Vision Motifs
The visions of the Invisible
Man and surrounding
characters are displayed
through eyes, impaired
vision, veils & blindfolds, and
other symbols. Vision is an
integral motif in Invisible
Man.
Eyes
Eyes
are referred to throughout
Invisible Man.
Many different kinds of eyes are
used throughout the novel in
describing IM’s experiences.
The
moon is referred to as “a
white man’s bloodshot eye”(110).
People are “always watching you
. . . waiting for a wrong
move”(165).
“Studying me with his penetrating
eyes; the others...looking out of
eyes that were meant to reveal
nothing and to stir profound
uncertainty” (462).
“The
face of that clock . . . hid a
pair of searching eyes”(165).
“The man looked at me out of a
bright third eye that glowed out
of his forehead”(231).
IM feels as though he is being
watched in everything he does.
These eyes symbolize how selfconscious he is about his
appearance and actions.
Invisibility
“That
invisibility to which I refer
occurs because of a peculiar
disposition of the eyes of those
with whom I come into contact.
A matter of construction of their
inner eyes, those eyes with which
they look through their physical
eyes upon reality”(3).
“In
those pre-invisible days I
visualized myself as a potential
Booker T. Washington”(18).
“I’d make them see invisibility
felt if not seen, and they’d learn
that it could be as polluting as a
decaying body”(509).
“Time
ran fluid, invisible,
sad”(532).
“Well, I was and yet I was
invisible, that was the
fundamental contradiction. I
was and yet I was
unseen”(507).
Visions of invisibility display the
black community’s feelings of
unimportance.
Impaired Vision
The
vision of both
IM and those
around him is
impaired in different
ways to symbolize
the unawareness of
racism toward the
black community.
“But
now I felt a sudden fit of
blind terror. I was unused to
darkness”(21).
“I crossed a bridge in the
fog...”(196).
“There is no point in blinding
yourself to the truth. Don’t blind
yourself...”(192).
“My
eyes were out of
focus...covering one eye with
my hand to avoid crashing into
trees”(146).
“Between the gesture and the
opaque glitter of his glasses, I
saw the blinking of sightless
eyes”(133).
“They
think we’re blind...they’ve
dispossessed us each of one
eye from the day we’re born”
(343).
“You know, if we aren’t careful,
they’ll slip up on our blind sides
and--plop! out goes our last
good eye and we’re blind as
bats!”(343).
“She
said, looking at me out of
one bleary eye, ‘Georgie’s blind
‘sa mole in a hole doesn’t know
a thing about it”(524).
“They were blind, bat blind,
moving only by the echoed
sounds of their voices. And
because they were blind they
would destroy themselves and
I’d help them”(508).
Impaired
vision is used in the
novel to symbolize that IM is
very naive to the ways of the
world, and unable to see it truly.
As the novel progresses,
references to impaired vision
are not used as often, showing
that he is gradually opening his
eyes to the world around him.
Veils & Blindfolds
“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 more
efficient blinding”.(36).
 “I looked up to see two agitated
physicians and a nurse, and
thought, It’s too late now, and
lay in a veil of sweat watching
them manipulate the
controls”(243).
“The
Founder looked down at
me remotely, benign, sad, and
in that hot instant, profoundly
disillusioned. Then a veil
seemed to fall”(103).
“There was nothing
to do but what we
were told. All ten
of us climbed
under the ropes and allowed
ourselves to be blindfolded with
broad bands of white cloth”(21).
“Below, they were waiting,
hands and handkerchiefs
shading their eyes”(459).
Veils and blindfolds are used to
symbolize the characters being
partially blinded to the truths of
the novel.
Perception
IM
uses visions to convey his
perceptions of the world.
“The crowd was still standing,
looking on as we carried Tod
Clifton away. And as I took one
last look I saw not a crowd but
the set faces of individual men
and women”(459).
“Clifton
had chosen to plunge
out of history and, except for
the picture it made in my mind’s
eye, only the plunge was
recorded, and that was the only
important thing”(447).
“Why should I worry over
bureaucrats, ‘blind men’?”(258).
“It
was some kind of toy, and I
glanced at the crowd’s
fascinated eyes and down
again, seeing it clearly this time.
I’d seen nothing like it
before”(431).
“It
was as though I’d learned
suddenly to look around
corners; images of past
humiliations flicker through my
head and I saw that they were
more than separate
experiences. They were me;
they defined me”(508).
The vision motif is important
in Invisible Man to give the
reader a way of
understanding the IM’s
thoughts and feelings.