Invisible Man Essay

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Alyssa Jonker Mrs. O’Brien AP Literature and Composition 9 December 2008 Invisible Man In Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the author uses the theme of invisibility during the Battle Royale when they don’t see him as one man, they see him and all the other men. His purpose is to show that the main character goes through stages of invisibility. It contributes to the meaning as a whole because the men don’t really see him. During the Battle Royale in the book, the men are led to a fight, “We were led out of the elevator through a rococo hall into an anteroom and told to get into our fighting togs” (18). When they did that, they saw a woman dancing. After seeing the woman dance, they are blindfolded for the fight. The audience of men doesn’t seem him as one man, they see him as just another guy in the fight. After being blindfolded, the main character was scared, “but now I felt a sudden fit of blind terror”, (21). He was no longer just invisible, he was blind. The only thing he could think about was his speech of course; he would not be giving his speech anytime soon seeing as he was getting beat up. The only time he wasn’t invisible was when he was getting hit otherwise; he was always part of a group. He was invisible until he got hit because the men would see that and they’d yell stuff like “kill him” (23) and “slug him, black boy! Knock his guys out” (23). No one would see the individual him. Being blindfolded made all the other men invisible too. So it’s not only him as the invisible one. While blindfolded he could no longer control is motions, “I stumbled about like a baby or a drunken man” (22) and that shows that he really couldn’t see. It didn’t help that he was inhaling smoke too. He was invisible until he got hit because the men would see that and they’d yell stuff like “kill him” (23) and “slug him, black boy! Knock his guys out”
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