Invisible Man Character Analysis

Words: 1599
Pages: 7

Though the school, the Narrator is told by Bledsoe to take one of the highly regarded trustees around the surrounding area of the campus for a tour. The Narrator shows Mr. Norton, the trustee, the housing area for the poor, black sharecroppers. The Narrator accidentally references a story about a local sharecropper, Mr. Trueblood and how he impregnated both his wife, Kate and his daughter. Shocked at the story, Mr. Norton requests that the Narrator takes him to meet Mr. Trueblood. After the meeting and once the Narrator returns Mr. Norton to the campus, the Narrator gets in trouble by Bledsoe for showing the highly respected Mr. Norton to such an area. Mr. Bledsoe scolds that Narrator that he was told to only show Mr. Norton the “good” parts …show more content…
The purpose of the motif of invisibility and blindness is to show how people are “blind” to things they wish didn’t exist. This leads to the Narrator’s life of invisibility. The Narrator ends the novel with living in an abandoned basement with ___ light. This proves that since the beginning of the novel, the Narrator was unaware of his invisibility to those around him. The Narrator has evolved through series of tests created by those around him wishing to see kept “running.” The major theme of the novel is the importance of creating a personal identity for oneself even if one is found in a racially or socially divided society. The novel closes with being in his box, his “hole.” Here is is not being restricted. After a life of being continuously pushed back into the stereotype, he realizes that everyone else will try to build a box around things they wish didn’t exist. The thing is, this does not work. Only you can be the architect of your own box. After reflecting upon his life, the Narrator realizes that although his life was bad, it was also wonderful. Just like in Our Town when Mrs. Soames is talking to Mrs. Gibbs and describes her life. In both Invisible Man and in Our Town, the significance of a life full of both good and bad is significant because even a bad event could have made something good. The Narrator would not have been writing his story and describing his life to the readers if his life was