Themes, Motifs, and Symbols in Invisible Man
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Racism as an Obstacle to Individual Identity
As the narrator of Invisible Man struggles to arrive at a conception of his own identity, he finds his
efforts complicated by the fact that he is a black man living in a racist American society. Throughout
the novel, the narrator finds himself passing through a series of communities, from the Liberty Paints
plant to the Brotherhood, with each microcosm endorsing a different idea of how blacks should behave
in society. As the narrator attempts to define himself through the values and expectations imposed on
him, he finds that, in each case, the prescribed role limits his complexity as an individual and forces
him to play an inauthentic part.
Upon arriving in New York, the narrator enters the world of the Liberty Paints plant, which achieves
financial success by subverting blackness in the service of a brighter white. There, the narrator finds
himself involved in a process in which white depends heavily on black—both in terms of the mixing of
the paint tones and in terms of the racial makeup of the workforce. Yet the factory denies this
dependence in the final presentation of its product, and the narrator, as a black man, ends up stifled.
Later, when the narrator joins the Brotherhood, he believes that he can fight for racial equality by
working within the ideology of the organization, but he then finds that the Brotherhood seeks to use
him as a token black man in its abstract project.
Ultimately, the narrator realizes that the racial prejudice of others causes them to see him only as they
want to see him, and their limitations of vision in turn place limitations on his ability to act. He
concludes that he is invisible, in the sense that the world is filled with blind people who cannot or will
not see his real nature. Correspondingly, he remains unable to act according to his own personality and
becomes literally unable to be himself. Although the narrator initially embraces his invisibility in an
attempt to throw off the limiting nature of stereotype, in the end he finds this tactic too passive. He
determines to emerge from his underground “hibernation,” to make his own contributions to society as
a complex individual. He will attempt to exert his power on the world outside of society’s system of
prescribed roles. By making proactive contributions to society, he will force others to acknowledge
him, to acknowledge the existence of beliefs and behaviors outside of their prejudiced expectations.
The Limitations of Ideology
Over the course of the novel, the narrator realizes that the complexity of his inner self is limited not
only by people’s racism but also by their more general ideologies. He finds that the ideologies
advanced by institutions prove too simplistic and one-dimensional to serve something as complex and
multidimensional as human identity. The novel contains many examples of ideology, from the tamer,
ingratiating ideology of Booker T. Washington subscribed to at the narrator’s college to the more
violent, separatist ideology voiced by Ras the Exhorter. But the text makes its point most strongly in its
discussion of the Brotherhood. Among the Brotherhood, the narrator is taught an ideology that
promises to save “the people,” though, in reality, it consistently limits and betrays the freedom of the
individual. The novel implies that life is too rich, too various, and too unpredictable to be bound up
neatly in an ideology; like jazz, of which the narrator is particularly fond, life reaches the heights of its
beauty during moments of improvisation and surprise.
The Danger of Fighting Stereotype with Stereotype
The narrator is not the only African American in the book to have felt the limitations of racist
stereotyping. While he tries to escape the grip of prejudice on an individual level, he encounters other
blacks who attempt to prescribe a defense strategy for all African Americans. Each presents a theory of
the supposed right way to be black in America and tries to outline how blacks should act in accordance
with this theory. The espousers of these theories believe that anyone who acts contrary to their
prescriptions effectively betrays the race. Ultimately, however, the narrator finds that such
prescriptions only counter stereotype with stereotype and replace one limiting role with another.
Early in the novel, the narrator’s grandfather explains his belief that in order to undermine and mock
racism, blacks should exaggerate their servility to whites. The narrator’s college, represented by Dr.
Bledsoe, thinks that blacks can best achieve success by working industriously and adopting the
manners and speech of whites. Ras the Exhorter thinks that blacks should rise up and take their
freedom by destroying whites. Although all of these conceptions arise from within the black
community itself, the novel implies that they ultimately prove as dangerous as white people’s racist
stereotypes. By seeking to define their identity within a race in too limited a way, black figures such as
Bledsoe and Ras aim to empower themselves but ultimately undermine themselves. Instead of
exploring their own identities, as the narrator struggles to do throughout the book, Bledsoe and Ras
consign themselves and their people to formulaic roles. These men consider treacherous anyone who
attempts to act outside their formulae of blackness. But as blacks who seek to restrict and choreograph
the behavior of the black American community as a whole, it is men like these who most profoundly
betray their people.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and
inform the text’s major themes.
