Invisible Man and A Lesson Before Dying

Jumping back to the beginning of the novel, I felt a lot of déjà vu, but couldn’t quite pin point it exactly. One day in class when we were discussing Grant and his role at the school, it clicked—I realized that the environment is strikingly similar to that of Invisible Man (for those of you that were in African American Lit last semester). Grant follows a very similar arc to that of the Narrator. The Narrator in Invisible Man, had the opportunity to attend an all-black university and break the cycle. Similarly, Grant was able to get away from his community and attend college. Both characters, despite their opportunities ended up in a similar place. The Narrator was kicked out of school and continued to strive to break the cycle – specifically by advocating black rights in Harlem. While Grant decided to return to his community to teach school, in an attempt to break the cycle of other black schoolchildren.

Grant and the Narrator both same the same end goal in mind. For Grant it is to help Jefferson achieve “manhood”, but he comes to realize that Jefferson has been given an opportunity to prove his innocence, and take the moral high ground. By doing so Jefferson can break the cycle. Grant’s goal is to move Jefferson from his depressed state of thinking himself a “hog” and get him to break the cycle. The Narrator is also trying to prove to other people that blacks are intelligent and he is encouraging people to break the cycle.

Another interesting parallel is that of Mr. Norton and Dr. Joseph. Both characters are white and are high up in the hierarchy of the school. The part that gave me the most déjà vu was the way these two characters interacted with the school. Dr. Joseph is described as being very discriminatory and treating the students like animals – inspecting their hygiene and treating them less than the white students. Even though his treatment of the kids is visibly worse, he tells Grant that he should be proud and that he is raising a crop of students. It is obvious to us as the reader, that despite trying to put on a show and acting like he cares, he actually doesn’t. Similarly, Mr. Norton “takes interest” in the university. He comes to check on the students and tells the Narrator that the school is his one true interest and that it means the world to him, yet we all get the feeling that he doesn’t really care. 

Shameless and As I Lay Dying

As someone who watches maybe a little too much Netflix, I couldn’t help but compare the characters in As I lay Dying to a show called Shameless. The show is set in Southside Chicago and the basic premise is that an alcoholic father has six children who have to provide for themselves. Frank, the alcoholic father, embodies a modern representation of Anse. Not only is Frank lazy and refuses to work like Anse, but Frank also has quality of “I don’t want to be beholden”, yet he is always a burden for everyone. Frank always makes the argument that it is hard work to care and provide for so many children, so he expects others should do favors for him to help him out. One of my favorite scenes is where Frank is promoting neglect. He says that the best gift you can give your children is self-reliance, and that you need to make fisherman out of your children, rather than giving them fish after fish. The scene really shows Frank’s attitude towards work. On numerous occasions Frank even steals money from his kids to buy alcohol, this is strikingly similar to Anse who took Cashes money to pay for a new team of mules.

Frank’s oldest, Fiona, pretty much runs everything. She is very organized and takes care of everyone. She is very similar to Cash. Cash we know to be very composed and he seems to always have his sh*t together, at least in comparison with the other children who each live in their own little world. Fiona seems to be the only one that knows what needs to be done, and works her tail off through the worst conditions –just like Cash works non-stop through the rain— to provide for her family.

It is difficult to relate Darl to anyone, but the comparison is still there. Darl, as we know, has a talent for somehow knowing things that are impossible to know. Living in Southside Chicago doesn’t allow the greatest of educations for the kids, yet somehow Lip is off the charts in terms of intelligence. He even takes SATs for other students and can get whatever score they want.

One episode, Lip and Ian went to go blood tests done once to see if they were really Frank’s children. Ian wasn’t too excited about it, but Lip somehow knew that one of them might not be Frank’s kid. As it turned out, Ian wasn’t actually Frank’s kid. This is the comparison that first sparked the comparison for me. Just like Darl somehow knew that Jewel wasn’t Anse’s kid, Lip knew that Ian wasn’t Frank’s kid.

There are also other comparisons such as Debbie who is a little girl and is sort of ignored by the rest of her family, just like not much attention is payed to Dewey Dell. There is Carl who gets into a lot of trouble for being a little crazy, and sort of is confusing to understand just like Vardaman.

It is one thing to compare characteristics between characters, but after all this is Hero’s Journey, so it is more important to see how the storylines equate. Numerous times in class we have discussed the conflicting themes of an epic journey vs a foolish fiasco in As I lay Dying. I came to the conclusion during our discussions that while there are elements of epic and heroic moments, it seems that the journey as a whole is more comical and foolish than a normal Hero’s Journey. While the individuals in Shameless, don’t make a “journey” per se, they have to continuously provide for themselves and their goal is to just get through whatever life throws at them. For example, one time when Frank loses a bet of $10,000 to a local gang and doesn’t have the money to pay, the gang takes his 2-year old son Liam as ransom. Fiona has to find a way to get Liam back, and so she storms the gang’s residence and pays them all her saved earnings and promises to pay the remainder later. This action can be seen as heroic, yet just like in As I Lay Dying it can be seen as just the cleanup of someone else’s mistake. Like Darl in the river scene trying to save the coffin, after Anse foolishly led them into an awful position. Or Jewel saving the coffin from the barn fire that Darl set. In both works, you can look at the actions of any one character and define them to be both heroic and as part of a journey turned disaster.