Time to start reviewing!
For this week, choose an important quotation from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.
Type the quotation in full and be sure to give the page number.
Then comment on the quotation:
Why did you choose this quotation?
How does it relate to the themes of the novel?
Why is it important?
No repeat quotations! You will not receive credit for a quotation already chosen by someone else. In other words, post early, and read the other posts to make sure you are not repeating.
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65 comments:
“Thus one of the greatest jokes in the world is the spectacle of the whites busy escaping blackness and becoming blacker every day” (pg. 577)
I chose this quote because it represented the hypocrisy of society and the continuing judgemental nature. It shows the similarites between the races and how they are blinded by the color of their skin.
Whites are trying to belittle the blacks and not recognize their power by deception and immorality, the same things they stereotype black people as, which in essence is making them blacker. On the other hand the blacks are attempting to become more like the whites and fit into their deceptive society which is destroying their cultures and personalities making them insignificant and powerless, exactly what they are attempting to avoid.
"When I discover who I am, I'll be free." (pg. 243)
The IM says this as he is trapped in the glass case after the accident at the paint factory. I chose this quote because thought it represented a key theme of the novel, which is discovering true identity. This scene in the paint factory is part of the Invisible Man's lengthy quest to find his place in society.
“It was as though he’d struck me. I stared across the desk thinking, He called me that…” – pg. 139
I really liked this quote because for the first time IM finally realized he could not completely trust even one of his own race, Dr. Bledsoe. I think this quote finally opened him up to the cruelty of the world, and he is also beginning to lose his naivety. I think this quote illustrates the theme, The want of and gain of power can easily corrupt, because Dr. Bledsoe was so easily corrupted by power that he has easily forgotton his roots and has even become like a white man. IM admires Dr. Bledsoe and would like to be like him, so IM must learn that this power could corrupt him.
"I discovered that the gold pieces I had scrambled for were brass pocket tokens." Pg. 32
Why did I choose this quotation?
How does it relate to the themes of the novel?
Why is it important?
-It was a quote I used on my MWDS. Ths significance of this quote is tat it illustrates how the narrator fights and struggles so hard for what he has been told is right. When if he had only looked for himself he would have seen what things truly were.
ok i had typo
the* and that* not ths and tat
"'To Whom It May Concern: . . . Keep This Nigger-Boy Running.'" Chapter 1, pg. 33
This quote describes the novel as a whole because even though African Americans are no longer enslaved they are still not equal. The white man is just keeping them down with lies and deception rather than with wipes and chains. The irony behind it all is the fact that at the same time they are keeping themselves down through their own ignorant trust. African Americans follow blindly and don't do what it takes to further their own dreams, so they simply run around in circles and the white man just watches and laughs.
p.581: "Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?"
I chose this quotation because the reason the novel is prominent today and still has a great impact lies in this quote. The novel doesn't only represent a black man struggling against racial inequality, but a man searching for his identity as he transitions from childhood to adulthood. Everyone must go through the stage of life in which they discover the corruption and evils of society. Everyone struggles against unfairness and inequality. His story represents the stories of everyone. He is a human trying to find his place in society and form his own identity apart from it, which we all must do in order to grow and find ourselves. The theme, due to this idea, is able to shift from the narrow scope of racial injustices to the larger scope of the identity and realizations everyone must find for themselves. It is important because it shows how we all can relate to the novel and how it is still relevant today. It demonstrates the impact and power such a novel has.
p.217 “you’d have to crack it open with a sledge hammer to prove it wasn’t white clear through.”
This quote was when Brockway is talking to the IM in the cellar of Liberty Paints. It was one of my favorite quotes from the book because it was one of the most blatantly stated symbols. The "optic white" paint covers anything even coal. It looks so white that one would have to break open the coal to see that it is truly black. This quote clearly relates to the idea of the white's oppressive nature and tendency to conceal the blacks with their white culture. It displays the theme that in order to be acceptable, one must conform to society's standards to fit into society.
