

mustache as “pale blond” in order to contribute to the blond motif in ​Invisible Man​. The first

blond man in the book is in the introduction: it is a man who IM accidentally bumps into, then

desired to kill afterwards. The next was the blonde naked female dancer during the battle royale

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scene. Then there was the man in the crowd during the battle royale scene who called IM,

“Sambo,” a derogatory reference to a racist southern black stereotype. Mr. Emerson’s son was

also blond, as well as the “darting figures in blonde wigs” that were being chased by men with

dummy rifles near the end of the book. Each of these individuals greatly affected the mind of IM

at the time that they occured. The first IM felt rage towards, the second he felt lust towards, the

third he felt insulted and angry towards, the fourth he received incredibly bad news from, and the

fifth he laughed out loud at. These instances represent the emotional weakness of IM: he is

affected by his external environment rather than just his own mind.

Finally, Ellison chose a “fifty-cent piece” not because of its high value, but because of

what the coin represents. The fifty-cent piece being minted at the time of this story was called

“Walking Liberty” coin. (Breen) The walking liberty coin featured the roman goddess of

freedom, Libertas, on the front, and a bald eagle rising from a mountaintop perch on the back.

Ellison was clearly a ​studier of numismatics. ​Libertas is a pertinent figure because she is often

depicted with a chain around her ankle, possibly representing how public freedom often leads to

private bigotry due to the fact that people always feel the need to feel like they are above some

group of others, a relevant theme to ​Invisible Man​. The bald eagle is of course a symbol of

America’s freedom and values, however, the bald eagle depicted on the coin, is just about to take

flight, representing the time period during which Ellison wrote this novel: ideas about who

deserves freedom and rights were changing rapidly.

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Ralph Ellison’s ​Invisible Man​ is a true masterpiece as evidenced by the fact that one

could turn to any page of his novel and find constant allusions, eye-opening interconnections,

and incredible rhetoric devices. It is possible that there is no other work in the english language

that has as much literary merit as ​Invisible Man​ does.

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 MacKethan

Bibliography

Anderson, John R. “Human Associative Memory.” ​University of Michigan Journal of Medicine​,

2014, doi:10.4324/9781315802886.

Breen, Walter​. ​Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins.​

DuBois, Burghardt W. E. “Talented Tenth, The.” ​Encyclopedia of African American Society,​ 5

Sept. 1903, doi:10.4135/9781412952507.n620.

Stark, John. “Invisible Man: Ellison's Black Odyssey.” ​Negro American Literature Forum,​ vol.

7, no. 2, 1973, pp. 60–63. ​JSTOR​, www.jstor.org/stable/3041271.

Washington, Booker T. “Atlanta Compromise.” ​Encyclopedia of African American Society,​ 18

Sept. 1895, doi:10.4135/9781412952507.n45.

Wilde, Oscar. ​De Profundis.​ Stock, 1985.

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