Increasingly Visible

Since the first chapter, the narrator of Invisible Man has changed immensely. In class we have said that he is moving more toward the character we see in the prologue. But I also think that the narrator is becoming less invisible as time goes on.  Let me explain.

The narrator we see in the first few chapters seems extremely ordinary. He doesn't want to stick out from the crowd and his every action seems to be done in order to serve someone. During the battle royal in Chapter 1, the narrator doesn't try to win and even starts losing when he realizes he might please more of the white men if he does. When giving his speech, he is ignored by the listeners. Later, when the narrator is driving Mr. Norton around, he does exactly what he is told, "following the white line", but once Trueblood begins telling his story, the reader forgets the narrator is even there listening. This is a character that is straining to be heard and liked and yet is very forgettable. He is utterly bland and lacks personality other than being a subservient yes-man.

However, as we progress through the novel, the narrator is slowly evolving into someone more meaningful. Once he reaches New York, he seems to gain an identity. At first, as we see in the diner, he's just the "Southern boy", and he wants to shrug the label off. When he meets the cart-pusher in Chapter 9, the man makes the narrator think about his childhood and by the end, the narrator feels a sense of pride and disgust. The pride here is important because that it's that flash of pride that will grow over time. After the paint factory incident, the narrator rethinks the question of who he really is, and soon after, the reader sees him buying yams and thinking of the times when he would "squeeze the sweet pulp from the soft peel as we hid from the teacher behind the largest book, the World's Geography." Then he realizes: "What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?" For me, this is a moment when I can see the narrator clearly. No longer is he trying to push down his culture and his background.

While its true that how the narrator thinks is becoming more similar to the thoughts he has in the prologue, I wouldn't say he is becoming more like an "invisible man." Instead, he seems to be finding himself. He now has a tangible background and an identity that is so much more vivid than the character of Chapter 1. This, I think, makes him more visible than invisible. But with all that's happened in the book so far, all of that may be subject to change.