"... too much of your life will be lost, its meaning lost, unless you approach it as much through love as through hate. So I approach it through division. So I denounce and I defend and I hate and I love." p. 580
I chose this quote from the epilogue because I thought it powerful as well as crucial to the theme topic of the finding of one's identity. From his journey through North and South, education and employment, the invisible man learns the importance of sincere passion: that he must love the oppressed and hate the oppressor. Though desperate at this point in the novel, the protagonist speaks with a greater meaning than any of his previous public speeches carried. Furthermore, the quote is important to the novel because it is in the aftermath of all conflict and thus reflects the entirety of what the invisible man has learned.
" 'What is your name?' a voice said."
-Page 190 (Beginning of Chapter 11 for different versions)
I chose this quote because the seemingly easy question has multiple meanings behind it that give it a lot of significance. The Invisible Man's reaction to this question as a blatant symbol of his lack of true identity and sense of self--He simply does not know his name.
However, because he is just getting out of electroshock therapy, let's assume he forgets due to that. A little later, the doctor says his name and he describes a painful, sharp burning sensation. Now, there is no doubt he wants anything in his name.In this aspect, Ellison portrays the question possibly to the extent of when it was used in Biblical times. Back then, "What is your name?" asked so much more than what it does now. It asked him to tell everything about him. From an online source: "You see, in the ancient world 'name' meant four things: personal presence, character, power, and deserved reputation."
"Now I know men are all different and all life is divided and that only in division is there true health." p.576
This quote is very important because it comes at the end of the novel, therefore showing the narrator's feelings after the struggles of his story are over. This is the primary conclusion that he is able to draw from these experiences that he has had. He says that being different is not a bad thing, and that without that difference, things would be very wrong. Not everyone is made to be the exact same, and that is for a reason. It takes different strokes to move the world and without such a diversity, there would be no "true health".
"Folks is always making plans and changing 'em." Pg. 175
I chose this quote because the many old and unused building plans represent the unfulfilled plans that people make daily. The Invisible Man is a perfect example of that because he keeps finding something to dedicate himself to and plan for, then must change those plans when he realizes that that plan will not help him, such as admiring Dr. Bledsoe and the Brotherhood. Changing plans, when done for the better, can be healthy and support growth. The irony of this scene, is that the Invisible Man responds that "you have to stick to the plan" Pg. 175. This shows that he hasn't realized yet that not everything is as it seems and that in order to learn and grow, you have to be willing to change your plans.
ok so I'm not sure what happened, buy the blog under Laurie is actually for Emily Leturno. Sorry, I put in my information, and the computer decided to blog under my mom's name.
page 95:
"No, listen. He believes you as he believes in the beat of his heart. He believes in that great false wisdom taught slaves and pragmatists alike, that white is right. I can tell you his destiny. He'll do your bidding, and for that his blindness is his chief asset. He's your man, friend. Your man and your destiny."
I chose this because it seemed to have a lot to do with every one of the themes I remember us talking about in class (which is also why it's important). I bolded a few short parts that you could probably use in an essay!
By saying, "he's your destiny," Ellison implies that the IM is actually in control of the white man's destiny, which contrasts what the society around him says (white is right). They say that blindness is his chief asset because as long as he is blind, he fits into the black society and they don't have any problems dealing with him.
"I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me." Page 3
I chose the quote because its fairly simple and easy to remember, yet hold a great amount of significance. It also basically summarizes the main inner conflict of the invisible man.
One of the themes of the novel is that in order to truly discover one's identity, one must look inward rather than simply accepting identities forced onto one by others. The narrator realizes this because he realizes that no one truly "sees" him; they only project their own views of what they think he should be, and therefore make him "invisible" by denying his true self.
This quote is important because it reminds us that refusing to see people for who they are, only seeing them as what we want to see them or forcing them into flat stereotypes, is a form of voluntary blindness and ignorance and denies them of a certain sense of humanity.
"I seemed to run swiftly up an incline and shot forward with sudden acceleration int a wet blast of black emptiness that was somehow a bath of whiteness." (pg. 230)
This quote is just one example of white taking over black in IM's life. Ellison uses images of white overpowering the dark or black throughout the novel to suggest white man's need to control blacks. One of the major themes dealt with in this novel is the idea of white beating black in every way. Whether it be in the literal sense of a white man beating a black men, or an example like this where even something as black and dark as vast emptiness can be over powered by white. Everything in the IM's life is controlled by white, whether it be light, color, or man himself.
