The narrator's shades that he buys to hide himself from Ras' people
end up allowing him to see everything
in a new light. But what I thought was very interesting was that Ellison made
it so that the narrator was able to see more clearly when everything was
darker. The narrator has been whitewashed throughout his entire life. Remember
the beginning of the book? The narrator is literally used as a source of
entertainment for a crowd of white men and he didn’t question it. But the
shades help him see more clearly, even though the narrator explicitly says, “I
could barely see; it was almost dark now, and the streets swarmed in a green
vagueness.” By putting the shades on, the narrator sees a world that the
Brotherhood (a white ruled organization) has not even noticed. People that the
narrator would see every day, like those at the saloon, treat him completely
different. His friends, strangers, officials, church-going Christians, women, nobody
could recognize the narrator even though he is described as being an infamous
speaker.
The darkness of the shades allows the narrator to explore and
learn more about how he doesn’t know. He thinks he knows Harlem but he’s only
seen it through the glass eye of Jack, a white male. When he sees it through
the dark shades of Rinehart, the narrator is able to see more of Harlem and
more of himself. He realizes what Bledsoe what trying to explain to him and how
he’s been played over and over again. And he realizes all of this just but
putting on another layer of black.
What do you guys think?
First of all, I like the coloring effect! Regarding the shades, it does seem really paradoxical that by making things darker, they become a lot clearer. He's been spoon-fed all of this information by the Brotherhood, the shades just let him step outside of that viewpoint and explore things through another lens (no pun intended). I think it plays in really well with the paradoxical nature of the Brotherhood and its ideals, since they supposedly don't see color, despite that being their focus. It kind of brings a new light to the narrator's personal development (still no pun intended).
ReplyDeleteGreat post and so many puns! I love this! I agree with Ethan that when things are darker, they become clearer. It also points to with a darker shade, he is seeing things through his own eyes: how an African American male would view things. But before this "darker/black" lens, the narrator sees things through the white eye which isn't his true eye.
ReplyDeleteHe went from black to black, so to speak. As he steps out of his usual methods and routine given to him by his upbringing from college to now, he sees and becomes a different kind of black, one he has never seen before. I do really enjoy his complete "invisibility" or anonymity when all he does is put on a hat and shades. Good post!
ReplyDeleteWow what a creative post! I guess the first black can be represented as a cover that made stuff for the narrator difficult to see. When he went to black the stuff that he should've seen with the brotherhood became more defined.
ReplyDeleteThis was me...
DeleteA bit of a thought of mine, but connecting your second layer of black to the Rinehart arc, maybe the narrator must truly learn to embrace this seperate black view before he begins to understand invisibility. Keep in mind that it's only through his experiences as Rinehart that he does so.
ReplyDeleteI feel like Invisible Man is just one of those books that you could reread a million times and still find out new things. Just every single thing has a potential double meaning or could be a metaphor for some larger picture. This is a super interesting and very observant analysis, nice post!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Olivia, I think it's interesting how densely filled with meaning Invisible Man is. As for the shades, I think the point Ellison was making was that by viewing the world through a Black lens, the narrator is able to gain a stronger/more complete understanding of the world around him. Up until then, the narrator has viewed himself through white institutions, but with the glasses he sees the Black world and understands his own life more deeply.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really cool post! I like the way you portrayed the sunglasses as actually enlightening the narrator. Even though they make it harder for him to physically see, they make it much harder for the rest of the world to see him clearly and he recognizes this. The freedom that they provide him with also allows him to notice people he would not have otherwise noticed.
ReplyDeleteThe black text is pretty cool, although it makes the post hard to read lol. Seeing the world through Rinehart's eyes is definitely intriguing. I think that him transforming by putting on the shades is definitely intentional, but your analysis of the transformation makes a lot of sense to me. I also never thought of the fact that the narrator sees the world through Jack's eye at first, and probably because Ellison definitely doesn't describe Jack's insight in as much detail as the narrator's own thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThe Rinehart glasses do indeed, how do you say, "shed some light" on the actual reality of Harlem, instead of the censored "scientific" version the brotherhood has been trying to give him.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post! The color of the text was really cool too. I agree that the shades seem to help the Narrator see past the white veil that has been cast upon him. Also on the topic of people not seeing the Narrator as the Narrator, I feel like the shades add a layer of "blackness" that the Narrator normally doesn't express, which is why people do recognize him. :)
ReplyDeleteAhhhhh awesome!!! I love what you did with the text. I think you're right that the narrator has to reverse his whitewashed view of the world by wearing dark glasses. That's some awesome symbolism. I wonder how then we might view the hat or the shoes in that same scene? They don't make nearly as much of an effect on his worldview, but I canNOT get past the fact that he is only recognized as not being Rineheart for his shoes, which are black and white, and he bought on a split second decision for no reason other than to have some new shoes. And he never makes impulsive decisions. Is the narrator's entire identity based on that one, arbitrary decision? Idk. It's not super related to the glasses rhetorically, but I think clothing items in this novel are really symbolically significant because they are how the narrator presents himself.
ReplyDelete