College in the Schools: Intro to Modern Fiction Invisible Man Writers Notebook Questions Written in the politically and

socially turbulent 1940s, Invisible Man is one of the definitive novels of the African-American experience; it is also one of the definitive novels for all Americans. The issues Ellison so powerfully addresses are those that confront everyone who lives in the modern world; not only racism but the very question of personal identity, our frustrated impulse to assert ourselves in a world which is metaphorically blind. Ellisons hero is invisible within the larger culture because he is black, but his feelings can easily be understood by all those who experience the anonymity of modern life. (Brooke Allen, Columbia University) The journals on Invisible Man must reflect one entry from each of the three categories below. I. Literary and Other Topics 1. Identify three related symbols and explore what they represent and make a connection to a larger theme of the text. (do not choose the briefcase or other obvious symbols). 2. Explore the imagery in a given scene and explain how it evokes theme and/or authors attitude. 3. Explore how the style of a part of the text (naturalistic, expressionistic, surrealistic) shapes the readers experience and the authors meaning. 4. Explore ways in which the narrator is unreliable. Does he change in this regard? 5. Explore a setting of the novel and what it conveys to the reader? 6. The narrator assumes an increasing sarcastic tone as the novel progresses. Discuss the importance of irony and sarcasm in the emerging life of the narrator. 7. Explore the complex identity of two or three secondary characters and the authors intended meaning. 8. Look at the authors word play in the text. I yam what I am, for example. Explore possible meanings associated with their use. 9. Trace the importance of the grandfathers words throughout the text. Explain his possible meaning and what they come to mean to the narrator. 10. Identify two or three big quotes in the text and discuss their implications to the narrator and the rest of humanity. 11. In commenting on the structure of his novel, Ellison wrote: Each section begins with a sheet of paper; each piece of paper is exchanged for another and contains a definition of his identity, or the

social role he is to play as defined for him by others. But all say essentially the same thing, Keep this nigger boy running (Shadow and Act 177). Trace the motif of written documents (diplomas, letters of recommendation, slave contracts, etc.) in the novel and explain the significance of these papers. Why are written documents so important to the narrator, and why do they ultimately fail him? 12. What is the place of women in Invisible Man? How do they fit into the narrators philosophy or help construct his identity? You may choose to focus on only white women (for example, the stripper, the wife of the brother, Sybil, etc.), only black women (Mary Rambo), or both. 13. Apply a critical lens other than New Criticism that opens up a new understanding of the theme of invisibility in the novel. II. Personal Response Topics 1. Charles Johnson said that the novel deals with, Freeing ourselves from the blinding social illusions that render races and individuals invisible to each other. Write about a time when you were aware of your own blindness towards others and how you did or could have freed yourself. Choose a line from the text to begin your journey. 2. Write about a time when you participated in your own invisibility. Why do we do this? To what end? What is revealed about who you are? 3. Write about a time when you realized you were invisible. Use concepts from the book to shed light on your experience. 4. Write about a time when you did a Rinehart and explain its appeal and danger. What did you come to understand and how did you move to a new place? 5. Who is made invisible in our society and how and why and what can be done to move this group to visibility? 6. Why the riot in Harlem? How does anger leading to violence function inside and outside the text? Why the chaos in the novel and what does it break open? Describe a time when chaos brought you a new understanding. 7. Defend, challenge or qualify the philosophy of Brother Jack and the Brotherhood? Describe your encounter with a group that used you. 8. How do we create a society that affirms individual dignity so that we may all be truly visible? Give your philosophy on visibility. 9. How do memories of home and the South function in the life of the narrator? How do you feel about home and your roots? What grounds IM and what must he flee? What grounds you and what must you flee? 10. What does the narrator come to understand about his grandfathers message? Explain a similar, meaningful message that you were given by an adult that has come to have more meaning as you grow older.

11. Define identity. What complexities does the narrator struggle with? What do you struggle with? 12. What does the narrators experience as a Black man reveal about race in America? Is this still true today? What would Ras be saying to the black man about the white man today? Talk about someone who has plunged outside of history. Relate to Tod Clifton. Explore what is gained and at what price. III. Thematic Topics 1. The town leaders at the battle royal tell the narrator, We mean to do right by you, but youve got to know your place at all times. What kind of help are the men actually offering. What place in the world do they plan for young black people? Is there any real benevolence included in their wish to dominate? 2. Choose three or four important allusions in the novel and explain the meaning and insight into the text. Be sure to explain the full significance of the allusion. 3. Mr. Norton is a bearer of the white mans burden, a symbol of the Great Traditions. How does he personify the paternalistic ethos, for better or worse? 4. In the Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois theorized that the Black American has two selves, a white one and a black one. How does Dr. Bledsoe exemplify that principle? How does the principle cause the breakdown of Tod Cliftons character? 5. How does the narrators vision of Mr. And Mrs. Provo, the evicted couple, differ from Brother Jacks? Do the two men have the same difference in outlook when it comes to Tod Clifton? 6. How does Invisible Man react when he is told he will be concentrating on the woman question? How are women as a group treated in the novel? 7. Invisible Man wonders what value personal integrity can have in this cynical world. Does it seem to you that it is possible to retain ones integrity while dealing with the likes of D. Bledsoe or Brother Jack? Do any of the books characters in fact retain their integrity? 8. At the end of the novel, Invisible Man says, Whence all this passion toward conformity anyway? diversity is the word. Let man keep his many parts and youll have no tyrant states. Why if they follow this conformity business theyll end up forcing me, an invisible man, to become white, which is not a color at all but a lack of oneAmerica is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain. The debate between the value of diversity and conformity or consensus- is still very much alive today, more than forty years after the appearance of Invisible Man. What contribution does the novel make to this cultural debate? 9. Does the narrator in Invisible Man evolve to a new moral consciousness throughout the novel? Has he established an independent sense of identity by the novels end? If so, why does he

hibernate from the world? Pay special attention to the prologue and epilogue as you construct your answer. 10. The book is one long ironic joke wherein the trickster tricks even himself. Explain. 11. What is "the principle"? How does the narrator's understanding of his grandfather's words change over time?