Blindness
Probably the most important motif in Invisible Man is that of blindness, which recurs throughout the
novel and generally represents how people willfully avoid seeing and confronting the truth. The
narrator repeatedly notes that people’s inability to see what they wish not to see—their inability to see
that which their prejudice doesn’t allow them to see—has forced him into a life of effective
invisibility. But prejudice against others is not the only kind of blindness in the book. Many figures
also refuse to acknowledge truths about themselves or their communities, and this refusal emerges
consistently in the imagery of blindness. Thus, the boys who fight in the “battle royal” wear blindfolds,
symbolizing their powerlessness to recognize their exploitation at the hands of the white men. The
Founder’s statue at the college has empty eyes, signifying his ideology’s stubborn neglect of racist
realities. Blindness also afflicts Reverend Homer A. Barbee, who romanticizes the Founder, and
Brother Jack, who is revealed to lack an eye—a lack that he has dissimulated by wearing a glass eye.
The narrator himself experiences moments of blindness, such as in Chapter 16 when he addresses the
black community under enormous, blinding lights. In each case, failure of sight corresponds to a lack
of insight.
The protagonist begins by saying, "I am an invisible man."
He says he is invisible because people refuse to see him - they see what they want to see.
He says that sometimes it is an advantage to not be seen.
Because he is invisible, he carries on a fight with the white world not even knowing. Because of
his invisibility, he lives rent-free in the basement of an exclusively white building. He also gets
his electricity for free because he has strung a line into his basement.
He says that irresponsibility is part of his invisibility.
In Chapter Three, the crazy veteran doctor says the protagonist’s greatest asset is his blindness.
In Chapter Four, Bledso is furious that the protagonist let Norton see the truth and tells the
protagonist that they must show the whites only what the blacks want them to see
In Chapter Six, at the chapel the protagonist sees the students' faces as masks. They sing the
songs that the white people want to hear.
There are guest speakers who tell them how fortunate they are to belong to this family sheltered
from those lost in ignorance and darkness.
He sees the white people as acting out the myth of their goodness, and wealth and success and
power, and benevolence and authority in cardboard masks.
The white man founded the college and controls their lives. The Negro must accept what the
white man dictates.
A white speaker says that after emancipation there was darkness and sorrow. Then a prophet
came - a slave - the son of slaves - the slave had intelligence and a princely personality. This black
man learned by shrewdly questioning his young masters. Later he escaped slavery and made his
way to a place of learning where he worked to put himself through school. He became a brilliant
orator and returned. Then his struggle began because it was a time of darkness when whites and
blacks were afraid of each other. Everybody wondered how to end this fear and darkness and the
founder had the answer. He dreamed of a college for blacks. The founder was a man of humility
and of great patience - like Aristotle- he was a great captain and lead his people out of ignorance.
His enemies plotted to kill him but he escaped.
The speaker plays on the audiences emotions by using the analogy of the black people moving
out of slavery. The speaker is a co founder of the college.
The speaker is Reverend Barbee, and he is literally blind.
Bledsoe tells P that white folks are always giving orders. He should have lied. The only way to
please a white man is to lie. P has endangered the school. Bledsoe yells at P and calls him a
Nigger.
Bledsoe gives him seven sealed letters - he is not to open them. The letters are addressed to men
with impressive names.
He sees the letters from Bledsoe as his trump card - it would not be right to open them.
He plans a schedule - he will meet important men. He imagines himself achieving great things. If
Bledsoe could do it, he can do it.
The young man asks the protagonist if he has read the letter to Emerson. The man tells P that
ambition can be a wonderful force but that it can also blind one to realities.
In Chapter 22, Brother Jack declares himself as the Brotherhood's leader. The protagonist says
shouldn't they call him Marse Jack. Brother Jack flies into a tirade over this comment and gets so
angry his glass eye flies out and lands in a glass. He screams that P must accept discipline or get
out. Jack says he lost his eye in the line of duty - he was able to appreciate sacrifice. Jack says that
discipline is sacrifice. The protagonist now knows that Brother Jack is blind to the truth. He sees
Jack for the first time.