"All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was." Page 15
I chose this quote because it's a good opening to Invisible Man and shows how the narrator has been invisible his whole life. The Brotherhood's underlying motive is to tell blacks what to think, instead of asking their opinion. Like the statue at the college, the veil is being lowered instead of raised. The narrator must realize how he has been treated, as an Invisible Man, in order for him to find his own identity. He must realize how naive he has been and begin to think for himself. Only after he gets his own answers will he be his own person.
"Throw them up,'she said. ' Nonsense, they chew them up and spit them out. Their leaders are made, not born. Then they're destroyed. You've always said that." pg.302
This quote foreshadows how the brotherhood is going to use IM and then toss him out when they are done with him. The Brotherhood is another group that just uses IM, but they make him feel good by putting him in a position of power. This does not just pertain to the novel, but is also common in the real world too. This quote is important because IM is basically told what is going to happen to him, but he lets the possibility of fame get in the way and falls for it.
“You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world….”(pg. 4)
I like this quote because Ellison appears to be speaking to everyone in a common sense. It reveals his understanding that everyone is invisible in their own ways, and that we are all trying to justify our own visibility in the "real world". The fact that we are aching so much to do so shows the natural human drive for power and the the right to ultimately make some sort of difference in the world that is only possible through visibility. The Invisible Man see's the corruptness in society that forces him to remain invisible, after he realizes that power, fame, and control over a sick, never changing world holds to much responsibility for everyone or anyone to obtain.
p. 154 Chapter 7
"You're hidden right out in the open..."
I chose this quote because it basically summarizes the struggle that the narrator is going through within the entire novel. He cannot be seen for his true worth as a human being because of his skin color, making him invisible to the whites around him. Although this quote is in the middle of the novel (because he is narrating the past), it takes the narrator the entire novel to realize that he is invisible, then takes action to change stereotypes by hiding away and coming out when he feels it will make the biggest impact.
“Our white is so white you can paint a chunka coal and you'd have to crack it open with a sledge hammer to prove it wasn't white clear through.” (chapter 10)
This is a quote from Lucius Brockway while the narrator is working at Liberty Paints. This quote proves Ellison's use of Liberty Paints as a metaphor. The white society is trying to force black men and women to conform to white culture and this quote symbolizes that. They are using to white paint (the white society) to mask the charcoal (the black society) so that the only way you can tell that the charcoal is really charcoal (that a black man is really a black man) is to crack it open (break through the confines of the white society).
"I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest" p.572
I think that this quote pretty much sums up how people, especially high up, thought of him when he told them the harsh truth. In this novel, IM is honest in what he does, and tries to keep that honesty even when others around him began to falter and go against everything they preached. I think it represents how his life turns out; even in truth, a person is not always rewarded. Sometimes the evils of society slowly take over and win. In this case, that is exactly what happened and he is very blunt about it.
"And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled. I am an invisible man." pg. 573
I chose this quote because it is the whole cause of the novel. Invisible Man never truly knows who he is and is always molded by what others want from him.
This relates to the whole idea of identity. IM cannot create an identity of his own. He constantly lives the lives that others have planned out for him, believing that this will complete him.
This quote is important because it shows that for the Invisible Man and for everyone, one must rebel against the ideals of society and do what one thinks is best for them. Most times what society wants isn't best for someone. And sometimes to truly find one's self they must become invisible to society and start from scratch.
"If It's Optic White, It's the Right White" (217).
The Liberty Paints slogan suggests that if it is not white, then it is not right. There, the narrator, being black, is not and cannot be right. This seems to also hint at the idea that the narrator will not be accepted within society as long as he is not white. Unfortunately, the narrator is unable to see the (literal) handwriting on the wall, and he continues on his blind (as if the narrator himself is veiled) trip through society. Only when he accepts his position as invisible and "not right" will he be able to progress within society.
