Invisible Man

After reading through Invisible Man I couldn't help but wonder at the number of allusions, historical, religious, and literary which Ralph Ellison drew upon. I found it extremely interesting how the narrator considers himself to be invisible due to the fact that he is "black" illustrating the significance that black culture played upon the author through the essence of his grandfather, Booker T. Washington, and other men like Marcus Garvey and Fredrick Douglass simply to name a few. This was even evident throughout all of the symbolic color imagery that was demonstrated throughout the novel. Gold is a reoccurring color scheme that is constantly referred to throughout the bulk of the novel. Moreover, other colors such as red was also incredibly significant in that not only did it represent the frustration, anger or anxiety that the narrator was feeling but it also served as a warning signal to the narrator several times. The colors of black and white were commonly referred to, but black was given a negative connotation whereas white was given a positive connotation in order to illustrate that the narrator was constantly trying to become white and escape his black skin. Yet the color black wasn't negatively used to describe simply the narrator but it always described something negative such as when the narrator observed that Brockway gave him "a long, black stare." Furthermore the positivity of the color white can be even more illustrated by the slogan that Brockway devises, "If it's Optic White, It's the Right White." There are also many musical motifs throughout the novel, including the very famous Beethoven's Fifth which the narrator hears after the optic white paint explosion. Beethoven's Fifth serves as a foreboding element that foreshadows the state of the author as illustrated by the narrator's response, "i kept hearing the opening motif of Beethoven's Fifth, three short and one long buzz, repeated again and again in varying volume, and I was trudging and breaking through, rising up, to find myself lying on my back with two pink-faced men laughing down." Beethoven's Fifth is again referred to when the narrator says, "I wanted to call him, but the Fifth Symphony rhythm racked me, and he seemed too serene and too far away." Hence, this music which alludes to doom and terror illustrates the frantic and also, depressed manner that the narrator is experiencing, since he is unaware of where he is or what to do after becoming caged inside 'a kind of glass and nickel box, the lid of which was propped open." When I read this scene my first reaction was that the narrator had been reborn again: he had fallen from ruins and was starting anew. I also thought that this description of the narrator awaking from the glass casket like he was Snow White, herself. Yet, I then saw another parallel that this instance could be referring to a religious allusion, something along the lines of Jesus rising again and hence, the narrator was becoming resurrected and his sins cleansed because the white paint had exploded, but also poured over him again, hence wiping the crimson stain of sin with the purity of a lamb's flesh.