Made By:
Roxana Bagheri, Swetha Ramamurthy, Kevin
Markose, Nia Smallwood, Tannon Yu
 The prologue begins with the narrator introducing himself invisible. He
explains that he is not literally invisible, but he is overlooked because he is
black. He explains that there are both advantages and disadvantages to being
invisible. The narrator tells a story about a night when he accidentally bumped
into a white man, and the white man insulted him. He beats up the white man,
and later sees the man on the news as a victim of a mugging. The narrator
moves on to describe his living situation, saying that he has been living in the
abandoned part of a basement that he calls his “hole”. In this hole, he has
strung up lights and steals power from Monopolated Light & Power. He says
that he used to pay for power, but since learning of his invisibility he has been
living rent and bill free. The narrator keeps his hole full of light, because he
believes it “confirms his reality”. The narrator wants to hear Louis Armstrong
playing from five records at the same time. One day, while he was high on
marijuana, the narrator was listening to music and imagined a white woman
being sold as a slave, a black church congregation discussing blackness, and a
slave woman that had sons with her master. She describes how she both hated
and lover her master, and she eventually poisoned him. He asks her the
meaning of freedom, and when she starts to cry her sons chase him out. After
he comes down from his high, he decides that he isn't going to smoke anymore
because it stops him from action.
 The lights in the narrator’s hole symbolize his self
awareness and his ability to create his own identity.
“Perhaps you’ll think it strange that an invisible man
should need light, desire light, love light. But maybe it is
exactly because I am invisible. Light gives form to my reality,
gives birth to my form” (Ellison 6).
 Both the slave woman from his daydream and the white
man that the narrator assaults symbolize the complex
relationships between Blacks and Whites during this time
period. The slave woman both loves and hates her master,
and the narrator questions his ability to be responsible for
attacking the white man because society does not
acknowledge him as a person.
The chapter opens with the narrator reminiscing about his grandfather’s dying
words. He remembers how his grandfather ambiguously reminded him to “agree
‘em to death and destruction,” making himself appear to go along with others,
while having ulterior motives (Ellison 21).
Chapter 1 also contains the famous “battle royal” scene , a controversial
depiction of white cruelty and black ignorance. Expecting to deliver a speech to a
group of distinguished white men, the narrator finds himself blindfolded and
thrown into a vicious fight against other blindfolded black boys. After being
defeated in the last round, the narrator and the other boys are lead to an
electrified rug, on which fake crumpled bills and coins lie, and told to go after the
money.
Finally being allowed to conduct his speech, the men repeatedly
humiliate the narrator while he is speaking. After being forced to repeat “social
responsibility” several times, he slips and says “social equality” instead, inciting a
heated response from his audience. Explaining that he made a slip of the tongue,
he is given a scholarship to a prestigious black college after concluding his speech.
He later dreams that the scholarship document actually reads “To Whom It May
Concern, Keep This Nigger-Boy Running” (Ellison 33).
The battle royal scene is a significant symbol of white superiority and is
clear satire. Setting the scene for the series of events to follow, the battle royal
shows the absolute power the White men have, in regards to what the black boys
do or feel.
However, Ellison most likely did not publish the scene for just something
so obvious. The battle royal can be contended to be somewhat humorous, in
regards to complete imbecility and ignorance of the black boys. Not only does the
scene exemplify the time period’s educational and logical standards of the black
community, it portrays such ignorance ridiculously. The boys show absolutely no
hesitation in doing what the men ask, until after they experience the
consequences (ie. getting electrocuted by the rug).
The narrator on the other hand, personifies Ellison’s belief that
underneath all the ignorance, blacks can also have an immense sense of better
judgment. Although he is forced to in the end, the narrator differs from the other
boys in that he hesitates before being pushed into the ring, and he becomes more
careful when picking at the coins after being shocked once.
 “And we snatched and grabbed, snatched and grabbed. I was careful
not to come too close to the rug now…” (Ellison 28). While the other
boys continue lunging for the coins and bills, even after being
electrocuted more than once, the narrator carefully picks his way
around the rug to avoid being shocked again.