"Play the game but don't believe in it" (p. 153)
This quote is in the instance that the vet is speaking to Mr. Norton and the narrator, namely the narrator. I chose this wuotation because it not only applies to the nameless narrator's situation, but it also applies to any person's life. People everyday go along with things they don't believe, simply for the sake of making a situation less of a discomfort. It seems astounding that so many people can choose silence and go along with lies or other untruthful or mean acts instead of taking a stand, especially the little ones that could take a one-liner to correct.
p.559 "I looked at Ras on his horse and at their handful of guns and recognized the absurdity of the whole night and of the simple yet confoundingly complex arrangement of hope and desire, fear and hate, that had brought me here still running, and knowing now who I was and where I was and knowing too that I had no longer to run for or from the Jacks and the Emersons and the Bledsoes and Nortons, but only from their confusion, impatience, and refusal to recognize the beautiful absurdity of their American identity and mine."
I chose this quote because this is when the invisible man really has an epiphany. He realizes that he has allowed all these people and circumstances to control who he was for his whole life. He has allowed others to manipulate him and lead him to places that he didn't want to be. At this moment he realizes that he has to stop allowing people to control him and that he has been foolish to be scared of these people. He sees that he can be his own person and that there is something beautiful in that.
"You are important because if you fail I have failed by one individual, one defective cog." (p. 45)
I chose this quote because it shows Mr. Norton's hypocrisy. He claims that he is trying to help the black people get educated and become successful, but he is just trying to make himself look good. He is using black people as slaves to his ambition even though he is technically not a slave owner.
This also shows that the narrator is allowing himself to be defined by someone that does not even know him. He is labeled as a "cog," as though he does not have his own identity. This goes along with one of the themes of the novel about a person losing their identity when they let others define who they are.
“Well, I was and yet I was invisible, that was the fundamental contradiction. I was and yet I was unseen” (p. 507)
I chose this quote because it is essentially what the entire novel is about...hence the title, Invisible Man. This is the narrator's complete recognition that he is in fact invisible and ignored by society. It is signifacnt and important because he tried so hard throughout the entire course of the novel to become something he could never actually be, and finds that he is instead invisible. He searched long and hard for his identity, only to come to this realization, which ironically comes as a shock to him. This could relate to the theme of the novel in that it takes a man who is invisible and unnoticed by society in order to find the invisible corruption of society; the invisible man is able to find those societal corruptions through his trivial experience--especially through the Brotherhood and Dr. Bledsoe.
"Struggling to remove an especially difficult cover, I wondered if the same Liberty Paint was used on the campus, or it this "Optic White" was something made exclusively for the government." pg 201
I chose this quote because it shows how the racsim has continued throughout the years no matter where it will be presented.
It relates to the themes by how blacks become invisible when added to white and that the blacks have no control over anything.
It is important because it proves that whites are a constant empowerment over blacks trying to control everything they do as a government.
"When you buck against me, you're bucking against power, rich white folk's power, the nation's power - which means government power!" (p. 142)
Dr. Bledsoe says this to the invisible man after he shows Mr. Norton the bad side of the college town. Dr. Bledsoe thinks that he has power over the white people because he knows how to act the part of the subservient black man. He believes that he has some kind of voice among white people and that if the IM wants to fight with him then he's fighting white people too. This quote is a good example of how power are easily corrupted by power. Dr. Bledsoe is so corrupt by the power of his position in the white community that he betrays his best student.
"I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open" (p. 16).
I thought this was an important quote for the grandfather said this on his death bed. The Invisible Man basically acted like this until the very end of the novel. In order to do anything you have to act and behave a certain way but really do what you want to accomplish, just like what the Invisible Man did. He did as they said and then he tried to do what was right for the African American society. He only wanted to gain freedom from this social power of white men and even though his grandfather said to just do as they say, I think the grandfather had a good point in his last words. Let them think that you are an ignorant person and are doing what they say but really you just have them fooled.
This is Ashley...
p. 196 "KEEP AMERICA PURE WITH LIBERTY PAINTS"
Liberty Paints specializes in white paint used to coat some of the nation's most historic and recognizable monuments. This was an extremely stereotypical, common view in this time period, and here any color is literally covered up by white paint. The white paint obviously represents the country's white population, the majority of whom felt superior to those of color. White is generally associated with purity, innocence, and even Christianity (white dove, etc). In this context, however, Ellison uses white as a common badge of elitism, which forces Invisible Man and others to try to shine through. When he mixes the paint later, he notices it isn't purely white, which I think could suggest that there is no such thing as a simply white, pure America--there are too many different people and backgrounds for one mold to fit everyone.
