Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
About the Author
• Ralph Ellison, 1914-1994
About the Author
• Ralph Waldo Ellison was born on March 1,
1914, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. From
his birth, Ellison’s parents knew he was
bound for prosperity. His father even
named him for the great writer Ralph
Waldo Emerson in an effort to ensure such
success. As Ellison himself says in
reference to his parents, “no matter what
their lives had been, their children's lives
would be lives of possibility.”
About the Author
• Mrs. Ellison, a maid, would bring home
books, magazines, and record albums
that had been discarded in the homes
she cleaned. Ralph and his brother,
Herbert, were supplied with chemistry
sets, toy typewriters, and a rolltop desk
so that they would have the tools to
succeed.
About the Author
• When he was a teenager, Ellison and his
friends daydreamed of being “Renaissance
Men.” Therefore, they studied the values
and attitudes of Native Americans and
whites, as well as blacks. Ellison admired
the musicians of his area. At Douglas High
School, Ellison followed his inclination
toward music. In 1933 Ellison received a
scholarship to study music and music theory
at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where
he began reading modern fiction and poetry
and writing his own poetry.
About the Author
• He traveled to New York in 1936, during
the Great Depression, to work for the
summer as a musician in order to pay for
his last year of school. Arriving in New
York, Ellison found it difficult to find work
and even harder to find work as a
musician. The result was a succession of
odd jobs at Harlem’s YMCA with a
psychiatrist. There Ellison acted as a file
clerk and a receptionist, and held various
other jobs around town.
About the Author
• During this time, Ellison met the writer
Richard Wright, who encouraged him to be
a writer rather than a musician. With
Wright's encouragement, Ellison began
writing reviews and short stories. Wright
also helped him get a job working on the
New Deal's Federal Writer's Project, which
enabled him to research and write about
the lives of African Americans.
About the Author
•
•
•
•
Major Works：
Invisible Man
Shadow and Act
Going to the Territory
• Careers/Jobs
• waiter --- freelance photographer --file clerk --- receptionist ---musician --book reviewer --- U.S. Merchant Mariner
水手--- editor for Negro Quarterly --college professor --- writer
Invisible Man
• Invisible Man is a milestone in
American literature, a book that has
continued to engage readers since its
appearance in 1952. A first novel by an
unknown writer, it remained on the
bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won
the National Book Award for fiction, and
established Ralph Ellison as one of the
key writers of the century.
Invisible Man
•
The nameless narrator of the novel
describes growing up in a black
community in the South, attending a
Negro college from which he is expelled,
moving to New York and becoming the
chief spokesman of the Harlem branch
of "the Brotherhood", and retreating
amid violence and confusion to the
basement lair窝of the Invisible Man he
imagines himself to be.
A Brief Introduction to Invisible Man
• Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is the story of
a young black man whose name the
reader never learns. He is a young man
from the South who is haunted by his
grandfather's deathbed warning against
conforming to the wishes of white people
because the young man sees that as the
way to be successful.
A Brief Introduction to Invisible Man
• The narrator's first real glimpse at the cruel
manipulation of white people comes when he is
invited to the local men's club to read the speech
he prepared for his high school graduation. He
gives the speech and is rewarded with a
briefcase and a scholarship to a black college,
but only after he endures the humiliation of
performing for the white men there. He and
several black boys are forced to box each other
and then scramble around a rug pulsing with
electric current to grab coins while the white men
laugh at their pain.
A Brief Introduction to Invisible Man
• The narrator goes off to college and determines to model
himself after Dr. Bledsoe, the college's dean and a
successful black man who is well respected in his
community and his field. Unfortunately, the narrator makes
a dreadful mistake when he is chauffeuring Mr. Norton, a
wealthy white man who a great deal of money to the
college. He inadvertently reveals the seedier side of the
black race by allowing the man to stop and speak with Joe
Trueblood, a poor, black man ostracized from the black
community because he got his own daughter pregnant.
After the upsetting encounter with Trueblood, the white
man is feeling weak and needs a drink, so the young man
takes him to the closest place he can think of, the local
black bar and brothel. After a disastrous encounter with a
mentally altered war veteran, the narrator takes Mr. Norton
back to campus.
