Notes on Books or Something

The prologue of Invisible Man introduces the major themes that define the rest of the novel. The metaphors of invisibility and blindness allow for an examination of the effects of racism on the victim and the perpetrator. Because the narrator is black, whites refuse to see him as an actual, three-dimensional person. Therefore, he views himself as invisible and describes them as blind, eventually accepting his invisibility as almost a superpower. Throughout the novel, the narrator remains obscure to the reader, never revealing his name. The names that he is given in the hospital and in the Brotherhood, the name of his college, even the state in which the college is located all go unidentified. The narrator remains a voice and never emerges as an external and quantifiable presence. This obscurity emphasizes his status as an “invisible man” as which he introduces himself in the prologue. He explains that his invisibility owes not to some biochemical accident or supernatural c

     In the beginning of the novel, the Narrator follows the path set out for him in most things, the college, Bledsoe's wild goose chase, and the paint factory. After that experience he decides he is going to take charge and become his own person, however we continue to see him fall in line to other's plans, with the repeated consequence of getting sent away when he deviates from them. With the college, the Narrator thought there was nothing he could've done after the patron asked to drive around, and for that he got unofficially kicked out.       Most recently, we saw the narrator deliver speeches for the brotherhood, and when he gets too personal for their liking, in addition to taking an interview which he believed was to their benefit, he gets sent away to the downtown area to make speeches on "the women question", where it would be difficult to get personal for him. This cycle, where the Narrator thinks he is doing what's best, and then gets punished for

       Obviously identity is a large part of the novel and the Narrator has an identity crisis throughout the entirety of it so far. In the beginning of the novel the Narrator is focused only on getting into college to become and educated man and change the world for the better, and believes that as long as he does not cause any trouble these opportunities will be available to him.       His identity first comes into question when he meets the veteran in the tavern. He speaks to him and learns that he used be be educated and a doctor with very impressive skills, and yet he is in a mental hospital with all the other people at rock bottom. This is very confusing for the Narrator and he tries to make excuses as to why such a skilled man wouldn't be somewhere else practicing his profession. The Narrator then completely flips when it is revealed that Bledsoe sent him on a wild goose chase to get rid of him, going from "oh if I follow orders everything will be OK" to wanting to

      In the Novel, Native Son by Richard Wright, the main character Bigger is very single minded and is focused on him and his family's social circumstances. He sees the lack of power and status that he has and takes out his frustration about it on the people around him. In beginning of the book he deals with the rat in a very cruel manner, crushing its head and swearing. In this scene we see the first signs of Bigger losing control and channeling the anger about his living conditions, his father, and his social status, on this rat, one of the few things he has power over, and afterwards we see him parade the carcass around.       This interaction between Bigger and the Rat is representative of the entire book. The rat (we'll call him Smaller) is unfairly prejudiced against for something that there is no evidence against them for, much like how Bigger is accused of raping Mary without evidence. Even though the rat would do or had done something (cause that's what rat'

When we meet Richard we learn that things about him that confirm what we have learned about him from Clarissa and Peter, and new things that we could only know by being inside of his mind. The thing I wanted to point out is the moment/moments leading up to when he goes to Clarissa, and fails to pronounce his love. Or does he?  I think that there is something special in keeping the innocence and tenderness in their relationship as there was in the beginning, as opposed to getting used to saying to each other "I love you", and being desensitized to those words. When Richard is gathering the courage to pronounce his love to Clarissa, he acts almost like a giddy schoolboy. His mind is filled only with how he is going to say it to her, repeatedly saying that he would do so "in so many words". I think that it is not a bad thing that he finds himself unable to say the words directly to her, but nonetheless he finds happiness in being with her. He even finds happiness think

In the time that we got to see into Peter's mind, he has showed us that he is a weird person, who is kind of obsessed with Clarissa and thinks he knows what's going on around him when in actuality he does not fully understand the situation. In the beginning of the memory we are told that this is when he was "passionately in love with Clarissa", we see how he criticizes Clarissa and list some traits she had that annoyed him. "He hadn't blamed her for minding the fact, since in those days a girl brought up as she was, knew nothing, but it was her manner that annoyed him; timid; hard; something arrogant; unimaginative; prudish". Then after Clarissa and Peter part ways, he immediately goes into depression mode,which is red flag number one, as a healthy relationship would have anyone be a little sad that the one they like is gone, but not enough do that the color drains from the world and everything is grey now. After which, he goes on to say tha