Jazzonia

  The novel, Invisible Man, is based during a time period that was full of life, jazz, and culture in one of the most widely recognized cities during that time period, Harlem. It seems as if I personally enjoy things that have come out of the "Harlem" area of New York (jazz music, the rap group A Tribe Called Quest, etc.) and the novel goes on to highlight some of its most prominent stars in all sorts of allusions and references throughout the novel. One person who seems to constantly be relevant, whether it be in the novel or simply the mentioning of the city of Harlem in everyday conversation, is the beloved Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes may as well be known as Harlem's shining star; his way with words and heartfelt sounds seem to repeatedly speak to people in the modern world, and will more than likely leave some sort of influence on future generations as well. I know, I know......most of my poem selections for these blogs come from Langston Hughes. But who can blame me? His words can almost be sung as if to a tune, plus, the majority of his poems actual have some sort of relevance to the situations going on in the novel Invisible Man; for instance, the poem "Jazzonia" relates to the novel in various ways, and it goes a little something like this"

Oh, silver tree!

Oh, shining rivers of the soul!

In a Harlem cabaret

Six long headed jazzers play.

A dancing girl whos eyes are bold

Lifts high a dress of silken gold.

Oh, singing tree!

Oh, shining rivers of the soul!

Were Eve's eyes

In the first garden

Just a bit too bold?

Was Cleopatra gorgeous

In a gown of gold?

Oh, shining tree!

Oh silver rivers of the soul!

In a whirling cabaret

Six long headed jazzers play.

In my opinion, this poem is describing the innocence of a person who is finally seeing the wonders that Harlem has to offer for the first time, similar to that of the invisible man. The first thing that the speaker of this poem talks about is a "silver tree" that's shining constantly throughout each stanza. For the tree he first sees to be silver indicates that he feels the actions around him as being pure and rare, seeing how silver is a form of pure metal. However, the next line referencing the jazz players "as six headed" makes it seem as if the speaker is completely unaware of the dangerous temptations that are around him. The jazz players being six headed makes me think of something serpent like such as Medusa's hair or the ancient three headed dog, as if the situation around the speaker is actually no good. The speaker even mentions a woman who lifts up her silk dress which is similar to the temptation the invisible man feels when he sees the naked woman during the battle royal. Though everything that’s being mentioned in this poem seems as if it’s filled with happiness and clarity, like the man who sells yams in Invisible Man said, “….everything that looks good aint necessarily good” (264). Ya feel me?

Invisible Man: A Dream or Reality?

As we've gone through all the topics of our Invisible Man seminars over the past few days, the idea that really seemed to stick out in my head was the idea of the invisible man not actually being awake, or within reality throughout the second half (or entire, who knows) novel. The invisible man seems to encounter lots of shifts throughout his journey, some minor and some major, however, a major shift was seen during his episode in the hospital. During this scene, the invisible man is approached by a man that he describes as "a long haired fellow, whose piercing eyes looked down upon [him] out of an intense and friendly face" (239) which almost leads to the allusion of the invisible man being visited by some sort of Christ like figure, such as Jesus. Is this all real? Is the invisible man actually being approached by a holy spirit or is he simply envisioning that he is? If the shift in the hospital is actually seen as a "rebirth" or interaction with Christ, then why was it needed? As the episode goes on the long haired fellow continues to talk to the invisible man, it seems as if some of these questions appear to be answered. When the Jesus type figure continues to ask the invisible man questions, and the invisible man fails to remember anything about himself, the man says to our narrator "you MUST remember" (241) almost as if he is trying to get the invisible man to recognize his role in life and/or go out and fulfill his destiny. Is the invisible man some sort of disciple? Was this dream like experience needed to help guide the invisible man to where he was actually meant to be at the end of the novel? In my opinion, that's exactly what happened: the invisible man needed to fall into his own subconscious, almost as if he was the creator of his own parallel reality, in order to fulfill his destiny in the end. The narrator is asked "who is buckeye the rabbit?" (241) in his limbo like trance and later on replies to the question by saying to himself "somehow I was buckeye the rabbit....." (241), which relates to the movies "Donnie Darko" and "Alice in Wonderland". In the movie "Donnie Darko" the main character is visited by a man in a rabbit suit who helps guide Donnie towards his destiny, similar to Alice in wonderland who is approached by a rabbit with a clock before she falls deep down into the rabbit hole. If the invisible man "is buckeye the rabbit", then is he subconsciously leading himself to his own destiny? Does he allow himself to fall into this parallel trance for a specific reason? It seems as if "the rabbit" concept does actually lead to a journey through a parallel universe/rebirth stage for our protagonist. After the "rebirth" during the hospital scene, the invisible man becomes more enlightened towards what’s actually occurring around him. During the eviction episode involving the old black couple, the invisible man observes the situation around him and says "It was startling: The crowd watching silently, the two white men lugging the chair and trying to dodge the blows and the old woman's face streaming with angry tears as she thrashed her fists at them. I couldn’t believe it" (267); his description of what's going on in Harlem seems to differ from his first impression when he says ".....there were white drivers in traffic who obeyed his [a black man] signals as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Sure I had heard of it, but this was real" (159). The new observation, or way of viewing the true situations around him, shows that the invisible man has now become enlightened, possibly as a result of his "rebirth". Think about it, before the invisible man was so blinded by the idea of Harlem being this sort of fairy tale like environment that he would've never fully stopped to take a glance at what was actually going on around him. So was it the rebirth/parallel universe that helped him become enlightened? Or did that happen all on its own? Who knows.....SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT NEED TO BE ANSWERED. Ya feel me?