A Brief Introduction to Invisible Man
• Dr. Bledsoe is so furious with the
narrator's indiscretion and stupidity that he
expels him. Dr. Bledsoe offers him some
hope, however, by offering to write him
several letters of recommendation to
deliver to the school's trustees in New York.
The dean tells the young man that if he
makes enough money for tuition, he can
come back to school.
A Brief Introduction to Invisible Man
• The young man sets out for the city unaware
that the letters of recommendation are really a
hoax just to get him quietly away from the school.
Once he finds out about the letters, he is so
broke that he takes a job in a paint factory where
he has an accident. He wakes up in the factory
hospital where they are doing painful
experiments on him that leave him disoriented.
He recovers somewhat and is released only to
dump a spittoon on some man whom he
mistakes for Dr. Bledsoe at his boarding house.
A Brief Introduction to Invisible Man
• After that incident, he moves into a room in a
kindly woman's apartment and stays there
without a job until he gets caught up with the
Communist party. They give him a position as a
speaker in Harlem and he works with them until
he becomes so disillusioned by their politics and
betrayal that he gets caught up in a riot in
Harlem and falls into a manhole. He builds
himself a room in the cellar of an all-white
building and hibernates there contemplating his
relationship to reality and the invisibility he feels
is caused by his race.
A Brief Introduction to Invisible Man
• He lives in that hole until he runs into Mr.
Norton one day in the subway and realizes
that he will no longer conform to white
expectations of him. Instead, he will
reclaim his humanity by being who he is
and no longer struggling to change that.
Theme of Invisible Man
• In Invisible Man, Ellison depicts a black individual
searching for his identity or place in society. For
example, when the young black men are in the
Battle Royal, they are forced to watch a nude white
woman dance. The white observers abuse these
young black men for not watching and also abuse
them for watching. These black fellows do not
know how they are expected to behave; therefore,
they do not know their place in society. Ellison has
the characters in this novel deal with the problem of
incest乱伦, which is not a racial problem, but a
social problem.
Invisible Man
• The beginning is nightmare. A Negro boy, timid
and compliant顺从的, comes to a white smoker in
a Southern town: he is to be awarded a
scholarship. Together with several other Negroes
he is rushed to the front of the ballroom, where a
sumptuous blonde tantalizes and frightens them
by dancing in the nude. Blindfolded, the Negro
boys stage a "battle royal," a free-for-all in which
they pummel用拳头打each other to the drunken
shouts of the whites. "Practical jokes," humiliations,
terrors--and then the boy delivers a prepared
speech of gratitude to his white benefactors恩人
Invisible Man
In an interview, Ellison explained how folklore
rituals influenced his work, and he discussed
adapting myth and ritual into his writing. He said,
“The rituals become social forms, and it is one of
the functions of the artist to recognize them and
raise them to the level of art…Take the “Battle
Royal” passage in my novel, where the boys are
blindfolded and forced to fight each other for the
amusement of the white observers. This is a vital
part of behavior pattern in the South, which both
Negroes and whites thoughtlessly accept…The
patterns were already there in society, so that all
I had to do was present them in a broader
context of meaning.
About the Battle Royal
What is the historical reality of the battle royal? Why does
Ellison choose it to explore the racial structure of the
American South and establish the theme of invisibility?
A battle royal is a fight involving several or many
contestants; a disorganized, violent fight. As a form of
sport, the battle royal can be traced to as early as the
ancient Roman times. This term was used to describe a
specific type of spectacle in which several gladiators（格
斗者） were matched in fighting. The sports decreased
over the years. They became commonplace attractions
again with the resurging of boxing in 19th century
America.
About the Battle Royal
Battle royals were usually fought among black
fighters. These events often took place before
formal fights started. The winner would collect
a few coins tossed to him by the spectators at
the conclusion of the fight. In the American
South, the battle royal was a ritual and used to
be benignly/kindly fought among Negro kids
themselves. But when the racial thing entered,
and when the notion of white superiority was
introduced, the battle royal was twisted into
sth else.
