University Laboratory High School at Urbana-Champaign: African American Literature Course Blog

     One theme throughout Invisible Man is the idea that the narrator is running. Running from many things, his true identity, the world around him, and his past. He seems to be running until he finally falls into his hole to slow down and see what has actually happened. There are many explicit statements of this idea of running, and several implicit uses of symbolism to show this. This starts even with the first chapter of the novel.      One example of an explicit mention of running from discovering his identity can be found on the last page of the first chapter. Ellison writes, "'To Whom It May Concern,' I intoned. 'Keep This Boy Running'" (33). In this quote the narrator has a dream where he opens his briefcase with his grandfather, and instead of finding the the scholarship he finds envelope within envelope with the last one reading the quote above. Here, the narrator himself clearly knows that he is trying to be kept running, yet he doesn't even ...

      In chapter 20 the narrator returns to Harlem. Everything seems changed when he gets back. He doesn't really know what happened and everyone seems indifferent to him. In some sense he seems betrayed. Others seem betrayed as well by him. Even more people feel betrayed by the Brotherhood as a whole. Upon returning to Harlem, the narrator is initially in a good mood, but as soon as he starts realizing all of what has happened, his mood slowly declines throughout his time there.      One of the first things that sets the narrator off, is that he can't find Brother Maceo. He was one of his closest co-workers. He asks Barrelhouse where he has been, and he says that he hasn't seen him in a long time. This surprises the narrator, and at the same time, he is met with the reality that the people the narrator thought he had been representing felt betrayed by him as well. MacAdams said in the bar, "'I hear he got the white fever and left...'" (425). His politics ...