 “’You sure that about ‘equality’ was a mistake?’ ‘Oh, yes, sir’” (Ellison
31). The scene where the narrator slips up in his speech portrays an
obvious theme Ellison is trying to portray. That people (in this case, the
white men) are often two-faced. While the men appear to be beneficial
to the narrator, as seen when they award him the scholarship later, it
becomes clear that they quickly become hostile when he falls out of
line. In broader terms, the men are generally nicer to the narrator when
he acts like (in their view) a model black citizen; however, when he
seems to challenge their authority as powerful white figures, they turn
on him.
The narrator describes his college as a year progressed in detail,
reminiscing about the different parts of campus that he felt were
home. He particularly recalls a bronze statue of the Founder with
“his hands outstretched in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil.”
The narrator then laments that he can only remember images of the
school with a broken fountain and dead grass.
At the end of the narrator’s junior year, the president Dr. Bledsoe
gives him the job of driving Mr. Norton, one of the trustees, around
the school. Mr. Norton tells him of the Founder and wishes him a
pleasant fate, which puzzles him. He sees a team of oxen on the road
and fears the white man with the oxen, but respects and admires the
rich white men like Norton. Norton tells the narrator that he felt as
if his destiny was connected to the Black people, students like the
narrator created is fate, and he regrets that he did not prevent the
death of his daughter.
As they drive on, the narrator accidently drives by Jim Trueblood’s
log cabin, which peaks Mr. Norton’s interest. When they stop in
front of the cabin, the narrator tells Mr. Norton that the father, Jim,
impregnated both his wife and his daughter. Norton then becomes
very excited while talking to Trueblood and tells them the story of
how he had a dream which led him to have intercourse with his
daughter. Both his wife and daughter had their babies at the same
time. This led to the disgrace of their family and hatred from school
who looked down upon the Black peasants already. This shocks Mr.
Norton, who gives him a $100 bill. He then is so disgusted that he
becomes unwell forcing the narrator to take Mr. Norton to the
Golden Day, for whiskey to treat him.
You did whaaaat??
 The former Slave Quarters being used represent the fact that the consequences
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of slavery have yet to die out completely. The author demonstrates that although
slavery was abolished some time ago it still survives in one way or another.
Bronze founder statue: The statue represents the struggle of Black people against
white supremacy and racism within their own race. The Founder is made to look
like he is uncovering the slaves but in reality is pushing them back down by
keeping them blind. This foreshadows the continued betrayal the narrator
experiences from his own people. There is also a reference to the motif of
blindness, with the blind eyes of the statue.
“I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or
lowered more firmly in place” (36).
Mr. Norton: symbol of the self-interested White race who manipulates
dependent Black people by creating the illusion of empowering them, but
actually amasses more power (the narrator’s fate is Mr. Norton’s)
Trueblood and the $100 bill: The money and the help that men are giving him
represent the corruption of society. Trueblood, although a poor sharecropper
that “shames” Blacks according to the young narrator, is able to capitalize on the
sad fact that men treat his story as entertainment.
The narrator, fearing that Norton might die from shock, drives to the
nearest tavern, the Golden day to get Norton whiskey . As he
approaches the Golden Day, the narrator encounters a group of
mentally disturbed black war veterans who are being allowed an
afternoon outside their home. Their attendant is nowhere to be seen.
The narrator intends to dash in and out of the tavern, as the
establishment has a bad reputation, but the owner refuses to sell
take-out whiskey. Some of the veterans help carry Norton inside,
since he has fallen unconscious. As they soon as they pour some
whiskey down his throat, he begins to regain consciousness. The
attendant, Supercargo, in charge of the veterans suddenly appears,
shouting down from the area of the building devoted to the brothel.
He asks why the veterans are yelling and then the veterans start
tackling the attendant. A brawl ensues. Norton falls unconscious
again, and the narrator and one of the veterans carry him upstairs to
where the prostitutes stay.