Battle Royal
Symbolism
•
Symbolism is a tool Ellison uses often in
his writing. For example, in Invisible Man,
the blindfold symbolizes man's inability to
see who he is within society and the reality
of society. Another example could be the
contrast between light and dark.. Light can
symbolize understanding as well as the
"good" of society, whereas dark can
symbolize confusion and the "lower scale"
of society.
Structure of the Text
• Part I Paras1-3
historical background against which the
story took place
• Part II Paras 4-90
battle royal and narrator’s speech
• Part III Paras 91-94
It took him a long time to know who he
was and where he should go
Invisible Man (Para 1)
•
•
•
•
Detailed study of the text
Para. 1
What is the function of Paragraph 1?
From this opening paragraph we readers can
learn a number of important things:
• 1)By saying “It goes a long way back, some
twenty years,” the author tells us that the
story took place in the past. This is a
common way of telling a story: the narrator
has reached a certain stage of his/her life
when he/she deems it necessary to look back
at a past event that was meaningful to
him/her.
Invisible Man (Para 1)
• What is the function of Paragraph 1?
• 2)The “I” here is the narrator, not the author,
and the author is using the first-person
narration in telling the story. As we read on,
we will find this narrator is also the main
character, the protagonist, of the story. The
immediate and compelling quality of the firstperson narration enables the reader to follow
the action of the story closely as if it were
taking place before his eyes. The first-person
narration can also allow the reader to know
what is going on in the mind of the narrator.
Invisible Man (Para 1)
• What is the function of Paragraph 1?
• 3)Words like “I was looking for myself” and “I
am nobody but myself” point out the central
theme of the novel—searching for self-identity.
The narrator was probably asking himself
questions like “Who am I?” “What do I want?”
“Where did I come from and where am I
going?” in order to find his own identity as an
individual. The theme of a story is the central
and dominating idea, the general meaning of a
story, or the insight the entire story reveals.
Invisible Man (Para 1)
• 2.It took me a long time and much painful
boomeranging…but myself.
1)It took me a long time to get rid of
illusions and realize the simple and
apparent truth that I am nobody but
myself. It was a painful process. I started
with high expectations only to be deeply
disappointed and thoroughly disillusioned.
我花了很长时间，兜了许多痛苦的圈子，才明白别
人生来就明白的一个道理：----。 但首先我得发
现我是一个隐形人。
2)boomeranging:See Note 2 to the text. A
boomerang is a curved stick from Australia
that flies in a circle and comes back to you
when you throw it. Here it is used
metaphorically, implying that the narrator
moved in a circle and came back to where
he had started. This idea of circling is also
expressed in the Prologue where the
narrator says “the end is in the beginning.”
Invisible Man (Para 1)
• 3.But first I had to discovered that I am
an invisible man: Invisible Man is the
title of the novel, and invisibility is one of
the central motifs of this work. The word
“invisible” is used figuratively, meaning
not being recognized by society. To
discover that I am an invisible man is
the first step towards realizing who I am.
The battle royal scene establishes
invisibility as a major symbol of the
novel.
Invisible Man (Para 2)
• Para. 2
• 4.What is Paragraph 2 about?
This paragraph tells us a bit about the
historical background against which the
story took place. It also introduces a new
character—the narrator’s grandfather.
On his deathbed, he said sth that
alarmed and puzzled the whole family.
Invisible Man (Para 2)
• 5.And yet I am no freak of nature, nor of
history.
1） “no freak of nature” ： I am perfectly
normal physically. I am not a variation
species. “Nor of history” : I am a natural
product of history; my growth reflects history.
2)This sentence is closely connected with the
above sentence that “I am an invisible man”.
The implied meaning is that I am invisible or
people can’t see me, but this is not saying I
Invisible Man (Para 2)
• 6.I was in the cards, other things having been
equal (or unequal) eighty-five years ago.
1)Be in the cards (American English), be on the
cards (British English): to seem likely to
happen, e.g. Another resignation could be on
(in) the cards.
2)when things seemed likely to happen to me,
or when I was fated to be the man as
described in the novel, other things had been
equal (or unequal) 85 years ago.