"They got all this machinery, but that ain't everything; we the machines inside the machines" pg. 217
This is Lucious Brockway speaking in this quote, but it speaks for the African Americans fighting identity in an "optic white" world. This reveals how the whites were using African Americans ignorance to use them as stepping stools to better their own status and hold themselves above others. Ellison is also explaining that African Americans ignorance and blindness is the source of their lack of identity.
"I see the bronze statue of the college Founder, the cold Father symbol, his hands outstretched in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil that flutters in hard, metallic folds above the face of a kneeling slave; and I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place; whether I am witnessing a revelation or a more efficient blinding" (page 36).
This quotation really struck me upon first reading the book. When I first looked upon his experience at college and his admiration of his principal, I naively believed the veil was really being lifted. Then I remembered the scene from the Battle Royal and began to wonder why people like that would pay for the Invisible Man to go to school. The answer is really quite simple--he lives in a society that wants to keep the black people ignorant and helpless, forcing them to rely on the whites and take any treatment they receive from them. This quote applies to the themes of Invisible Man because one of the primary themes is, you guessed it, invisibility. Once the veil is secured, his face will not be visible. It is not until the narrator realizes he is invisible to the white world that he can truly find his identity.
pg. 15-
"I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed."
At this point the invisible man has realized his past mistakes. He has started on the road to finding his prsonality. He would have disowned his heritage if he could have. However, he learns that his geneology and family occurances have shaped the man he has become. His grandparents being slaves should not be embarrassing for him. When he thinks this, he is looking through the eyes of his culture, not his own.
prologue- "It's when you feel like this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump people back. And, let me confess, you feel that way most of the time. You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you're a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And, alas, it's seldom successful."
I think this quote embodies the struggle that IM battled throughout the novel. He was seeking an identity in a society that wanted nothing to do with him. You can feel how opressed and fed up his is with all of the boundaries around him.
Without light I am not only invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one's form is to live a death. I myself, after existing some twenty years,did not become alive until I discovered my invisibility. pg. 7
I chose this quotation because I think it captures the entirety of the novel, as well as how it got it's name; I even underlined it in my book when I read it. The narrator, being "invisible" to society, mainly by color, realizes that he cannot live until he accepts himself the way he is; however, he knows that he has to find himself first. When he says being unaware of one's form is to live in death, he is showing his ambition to find himself in a society where he is treated unfairly. This quotation is important because it sets the theme for the whole novel: one must find themselves and accept themselves before a wholesome life can be lived.
"Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you til' they vomit or bust wide open."
This is the grandfather talking to the narrator while he is on his deathbed.
I chose this quote because it was one of the first instances of foreshadowing that we see in the novel. This is indeed the approach he takes in his later life, prologue and epilogue, and relates to the recurring idea of deception. Another such quote is "Play the game but don't believe in it" (p. 153).
Simply, I really liked this quote. I loved this side of the narrator. He takes the attitude that he doesn't care about anything or the opinions of others. I said to myself at the end FINALLY!! It's about time that you woke up. Just nod, smile, and go about your buisness
"Or again, you often doubt if you really exist. you wonder whether you aren't simply a phantom in other people's minds." pg. 4
I chose this quote because it reflects the feelings IM holds towards his own invisibility. he tries to grasp it and use it for his own advantages, but then it begins to make him suffer and he questions his own existence. it shows how one can become stuck in the ideals of others, and how you must be sure of yourself, or you'll doubt everything about yourself, even your own existence. you must discover your identity, one that you yourself develop, or you'll fall to the identity others give to you, whether you like this one or not.
"'Right down her is where the real paint is made. Without what I do they couldn't do nothing, they be making bricks without straw. An' not only do I make up the base, I fixes the varnishes and lots of the oils too...'"(p 214).
This quotation plays an important part in demonstrating how the blacks and whites interact in this time period. Many whites of the time are in much higher social and economic status that blacks. They have many people working underneath them. What Lucius is basically saying is that blacks are actually the one's that run the nation. Below every white man, whether it be in status or physically underneath, such as in the basement, there are blacks that are responsible for maintaining the world. Relating to the themes of the novel, this goes to show how blacks are not given credit for what they do. Whites are the only ones who get recognized because blacks are doing all the behind-the-scenes work, and are invisible in the world.