Invisibility
Because he has decided that the world is full of blind men and sleepwalkers who cannot see him for
what he is, the narrator describes himself as an “invisible man.” The motif of invisibility pervades the
novel, often manifesting itself hand in hand with the motif of blindness—one person becomes invisible
because another is blind. While the novel almost always portrays blindness in a negative light, it treats
invisibility much more ambiguously. Invisibility can bring disempowerment, but it can also bring
freedom and mobility. Indeed, it is the freedom the narrator derives from his anonymity that enables
him to tell his story. Moreover, both the veteran at the Golden Day and the narrator’s grandfather seem
to endorse invisibility as a position from which one may safely exert power over others, or at least
undermine others’ power, without being caught. The narrator demonstrates this power in the Prologue,
when he literally draws upon electrical power from his hiding place underground; the electric company
is aware of its losses but cannot locate their source. At the end of the novel, however, the narrator has
decided that while invisibility may bring safety, actions undertaken in secrecy cannot ultimately have
any meaningful impact. One may undermine one’s enemies from a position of invisibility, but one
cannot make significant changes to the world. Accordingly, in the Epilogue the narrator decides to
emerge from his hibernation, resolved to face society and make a visible difference.
Symbols
The Coin Bank and the Sambo Doll
The coin bank and the Sambo dolls both show how the white man is still in control of the black man.
Both objects relate back to the “battle royal” which occurred in the beginning of the novel. When the
coins were thrown onto the electric rug, the black men ran directly to the rug scavenging for every coin
they could obtain. Like the coin bank, the blacks wait for the white man to feed money to them. The
Sambo doll is a puppet and follows every which way the white man leads by the string attached to it.
During the battle, whenever the men standing around the rink would encourage the narrator or other
participants on they did just as the white man said; constantly looking for praise and approval. The
Sambo dolls represent how the black man is still manipulated by the white man.
The coin bank and the Sambo dolls both represent the stereotype in which the narrator is trying to
escape from, but instead keeps running into. After seeing the coin bank the narrator quickly smashed
the bank apart, but cannot get rid of the pieces, so has to hold on to them in his briefcase. The idea that
the narrator cannot get rid of the coin bank represents that he is still holding on or conforming to the
stereotype of the black man. Later in the novel after not being invited to attend one of the Brotherhood
meetings, the narrator runs into his friend Clifton selling Sambo dolls on the street. Here again the
narrator is running into the stereotype he is supposed to be running away from. The author is controlled
by the Brotherhood and conforms his speeches to fit the mold in which the Brotherhood desires them
to be represented in. The stereotype is the mold in which the narrators grandfather warned him about
him fitting into; the black man conforming to the white mans ways. It is a stereotype the narrator does
not like, but one which he falls right in step with.
The Sambo dolls also bring the grandfather's words to light from the beginning of the novel. "I want
you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em
swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open" (16). The doll represents the exact lazy obedient slave
mentality the old grandfather was saying on his deathbed. A few short moments after the dolls are
being hawked Clifton is gunned down by police. This killing represents the failed message the narrator
was given by his grandfather in the beginning of the novel.
Another instance of the doll is referred to in chapter eleven when our nameless narrator finds himself
in the factory hospital. He is the black man on the strings representing the Sambo doll sitting in the
hospital bed/box. His doctors are administering electric shock therapy via wires connected to his body.
"Look, he's dancing, someone called" followed by "They really do have rhythm, don't they? Get hot,
boy! Get hot! It said with a laugh" (237). The hospital event happens earlier in the book than the actual
doll encounter with Clifton. The message is the same: White Americans are controlling blacks to do
what they want when they want.
The initial encounter with Clifton and the Sambo dolls represent a powerful form of symbolism. This
symbolism is also the first time the narrator feels the Brotherhood has cheated him. While starring at
the doll the narrator decides upon the funeral for brother Clifton. The narrator openly chooses to defy
the Brotherhood by holding a funeral service for Clifton. This service attempts to prevent Clifton from
slipping into invisibility while allowing our protagonist to act individually for the first time. The
Brotherhood's rejection of the massive anger built up by the death of Clifton shows the new
international focus of the Brotherhood, effectively destroying their Harlem resistance branch. The
Sambo doll represents the turning point for the narrator as he slowly accepts his new life of invisibility.
