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Blindness is
mentioned throughout the book and represents how people deliberately ignore seeing
and facing the truth. It also shows vulnerability. Prejudice against others is
one kind of blindness in the book. Another kind of blindness in the book is the
characters’ refusal to recognize the realities about themselves and their
communities. Its starts at the “battle royal” when the men who fought were all
blindfolded. The lack of sight symbolizes the helplessness to realize that the
white men are exploiting them for their own entertainment. While reading the
battle royal scene the audience can realize this because the men are voicing
“encouraging” comments in the background during the fight. Comments such as
“Let me at those black sonsabithes!” (21) and “Slug him, black boy!” (23) indicate
that the white men are egging the fighters on and taking advantage of their
weak state. The blindfolded men would like to believe that they are in that
ring for a purpose and not for the white men’s pleasure, but sadly that is not
the case. Another instance is the Founder’s statue at the college. The narrator
talks about how the “bronze face” with “empty eyes look upon a world [he has]
never seen.” (36) This description of the statue being cold and having empty
eyes depicts how the real founder of the place is invisible to the world. The
fact that there is no name presented for the founder but all that is known is
the history behind the statue. The statue is symbolic to how the founder is
metaphorically invisible within the real world. Lastly, Reverend Homer A.
Barbee is troubled by blindness because he romanticizes the founder of the college
and also Brother Jack, who lacks two functional eyes and has one glass eye.
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| This symbolizes how people take advantage of blindness. The blindfolded men in the "battle royal", they were exposed and exploited by the rich men and the man in the picture is susceptible to be made a fool. For he thinks that he is getting many, yet his hat is full of leaves. |
Friday, December 4, 2015
Blog Post #4
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Blindness is a prominent symbol in Invisible Man. Grace mentions the blindness at the battle royal and the glass eye. The battle royal is towards the beginning of the novel and the glass eye is closer to the end. This shows that throughout the novel blindness is important. Blindness symbolizes the invisibility the narrator faces. The narrator is also blind to many of the people that manipulate him.
ReplyDeleteBlindness is a heavily focused topic for the Invisible Man. The white man pretends to be blind to the narrator's presence at times, hence the title. The white man also tried to cover the narrators eyes against the evils he commits against the narrator. Once a person is blind, or conformed, there is another willing to take advantage of the blindness, providing fake hopes in exchange for trust. Of course, the narrator is beginning to realize the ruse of the white man and is beginning to retaliate against such treatment.
ReplyDeleteThe whole novel is centered around Blindness. Going off what you said, the narrator's blindness to the world around him causes him to lose sight of himself. Furthermore, if the narrator was not blind to Mr.Norton's true intentions, perhaps he would not have been expelled from the college. Ultimately, blindness hinders the characters in the novel from succeeding. For example, Mr. Norton's blindness about faith leads him to burden himself with his intimate obsession of the success and failures of the students at the college.
ReplyDeleteThe focus of internal and external blindness is one of the biggest themes throughout the book. Through internal racism the students shame those in their community that they think are giving them a tarnished reputation or image and indulge in self hate that reflects the external racism that's already put on them. This blindness is reflected in the narrator's "invisibility" and his views on respecting the white people even when they don't reciprocate the respect.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to emphasize a major theme in this book! Not only is this applicable to the book, but it also says a great amount about human nature itself. I believe all of us at one point in our lives have been blinded, and taken advantage of due to this blindness. It is not til one snaps out of this blindness until they realize they were doing wrong the whole time. Unfortunately, in this day and age, some people are still blind and refuse to see
ReplyDelete