"It's all you young folks what's going to make the changes," she said. "Y'all's the ones. You got to lead and you got to fight and move us all on up a little higher." p. 255
I chose this quote because I feel that it embodies what IM is searching for the entire time. It reveals how IM must step up and find himself in order to help himself first and then others. Not only is IM relying on himself but throughout the novel the Brotherhood,the people that follow the Brotherhood, even Mary Rambo start to look towards IM to understand what they are to do. I think that it relates to the theme of finding ones self and helping others along the way. In IM's case, as he finds himself and discovers what he stands for, he brings freedom to himself and to those around him.
"And it was as though I myself was being dispossessed of some painful yet precious thing which I could not bear to lose; something confounding, like a rotted tooth that one would rather suffer indefinitely than endure the short, violent eruption of pain that would mark its removal." p. 273
I chose this quote because right away it seemed to jump out at me I think due to its frequent occurence in everyday life. Rather than solve a painfully obvious problem, we as humans tend to suppress them so as not to endure the repercussions. However, we cannot ignore the issue. It will continue to grow and rot and tear away at our being until all that is left are the broken remains. This idea could be applied to several instances in IM but for the overall meaning it most accurately coincides with the need for reform in Harlem. The only sure way to cure the city of its illness is to rip out the evil entirely, all the way to the root, and begin anew.
"I wanted at at one and the same time to run from the room, to sink through the floor, or go to her and cover her form my eyes and the eyes of the others with my body; to feel the soft thighs, to caress her and destroy her, to love her and murder her, to hide from her, and yet to storke where below the small American flag tattooed upon her belly her thighs formed a capital V." p.19
I chose this quote because it demonstrates the position that the blacks of the time were faced with. The naked women hear symbolically represents the U.S. He wants the things that it can offer him, but like the women it is somthing he cannot obtain. The whites shwo it to him to keep him running. They have no intention of letting him have that freedom.
"I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself question which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painfulboomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself." (Pg. 15)
I chose this quote because it basically sums the book up in a nutshell. The man is on a quest for his identity and turns to other people to tell him who he is, but eventually realizes true identity is found through introspection. This quote proves that if one does not look within one's self to find their identity, others will try to define their identity for them.
"Behold! a walking zonbie! Already he's learned to repress not only his emotions but his humanity. He's invisible, a walking personification of the Negative the most perfect achivement of your dreams, sir! The mechanical man!" (94)
I chose this quote because it is one of my favorites in the novel. It comes from the conversation between the vet and Mr. Norton when the vet is helping him recover at the Golden Day. It is ironic that everyone see this man as crazy and delusional when, in fact, he is the only one who sees the true side of things and tells it exactly how it is. It relates to IM's lack of identity and how he does not even realize he is captive to the power and influence of society. He does exactly as he is told and believes what he is told to believe. The school has blinded him. He believes he is liberating himself and progressing when he is only being taught to obey and fall in line, a machine from the assembly line.
"I yam what I am!" p. 218
I chose this quote because of the genuine nature of the quote and the fact that I hate puns. It relates to the theme in that it was one of the few things that brought the Invisible Man back home from the city. It was highly symbolic in that at this point in the book, the Invisible Man is feeling pretty terrible about the city life, and this begins his acceptance of his new life. This man who is selling the yams is the first guy that he has been able to connect with completely.
pg. 32 “A rope of bloody saliva forming a shape like an undiscovered continent drooled upon the leather”
This reveals how the invisible man is willing to compromise almost anything to get just a tiny bit closer to equality with white men. I chose this quote because it reveals how deceptive the white people were. He thinks he is moving toward success and recognition in the world (the briefcase and scholarship), but he has to pay a terrible price (blood). And he soon finds out that he wasn't even getting closer to equality after all! This quote is the perfect picture of the way white people manipulated the blacks with the mere hope of success.
"You Right, but everything that looks good ain't necessarily good." pg. 264
I chose this quote because I think the IM's experience in New York is the most central to the novel, because it is wher he realizes that he has been living his life for others and not for himself. This quote is from the yam seller on the streets on New York and it forshadows the Brotherhood, which seems perfect to the narrator but turns out to be evil. The quote is a theme to the novel, everything that the IM strives for in life that he thinks will be good turn out to be bad for him.
