This is quite comparable to today's society where the cries of black people are neglected, as privileged people, intolerable of voiceful people of color, push to live in an utopian world, bereft of diversity.
Ellison closely examines this trend in the mandingo "battle royal" (18). The black boys are stripped of their dignity to humor the white men. The most horrifying scene occurs when the boys are subjected to electrocution. Their trepidant laughs of "fear and embarrassment" contrast starkly to the cruel cackles of the white men, their "red faces swollen as though from apoplexy" (27). They view the black boys as little children, toys, their personal playthings. They put the narrator up on display as the perfect obedient Uncle Tom, giving him "a thunderous applause" in exchange for humiliation and mutilation (31).
Today, people are especially hypersensitive to the presence of blacks. There is an increased amount of rumination on the actions of blacks, inequitable to the nonchalant demeanor specialized for whites. The black power movement is causing major upset to those who choose not to be "woke." This connects to an ancient, yet evergreen value included in Invisible Man "that white is right" (95). The colored Uncle Toms and the whites of prideful privilege, like Mr. Norton, strive to eradicate those who oppose this prehistoric institution. It is interesting to analyze the strength and prevalence of this nationwide disease over the years of "change" and integration.
It is interesting how Ellison uses the idea of an invisible man to represent what you mention at the beginning of this post. You state, "Since blacks were unable to change their societal status, they became a faceless, neglected facet of society like the conventionality of electricity or sewage, things used without regard." The facelessness you mention directly relates to the fact that our narrator deems himself an "invisible man." It will be interesting to see the times in which the narrator seems more or less visible to others in society. The idea of visibility reminds me of Julia Magee's post about the narrator's speech at the college. It is as though the narrator becomes more visible when he says phrases of note like "social responsibility" and "social equality," certainly not an accident on Ellison's part (30-31).
ReplyDeleteUtilizing the Uncle Tom archetype for the narrator is very insightful. As you said,"They put the narrator up on display as the perfect obedient Uncle Tom..." I am interested to delve deeper into the psyche of the narrator -- to discover if he self-identifies with being an Uncle Tom. As Ms. Johnston commented previously, the coupling of visibility in society and this Uncle Tom persona seem to go hand-in-hand. I am curious to see if his invisibility in society causes the narrator to lose his Uncle Tom tendencies or vice versa. As you said, what happenings later in the novel will propel the narrator to become "woke"?
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