Significant Passages
“My predicament struck me like a stab. I had sense of losing control of the car and slammed on the brakes in the middle of the road, then apologized and drove on. Here within this quiet greenness I possessed the only identity I had ever known, and I was losing it" (Ellison page 99).
This passage demonstrates the start of the narrator becoming invisible. He has identified himself as a student at a college with one specific plan for his entire life, rather than identifying himself as a unique person with different characteristics than those around him. He has not taken the time to find himself, and as soon as his student identity is threatened, he feels as though he has lost himself and that he is invisible. He feels as though he cannot control who he is, which is represented in his losing control of the car.
This passage demonstrates the start of the narrator becoming invisible. He has identified himself as a student at a college with one specific plan for his entire life, rather than identifying himself as a unique person with different characteristics than those around him. He has not taken the time to find himself, and as soon as his student identity is threatened, he feels as though he has lost himself and that he is invisible. He feels as though he cannot control who he is, which is represented in his losing control of the car.
“I took a bite, finding it as sweet and hot as any I’d ever had, and was overcome with such a surge of homesickness that I turned away to keep my control. I walked along, munching the yam, just as suddenly overcome by an intense feeling a freedom - simply because I was eating while walking along the street. It was exhilarating” (Ellison 264).
Here, the narrator feels his first sense of freedom that he has ever felt. In the south, he was required to follow an endless list of rules and regulations. If he strayed, he would be punish as he was for taking Mr. Norton away from his usual path around the school. He is “exhilarated” over walking down the street while eating. This only shows the sheltered way that he has grown up and how simple things could cause him such great happiness.
Here, the narrator feels his first sense of freedom that he has ever felt. In the south, he was required to follow an endless list of rules and regulations. If he strayed, he would be punish as he was for taking Mr. Norton away from his usual path around the school. He is “exhilarated” over walking down the street while eating. This only shows the sheltered way that he has grown up and how simple things could cause him such great happiness.
“Could he himself be both rind and heart? What is real anyway?…I must have been crazy and blind. The world in which we lived was without boundaries” (Ellison 498).
The narrator discovers, at this point, that anyone can be invisible at any time. He has the ability to pretend to be anyone that he pleases. By simply putting on a hat and sunglasses, he has everyone in the town convinced that he is not even him. He can make himself invisible. While he sees it as a possible advantage against his enemies, he is also very saddened by the idea. He cannot make a distinction between what is real and imaginary any longer. He is only accepting what he can see. He realizes at this point that no one is truly trust-worthy, and that anyone could be living multiple lives like Rinehart does.
The narrator discovers, at this point, that anyone can be invisible at any time. He has the ability to pretend to be anyone that he pleases. By simply putting on a hat and sunglasses, he has everyone in the town convinced that he is not even him. He can make himself invisible. While he sees it as a possible advantage against his enemies, he is also very saddened by the idea. He cannot make a distinction between what is real and imaginary any longer. He is only accepting what he can see. He realizes at this point that no one is truly trust-worthy, and that anyone could be living multiple lives like Rinehart does.
"I could see it now, see it clearly and in growing magnitude. It was not suicide, but murder. The committee had planned it. And I had helped, had been a tool. A tool just at the very moment I had though myself free" (Ellison 551).
This could be considered the most climatic passage in the book. The narrator has realized that the “Brotherhood” has set up an entire plan and that he played a large role in their plan. He had been unaware of their true aims until this point. He realizes that they were not there to aid him or to convince the common people of peace. They were there to use him to kill other people. He believes that all this time they had been using him simply to make their way to Ras in order to rid the world of him. The narrator truly has been invisible as a person this entire time. No one ever saw him as another person. They saw him as personal gain.
This could be considered the most climatic passage in the book. The narrator has realized that the “Brotherhood” has set up an entire plan and that he played a large role in their plan. He had been unaware of their true aims until this point. He realizes that they were not there to aid him or to convince the common people of peace. They were there to use him to kill other people. He believes that all this time they had been using him simply to make their way to Ras in order to rid the world of him. The narrator truly has been invisible as a person this entire time. No one ever saw him as another person. They saw him as personal gain.
Citation: Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print.