"I felt no need to lead or leave them; was glad to follow; was gripped by a need to see where and to what they would lead." p.542
The invisible man says this as he is following the group of people right before the riots begin. This summarizes his feelings towards searching for and discovering his identity based on the group of people he surrounds himself with. His main objective is to follow and hopefully have his individuality defined by their standards and beliefs. Not until he has burnt all the items in the briefcase and is alone in the "impenetrable" hole is he able to understand that only he has the authority to shape his identity. He has "boomeranged" back to where he began and must now reintroduce himself to the absurd society he fled from.
"Where is your pahst and where are you going?" (368)
I chose this quotation because:
- I think Ras talks funny
- It was on my MWDS
- It has not been used yet to my knowledge.
- It relates to the main theme of identity in the novel; it is Ras unknowingly pointing out the obvious: IM has completely ignored his Southern "blackness" for the sake of the intellectual part of The Brotherhood. He has turned his back on all those he knew before, as evidenced by the yam scene; he cannot eat it because it isn't intellectual enough for his new image.
"But once a man gits hisself in a tight spot like that there ain't much he can do." (pg. 59)
This is what Jim Trueblood says about the sexual encounter with his daughter. I chose this quote because Jim Trueblood is symbolic of the stereotypical neanderthal that is the African American race according the ignorant whites and even some African Americans at the college who feel as if he is an embarassment to them. Unlike the protagonist, Trueblood does not feel as though he needs to improve his station in life and is not affected by the negative reputation that surrounds him. Jim Trueblood is a foil for the IM.
this goes with the theme that leading a life solely dedicated to being valued in the eyes of others only leads to a fruitless journey that eventually ends with cynicism and emptiness.
" Here, at least, I could try to think things out in peace, or if not in peace, in quiet. I would take up residence underground. The end was in the beginning." (pg. 571)
I chose this quote because it shows the step IM has to take in order to find himself. He goes to his underground place that he isolates himself in, as mentioned in the beginning, which is how the book ends. This is why it says that the end was in the beginning. IM chooses to move on rather than remain in the past. He is trying to accept himself, which is how he will move on.
"Our job is not to ask them what they think but to tell them!" (p. 473)
I chose this quote because it sums up the entire motive behind the Brotherhood and the irony/ hypocrisy of such an organization, and for the first time, IM sees Jack's true persona.
The scene in which this quote occurs when Jack is furious and yelling at IM is a turning point in both the novel and the mindset of IM. The shooting and other events led up to this event;however, the parallel of this unraveling of true character with that of Dr. Bledsoe registers in the mind of IM and recognizing his past struggles, he begins to fight against the invisible restraints that the Brotherhood places on him and the entire race.
" and far out and to the right i could make out the Statue of Liberty, her torch almost lost in the fog." p 165
I chose this quote because it represents the role of liberty in IM. For Invisible Man, and blacks in general liberty is something that they know is there,but still eludes them. The fog represents this illusion of librety, true liberty being reserved for only certain people and types of people. I think this idea of liberty is important because it is what IM is striving so hard to grasp, and yet what is ungraspable to him. He pours his energy into trying to find a way to deal with this and maybe even change it, making liberty a reality.
"I had no doubt that I could do something, but what, and how? I had no contacts and I believed in nothing. And the obsession with my identity which I had developed in the factory hospital returned with a vengeance. Who was I, how had I come to be?" Page 259
I chose this quote because it points out the identity crisis that the Invisible Man has throughout the novel. It shows the depth to which he thinks about himself and what he wants to accomplish. He constantly has to search for who he is and cannot really discover what he stands for until he ostracizes himself from everyone but his own mind.
"I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me." Page 3
I chose this quote because it is pretty much describing the whole book in whole. he is an invisible man only because people choose not to see him, but he makes people choose to not see him.
It relates to the theme of discovering ones true identity by showing how it takes a lifetime to realize who you really are and he has finaly learned that he is invisible to the world around him and it took him almost al his life to find that out
This quote is important because it tells the whole story in just a few words. it states how the story ends and what it is really about.