The coin bank in the shape of the grinning black man (Chapter 15) and Tod Clifton’s dancing Sambo
doll (Chapter 20) serve similar purposes in the novel, each representing degrading black stereotypes
and the damaging power of prejudice. The coin bank, which portrays a grinning slave who eats coins,
embodies the idea of the good slave who fawns over white men for trivial rewards. This stereotype
literally follows the narrator, for even after he has smashed the bank and attempted to discard the
pieces, various characters return to him the paper in which the pieces are wrapped. Additionally, the
statue’s hasty swallowing of coins mirrors the behavior of the black youths in the “battle royal” of
Chapter 1, as they scramble to collect the coins on the electrified carpet, reinforcing the white
stereotype of blacks as servile and humble.
The Sambo doll is made in the image of the Sambo slave, who, according to white stereotype, acts lazy
yet obsequious. Moreover, as a dancing doll, it represents the negative stereotype of the black
entertainer who laughs and sings for whites. While the coin bank illustrates the power of stereotype to
follow a person in his or her every movement, the Sambo doll illustrates stereotype’s power to control
a person’s movements altogether. Stereotype and prejudice, like the invisible strings by which the doll
is made to move, often determine and manipulate the range of action of which a person is capable.
Dreams
One day he asks to bum a smoke and a guy gives him a reefer. When he smokes it he imagines
some strange things - he thinks in new terms.
He sees a beautiful white girl being sold as a slave. He talks to a slave woman who hates and
loves her master. She has several sons by her master. Her master promised to set them free, but
he never did. Still she loved him. But she loved freedom more.
He asks the woman what freedom is and she tells him that she forgot. She thinks it's one thing.
Then she thinks it is another thing.
The whites are lost in a dream world that they control. The blacks are seen as the offending ones.
In Chapter 25, he dreams that he is in a prison. He says he is done with their illusions and their
lies. He is done running. He dreams Jack and the others cut off his testicles and throw them up
over a bridge. They ask him how does it feel to be free of illusions and he answers that it is
painful and empty.
Black – Dark
In Chapter 14, the others in the Brotherhood tell Emma about his leadership abilities - she
comments that he should be a little blacker.
In Chapter 15, we see the perception that whites have of blacks as being inferior and deceitful
when the protagonist tries to dispose of the black bank that he broke. He put the broken bank
and coins into his briefcase. He tosses the package into a row of garbage cans behind a group of
private houses. An elderly white woman sees him and threatens to call the cops unless he takes
the package out. She says they do not want Southern Niggers making things dirty. He says what
does it matter - garbage is garbage. He takes the package because he does not want to call
attention to himself.
He walks down the street and drops the package in the snow. A man retrieves it and asks if he
dropped something.When P denies it, the man says the package is either money or a gun and
accuses P of being a dope peddler.
In Chapter 16, the protagonist gives a speech for a meeting of the Brotherhood. He begins his
speech. He says the blacks are common but uncommon. They have broken and deprived. He says
they have allowed the white man to deprive and beat them. The whites have tried to dispossess
the blacks.
In Chapter 25, during the riot, a mounted policeman chases him. The cops are chasing him and he
falls through an uncovered manhole. He lands on top of a load of coal. The cops laugh about the
nigger in the coal pile. They get angry because they cannot see him against the coal. The put the
cover on the manhole. He tells himself this is the way it has always been. He decides he will rest
for now and remove the cover in the morning. To his horror he wakes up in total darkness and
cannot find a way out. He cannot find the usual ladder on the side of the manhole. He realizes he
needs to make a torch in order to find his way out. He only has three matches and the papers in
his briefcase to burn.
White – Purity – Light
In the prologue the protagonist states that he loves light. Light confirms his reality
The crazy veteran doctor tells the protagonist that he believes in the false wisdom that white is
right.
