Invisible Man Prologue-Ch. 3

My first thought in class when I heard that we would be reading Invisible Man was something along the lines of, “How cool is that? We get to read about someone who can’t be seen. I wonder if he can get away with stealing all the time.” Soon, however, I discovered that my presumptions were completely wrong as I began to read the Prologue. The entire time while I was reading I had the predisposed expectation that the main character was completely lifeless…something akin to Harry Potter with his invisibility cloak on, except this protagonist wouldn’t need exactly clothes but was merely born or somehow biologically became inaccessible to the eyes of others. The thought never crossed my mind, however, that this book would be shrouded with historical allusions that depict the main character’s struggle as a black man. This invisible man wasn’t invisible by choice instead he was invisible by nature, specifically because of the color of his skin that damned him like a prison sentence, eternal invisibility caused by blackness, shackles that would always press into his skin so that eventually and quite literally they’d be unmovable. Reading forward, I was shocked by the unexpectedness of the setting, the characters chosen. Everything that I had predicted about the novel from the title was completely obstructed. The plot line was also filled with twist and turns that led me into unexpected bends and grey areas. I was also extremely shocked by Ellison’s choice of characters, the meeting of a black sharecropper who gave birth to a woman and a young girl disturbed me, but also I didn’t understand why he was there and what was his essential purpose. Even more so, I was confused by the reason he was given a hundred dollars. What was the motivation behind giving this moron, who had raped a girl, a hundred dollars? I didn’t understand Ellison’s point, nor did I understand any of the logic that was carrying the story on. To me, I didn’t understand why this jerk was getting rewarded for committing a crime. Even more so, I didn’t understand the purpose behind the boxing match or the copper coins that conducted electricity, but if there’s one thing that I think I can make sense of it’s the purpose behind his grandfather’s speech. Hopefully, this time my prediction will be spot-on (unlike other times). Ellison uses the grandfather’s last words in order to foreshadow how later on the son realizes his invisibility by even suggesting that the son is similar in temperament to his grandfather. Although both men are described as “mild’ in terms of personality, the grandfather when on his deathbed ultimately seems very bold and outspoken. During the beginning chapters of the novel, therefore, one realizes that the son, always very soft-spoken and courteous to white folk, who never challenges there opinion of him, and takes back the word “equality” after the white men at the bar yell at him, seems to be the very epitome of even-temperedness, always reluctant to challenge there authority. However, I believe that in the very end one of two things will happen 1) He becomes so mild that he fades into his state of invisibility or 2) he becomes brash like his Grandfather. We’ll see.