Becoming Invisible

The concept of invisibility and the narrator’s self-awareness are very tightly related. From the prologue we learn all about the concept of invisibility, but it doesn't totally make sense to us. We only start to understand the idea, when we look at the narrator’s realization of freedom and agency. At the beginning of the novel the narrator seems absolutely clueless. When he gives his speech at the Battle Royal, he doesn't understand that the audience is messing with him. When he gets kicked out of the school, he doesn't realize that Bledsoe is setting him up for failure. Even when he joins the brotherhood it takes a long time before he wonders if he was being used as “a natural resource”. In all of these instances we see no thoughts on "invisibility" and he is still oblivious to everyone shaping his life for him.

The first steps to his realization start in the hospital. After being subjected to the machine, the narrator is very disorientated but he has a brief moment of clarity after the nurses made him angry.

“And suddenly my bewilderment suspended and I wanted to be angry, murderously angry. But somehow the pulse of current smashing through my body prevented me. Something had been disconnected. For though I had seldom used my capacities for anger and indignation, I had no doubt that I possessed them; and, like a man who knows that he must fight, whether angry or not, when called a son of a bitch, I tried to imagine myself angry -- only to discover a deeper sense of remoteness.” (p 237)

Before this point, we have never seen the narrator express a whole lot of emotion. Maybe a few instinctual feelings of fear and panic with Mr. Norton, but they were natural feelings that everyone in that situation would feel. This is the first time where we see individual thoughts and emotions that were personal to the narrator. He even says “I seldom used my capacities for anger and indignation”, so we can recognize that he is making some headway into making his own decisions.

Later when he first joins the Brotherhood he gives a speech that is emotional, but is criticized for not being scientific enough. The Brotherhood’s ideology states that people need to think for themselves, rather than just being energized into a thoughtless mob. This is ironic, because by forcing the Narrator’s speeches to be scientific they are taking away his personal thoughts and replacing them with a concrete strict set of rules. The Brotherhood is taking advantage of the narrator and it is a while before the narrator realizes he is being used in this way.

The next turning point for the narrator is the scene of yams. This is scene is very consequential because it is shows that the narrator is doing what he wants to do. This scene contrasts with the scene in the diner where the narrator refuses the pork chop and coffee and instead takes the toast and orange juice. In the diner he is only taking the toast in order to defy the stereotype. This time he eats the yams because he wants to. “I walked along, munching the yam, just as suddenly overcome by an intense feeling of freedom -- simply because I was eating while walking along the street. It was exhilarating. I no longer had to worry about who saw me or about what was proper.” (p 264) As the narrator begins the realize that he should be making his own decisions, he starts to question everything else. Around this time the narrator wonders if the Brotherhood was just using him “as a natural resource”, and he starts to realize that people don’t see him as a person and are using him for their own self interests. This begins the path to the narrator becoming “The Invisible Man”.