 This particular veteran claims to be a doctor and a graduate of the
college. After Norton wakes, the veteran mocks Norton’s interest in
the narrator and the college. He says that Norton views the narrator
as a mark on his scorecard of achievement rather than as a man and
that the narrator thinks of Norton not as a man but as a god. He calls
the narrator an automaton stricken with a blindness that makes him
do Norton’s bidding and claims that this blindness is the narrator’s
chief asset. Norton becomes angry and demands that the narrator
take him back to the college. During the ride back, Norton remains
completely silent.
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Norton’s teeth are characterized as “amazingly animalized teeth,” attributing
an animalistic quality to Norton, even though usually Blacks were considered
as non-human. Normally, his teeth are hidden behind his mouth, but during
this state of vulnerability he shows his true colors. He is self-interested, and
has no real intention to improve the difficulties of Black Americans. Norton
hides behind his words, portraying that he is a kind white man but in reality
uses his position to control human life.
When the veteran (doctor dude) at the Golden Day tavern calls the narrator an
“automaton,” the comment revives the problematic relationship between white
benefactor and black beneficiary. The veteran clearly identifies Norton’s
narcissism by stating that Norton sees the narrator as a mark on the scorecard
of his achievement. This also refers to the blind or mechanical following of
both the narrator and Mr. Norton of the ideals forced upon them by the
Founder.
 “Poor stumblers,” he says, “neither of you can see the other. . . .” But
neither Norton nor the narrator takes kindly to having his figurative
blindfold removed: just as Norton wishes to believe himself an influential
humanitarian, so does the narrator wish to continue under the illusion
that the college offers him the freedom to determine his own fate and
identity.
 This scene was also very ironic because even though the veteran emerges
as the only character to recognize and speak the truth, society labels him
as insane for actually being able to see beneath the surface and for telling
what he has seen and learned.
•
Mr. Norton asks to be taken to his room
and requests a personal visit from Dr. Bledsoe,
the president of the college. Bledsoe becomes
furious when the narrator informs him of the
afternoon’s events, scolding him that he should
have known to show powerful white trustees
only what the college wants them to see. When
Bledsoe arrives at Norton’s room, he orders the
narrator to leave and instructs him to attend
the chapel service that evening. In his room
later that afternoon, the narrator receives a
message that Bledsoe wants to speak with him
in Norton’s room. He arrives to find only Mr.
Norton, however, who informs him that
Bledsoe had to leave suddenly but that the
narrator can find him in his office after the
evening service.
• Norton says that he explained to Bledsoe that
the narrator was not responsible for what
happened and adds that he thinks that Bledsoe
understands.
“Now even the rows of neat dormitories seemed to threaten
me, the rolling lawns appearing as hostile as the gray highway
with its white dividing line” (Ellison,99).
 The narrator never dares to cross the white dividing lines
on the highway, which represents the control of the white
people in the narrator’s life. He strictly adheres to this line
without question or suspicion.
 The car is another symbolic element, symbolizing power.
Although the narrator is driving, he is not in control and the
car he is driving is not his own. The only power the narrator
has is that which Mr. Norton grants him. In reality, Norton is
in control and the narrator is being driven to fulfill the desires
of Norton. This reoccurs throughout the novel as he is under
the illusion that he is driving his own life, but in reality
someone is dictating his fate.
 The narrator asks, "Will you need me this evening, sir?" and
Norton responds, "No, I won't be needing the machine.”
References to machinery is evident in this conversation, which
was first mentioned in Chapter 3. Mechanics symbolizes the
way Blacks were presented as inhuman and simply a means to
an end. They were looked down upon as uneducated and
incapable of making their own decisions and contributing to
society, a racial stigma that followed the narrator throughout
the novel.

 Our brains
 Ellison, Ralph. Invisible man. 2nd Vintage International ed.
New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print.
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 http://www.shmoop.com/invisible-man-ellison/summary.html