In The Invisible Man, a member of a subordinate racial or ethnic group is invisible. But members of a superior class can be invisible as well; for example a rich man's housewife who does nothing with her life but sit in her lavish posessions can be invisible. Invisibility is a potential problem for anyone no matter what class you're in.
With that being said, it's much easier to be invisible when you're in a subordinate class. When you're in a subordinate class, people in higher classes don't really view you as a person anyway. This makes being anonymous very easy and invisibility fairly easy.
After the narrator's electroshock therapy, he wrestles around with a multitude of thoughts. The "Who Am I?" (Ellison 242) question comes up frequently and he also mentions "fretting his identity" (Ellison 242). His concluding thought is, "When I discover who I am, I'll be free" (Ellison 243). This is completely applicable to people in general. I think Justin mentioned something similar to this in class. When people don't know what they want to do with their life or are unaware of their life's purpose, they tend to wander around aimlessly without a set purpose or goal. If you're not truly passionate about what you want your life's purpose to be, you just kind of coast...and are invisible. When you let your passsions show, who you are is revealed and you become "visible." Though the narrator was just talking about being free from the hospital and free from the situation, I think that's the overall theme Ellison was getting at.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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I definitely agree with your view and thought your point about class was very interesting and valid. I also agree that a person who is not sure of their vocation and in turn "wanders around aimlessly," they are not sure of their identity which impacts their visibility to others. I feel that the Invisible Man's social class merely contributes to his invisibility, but could be overcome if he was more grounded and aware of what he wanted to do with his life.
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