Invisible Man's Fight to Break from His Collective Identity

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When a musician is playing with a band, he is usually identified not for who he is as an individual, but as a member of his band. In Jazz music, the members of the band are given an opportunity to play a solo and show how he is a unique member of the group. In a Jazz band, both individual improvisation and group collaboration are important. It is a difficult balance; one must listen to all the other members while playing their own part, in order to successfully play a part in the band. In Jazz music, each member of the band is given an opportunity to play a solo, to express his own identity as a musician, showing how he is unique from the other members of the band. However a proper soloist doesn’t completely separate himself from the band. If the musician solos without regard to what the other members of the band are playing, his solo will ruin the message that the band was expressing and he will not be identified as a member of the band, but rather a lone musician playing his own song. Invisible man often finds himself being recognized for his collective identity. When he expresses himself in order to be recognized for his individual identity, he expresses himself as a soloist rebelling against his band’s music would, separating himself from the group. When Invisible Man gives his first speech for the brotherhood, he improvises, expressing his personal ideas without having regard to the brotherhood. In doing so he separates himself from the rest of the Brotherhood. In this instance, he gives his speech like a musician would play a solo in a different key and tempo than the band. When it is Invisible Man’s turn to speak at the rally, he forgets the “correct words and phrases from the pamphlets” (342), the ideas which the Brotherhood wanted him to present, and he decides to improvise, sending his own ideas out. He gives an emotionally powerful and energizing

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