 

Invisible Man: Seminar Summary Thus Far

So, during last week we had a numerous amount of seminars on the novel Invisible Man, and it seemed as if each one opened my eyes more and more when it came to a new way to view what the novel was actually trying to say. The two seminars that interested me the most, however, were the seminars relating to the Battle Royal and the Liberty Paint scenes. The Battle Royal episode of the book not only said a lot about race and people’s views towards others during the time that this novel was written, but also about the invisible man himself. One part that stood out during this scene was the symbol of the arena; if one truly thinks about it the arena could almost be looked at as a comparison of society. The black men within the arena were almost trapped, and constantly confined to participate in the degrading, barbaric activity the white men had set out for them. The arena broadcasted the idea of these black men (and the white woman) almost simply being dolls for these white men to play with. If these men we're actually just seen as dolls than the whole scene is actually quite ironic. Ellison described the men viewing the barbaric battle as "bankers, lawyers, judges, doctors, fire chiefs, teachers, merchants" (18) which actually is quite surprising seeing how they were the one's acting foolishly and immaturely when it came towards the treatment of these human beings while the men within the arena, who were seen as boys, actually acted in a semi mature manner and resisted their sexual urges to give into the temptation of a naked woman. The arena also showed how those who were flung into the setting had no will power; seeing how they were blindfolded, the men were fighting for the sake of fighting, not because they wanted to. The blindfolds being white also showed contradiction seeing how the idea of something being white would make someone think they've found clarity, however, in this situation it lead to the men stumbling "around like [babies] or drunken [men]" (22). The Battle Royal thoroughly highlights the fact that throughout the novel the invisible man appears to be blind though he strives for clarity. The Liberty Paint episode is also one that seemed really important, to me. Irony seems to strike all throughout the factory scene, along with questions. One thing that’s ironic about the "Optic White" paint that's created is the fact that to make the white color as pure as it can be, a black substance needs to be added. What does that mean? How can something that's as pure as the color white become even more pure once something black has been added? I honestly have no idea, and still am curious as to what Ellison was trying to say by all this. Along with the ironic concept of something becoming more pure once something black has been added, the idea of the invisible man falling into hell comes about during this episode as well. Think about it: the mentor for the paint factory is named Lucius (Lucifer??) Brockway, the factory continues to go deeper and the invisible man searches for Lucius......it's all pretty hell like seeing how it completely mirrors the story of Dante's Inferno. When the invisible man and Lucius get into a fight, he states that "[his] fingers leapt to [his] shoulders, finding wet cloth but no blood. The old fool had bitten [him]" (227), it seems to make a direct reference to the idea of Dante's Inferno, seeing how the sinners were said to have gone around biting each other. What does all this mean? Is the concept of society actually hell? Why did the invisible man need to experience this episode? IT ALL MAKES NO SENSE. Yet, it still leads to one being curious. This novel is full of allusions that may lead to one thinking of hell, parallel worlds, etc. and as the series of seminars continues, we're sure to discover so much more. Ya feel me?