"But don't you think he should be a little blacker?" (pg.303)
I chose this poem because it shows how hypocritical the people trying to combat racism really are. It exemplifies the fact that skin color is always and will always be noticed. Emma, who says this quote, yet claims to be helping the Brotherhood create equality, still thinks of African-Americans with a horrible stereotype. This part is key to the novel, because it shows how IM is not truly seen, although he is the focus of the Brotherhood.
"The cast-iron figure of a very black, red-lipped and wide-mouthed Negro stared up at me from the floor, his face an enormous grin, his single large black hand held palm up before his chest. It was a bank, a piece of early Americana, the kind of bank which, if a coin is placed in the hand and a lever pressed upon the back, will raise its arm and flip the coin into the grinning mouth." page 202
This quote was most memorable to me probably because I remembered the similar slave statue in Beloved. Apparently ephigies (dont think I spelled that right) of past stereotypes and representatives of the "old ways" are essential to bring out the meaning of the new society. In both novels, the slave bank/statues appear when progress is supposed to be evident but the past still hinders real progression and haunts the characters.
In Invisible man the statue seems to embody the past position of servitude black people used to play in society as well as the new eagerness some have to prove the lazy stereotype wrong. In that respect the white people still control the origin of some blacks' motivation and essentially their lives.
"It's a kind of a death without hanging,I thought, a death alive" 566
The invisible man ahs finally realized that he needs this rebirth, a new life within the crazy world that he has immersed himself in. He describes this death in a peaceful way by sayingg a death without hanging. This shows hope for the future. his death alive is a chance to start anew, to find who he is and no longer be the invisible man.
"The world is just as concrete, ornery, vile, and sublimely wonderful as before, only now I better understand my relation to it and it to me." (p.563)
This quote illustrates the Invisible Man's final understanding of his life and its relation to the world around him.
The invisible man discovers his identity at the end of the novel and decides it is not for him. The prologue shows his ensuing self isolation and attempt to exist with the world he despises as superficial and deceitful. The quote is important because it marks the point in the invisible man's life when he discovers the world is not worth it and stops attempting to become known and instead only attempts to be known by himself.
"I was never more hated than when I was the most honest."
I chose this quote because it was my favorite one from the book. It had a lot of meaning becasuse it's so true: everyone tells you they want to hear the truth but when you give it to them, they get mad. When you are a truly honest person, people usually hate you.
It relates to a theme because society isolates those who do not act how it wants them to and honesty is not always what they want to hear.
It's important because it has more importance than just the relationship to the novel; it speaks about humanity in general and teaches a lesson.
"The white folk tell everybody what to think -- except men like me. I tell them" pg. 143
I think that this quote is important because it shows how even though this man thought that he was ahead of the game and was secretly controlling what the white men thought, in the end he was still just another black man. In reality, Dr. Bledsoe was really just another tool in the southern world where everything was controlled by the white race no matter what a black man tried to do about it. So I think that this quote really shows just how naive Bledsoe really was in the end.
"And this time it danced. Clifton had been making it dance all the time and the black thread had been invisible.
(P. 446)
I chose this quote because I thought it shows an important symbol in the novel and its context in the text. The color black and anything else black is invisible to the white race, just how the Invisible Man is invisible, too. The whole idea of the stereotypical black as a grinning doll is also related to the theme topic of betrayal. This quote shows the huge gap between the races. The whites are unable to "see" the black people, illustrating their ignorance and obliviousness. More importantly, it is this inability to "see" that leads to the racial gap and conflict in the community. This is exemplified by the consequence of Clifton's refusal to comply with the white police officers.
"You black,BLACK! You-Godahm, mahn!... you got bahd hair! You got thick lips! They saw you stink!"
I chose this quote because Ras the Exhorter, the speaker, reresented pure hate. He defined the African-Americans' bitterness towards white society. Ras has accepted the facts of who he is, but he is determined to get revenge for his poor treatment by the whites. On the other hand, Clifton is in between in the situation, not necessarily all the way for blacks nor whites. This quote shows that man of the black men have been brainwashed (whitewashed) into thinking like the white men. This behavior makes them even more powerless and more belittled than before. The black men are lowering their own status.
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