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?
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