Chapter one flashes back on the narrator in his high school days and reveals a much more naïve character. The blindfold symbolizes how the narrator himself is blind to the world around him and it also symbolizes how others are blind to who he really is. He thinks he has the prestige honor of giving a speech, but it ends up all being a part of a grotesque form of entertainment. He must box his fellow black classmates- blindfolded. The literal blindness unmasks the metaphorical blindness of the narrator and the men. The boys in the ring are literally blinded while the men watching them are blind to the boys’ true identities. The battle royal proves how members of the black community are viewed: like animals, sometimes even non-existent. Before the narrator moves the blindfold, he mentions how he was "unused to darkness" (21) and that it scared him: foreshadowing invisibility as the reader knows that he will fade as a character into more darkness as the novel progresses.
Just like the men, the boys are also metaphorically blind to the racism in the white men surrounding them. The men are concealing themselves as good people while in reality they are just watching the boys conform to black stereotypes: aggressive and savage. They then tricked the boys into believing that the money on the electric rug was real and watched them throw themselves at it in agony. Only later did they find out the money was worthless "brass pocket tokens". They were blinded by white generosity.
During the battle royal scene, the blacks are mistreated and taken for granted by the whites. I agree with your statement, "just like the men, they boys are also metaphorically blind to the racism in the white men surrounding them." The blindfolds are to represent the blacks' actual blindness and the inability for them to see through the white men's false mask of goodwill and their intention of degrading them. Through the battle, it reveals how naïve the narrator is and how much he is willingly to obey and listen to the whites.
ReplyDeleteI love the connections you made to the blindfolded he wore, I didn't catch that. The blindfold turns out to play a key role and symbol in his past as it easily illustrates to the readers just how clueless he was as a child. Because this is a flash back, it shows how far he has come and further developed him into a dynamic and complex character.
ReplyDeleteI never considered the blindfold having any kind of symbolic statement. While it seems obvious to us that they are clearly being mistreated for amusement, to them that was fairness. They are not only blind to their own mistreatment, but also to the mistreatment of all the others in their community that are suffering from "generosity". All it really is is just a hoax behind a gilded mask.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but feel the blindfold wasn't as much symbolism as it was a way to treat them more like animals, as you said. To essential make them run around "like chickens without their heads" as the phrase goes. Although even if the blindfold didn't represent blindness, the blindness still holds true as he realizes that being invisible simply means others are blind to his true self and only see him for his color
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