In Chapter Four, when he fears that he will get expelled: Tears fill his eyes and he sees the
campus as if it is winter and rain has frozen over everything, " ...turned the campus into a world
of whiteness, weighing and bending both trees and bushes with fruits of crystal. Then in the
twinkling of my eyes, it was gone, and the here and now of heat and greenness returned."
In Chapter 10 he gets a job in a paint plant is in Long Island. He is sent to work for a Mr. Kimbro.
It is a huge plant- there best selling paint is white paint – they do a lot of paint for the
government. Their best selling paint is called Optic White.
In Chapter 13, he walks the streets and sees an add for an ointment guaranteed to whiten black
skin. Whiter skin will make them beautiful and happier.
Sexuality – blacks are stereotyped as sexual creatures
In the Battle Royal in Chapter One there are nine other blacks invited beside him. The whites
humiliate them. They are crowed into a servant's elevator to be brought up to the gathering.
They are then given boxing gloves and lead into place. A naked blonde dances for them and they
become sexually aroused but are forbidden to touch her. The whites yell at them for looking at
the blonde and for not looking at the blonde.
In Chapter Two the protagonist and Norton come upon shacks. It is the cabin of a poor
sharecropper. The shacks have survived since slavery times. They see an older woman and a
young woman hanging up wash - both are pregnant. The white family that once owned the
plantation now lives in town.
The women are mother and daughter - the word is that the father got the girl pregnant.
Norton asks if anyone from the college has investigated this.
Norton is intrigued and gets out and talked to the farmer - named Trueblood. Trueblood tells
Norton about how it all happened. They are poor and it was cold and he and his wife and his
daughter all had to sleep in the same bed. He was dreaming and he had sex with her. The mother
woke up and caught him and did not believe the dream thing - she tried to kill the old man.
Since the story has gotten out, many white people have given them money, things, and work. He
now has it better than he has ever had it. The whites love the fact that Trueblood has confirmed
their sexual stereotype of blacks. In contrast the black community is ashamed and wants
Trueblood to leave.
In Chapter 19, the protagonist is makes love to a white woman. He then thinks that he sees her
husband in the hallway. The protagonist feels like a fool and slips out while the woman is still
asleep. He wonders if he really did see a man in the hallway. He wonders if the man saw him. He
wonders why sex is always brought into race relations.
The protagonist is now certain that he saw the man and that the man is an important figure in
the Brotherhood but he can not place the man.He is worried about the consequences of his
having sex with the woman. He rings her and she asks him to return.
In Chapter 24, he decides against using Emma for information because she is Jack's mistress. He
decides to pump a broad named Sybil. Sybil is unhappy and one of the big shot's wives. He
arranges to meet her the next night at his apartment. He bungles it - he makes the drinks too
strong, brings in politics too early. He realizes that she has no idea about her husband's political
maneuverings. He realizes she has no information he can use and wants to get her out of his
apartment. Sybil will not leave. She has this perverse fantasy about being raped by a Blackman
and she begs him to rape her. He tells her to tell him about her husband's ideas for social change.
She hasn't a clue.
The Grandfather – the way that blacks relate to whites
His grandfather was an odd man. He told P that after he is gone, P should keep up the fight. He
says the black man's life is a war.
His grandfather says, "I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree
'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.
His grandfather's words caused his parents anxiety and he was told to forget what GF said.
He carried on his grandfather's advice and everyone loved him for it. He was praised by white
men. He was considered an example of desirable conduct. He yeses Whitey to death and is
puzzled by the old man's words.
Food
He enters a restaurant and when the white chef tells him of the special, which is something that
Southern Blacks usually likes, he refuses to order it. He sees his refusal as a sign of discipline and
change - he is determined to return to college more experienced. When he leaves the restaurant,
he sees a blond haired white man eating the special.
He is hit with nostalgia when he sees a man selling yams. This time he does not deny his heritage
like he did in the restaurant. Instead, he buys and eats three yams. He tells the vendor that the
yams look good - the vendor tells him everything that looks good is not necessarily good.
He enjoys the yams and thinks why should blacks be embarrassed by what they like. He is no
longer going to be ashamed by what he likes. He had accepted the accepted attitudes, and it had
made life simple.