Invisible Man (Para 2)
As the novel Invisible Man was published in 1952, 85 years
ago refer to the end of the Civil War, specifically the
beginning of the Reconstruction period in which so much
hope for the fulfillment of democracy’s promises were
perverted, violated, denied (See Note 12). The Civil War
was pursued at first to preserve the Union, but turned into
a crusade for the total abolition of slavery. Before the end
of 1865 all but two states had voted for emancipation.
Ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December
1865 ended the remnants of slavery in Delaware and
Kentucky. In theory, the blacks were equal with the whites,
but in reality, they were far from being equal. The narrator
puts the words “or unequal” in brackets as if he were
mentioning this important fact in passing(顺便).
Invisible Man (Para 2)
• 7….united with others of our country in
everything…like the fingers of the hand.
In every social, separate like the fingers of
the hand: A simile is used. The
relationship between black and white is
like fingers of the hand, implying that in
social life the blacks and the whites are
separated, though they are united in all
things essential to the common interests.
In other words, social inequality is
accepted as a fact with which the blacks
will live.在社会生活的各个方面，（黑人和
白人）可以像一只手上的手指那样分开。
Invisible Man (Para 2)
• 8.I have been a traitor …even since I give up my gun
back in the Reconstruction.
1)I have been a traitor and a spy in the white-ruled
society ever since I surrendered in the
Reconstruction.
Note the ironic tone of these words.
2)To understand the grandfather’s words, it is
necessary for us to know sth about the role of the
black people during the Reconstruction period. In
1867, Congress enacted(颁布) the Reconstruction
Act(重建法案), and the Southern States were
readmitted to the Union. The Fifteenth Amendment
guaranteed the Negro’s right to vote.
Invisible Man (Para 2)
• 8.I have been a traitor …even since I give up my gun
back in the Reconstruction.
The new governments in the South, led by radical
whites and freedmen, attempted to deal
constructively with the problems left by the Civil War
and the abolition of slavery.
They began to rebuild the Southern economy and
society. Agricultural production was restored, roads
rebuilt, a more equitable tax system adopted and
schooling extended to Negroes and poor whites.
Invisible Man (Para 2)
The freedmen’s civil and political rights were guaranteed,
and Negroes were able to participate in the political
and economic life of the South as full citizens for the
first time. However, most Southern whites objected
strongly to the Negro’s new role in society.
Organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan arose. Their
acts of violence kept Negroes and white republicans
from voting, and gradually the radical Republican
governments were overthrown. Reconstruction
collapsed. White rules was restored, the Negro was
once again deprived of many civil and political rights,
and his economic position remained depressed.
Apparently, the grandfather was one of the freed
slaves actively involved in the Reconstruction.
Invisible Man (Para 2)
• 9.Live with your head in the lion’s
mouth…or bust wide open.
• 1) 你要在虎口里求生，我要你对他们唯
唯诺诺、笑脸相迎，只有让他们丧失警
惕，才能战胜他们。你要对他们百依百
顺，叫他们彻底完蛋。让他们吞掉你们
吧，直到撑得他们呕吐，肚子破裂。
2)Live with your head in the lion’s mouth:
be always on your guard and try to
survive in dangerous environment.
Invisible Man (Para 2)
• 10.It sputtered on the wick like the old
man’s breathing: a simile making the
description more vivid than plain words.
灯捻上的火苗发出扑扑的声音，犹如老
人的呼吸声。
Invisible Man (Para 3)
• 11.What is the main idea of Paragraph 3?
This paragraph is about the tremendous effect
of the grandfather’s words upon the narrator.
Those words became a constant puzzle for
him. As the old man said these words
ironically, the boy couldn’t understand him.
Although the grandfather did not appear in the
battle royal scene or any other events in the
rest of the book, his words haunted the
narrator at every important moment in his life.
Please note the grandfather's appearance in
the narrator’s dream at the end of Chapter 1.
Invisible Man (Para 3)
• 12.But my folks were alarmed over his
last words than over his dying:
The reason is explained in the following
sentence. His words caused so much
anxiety that the narrator was urged to
forget what he said. All his life the old
man had to pretend before the white
masters. Only on his deathbed did he
dare to tell the truth about the black
people’s position and role in society. His
words were true but alarming.
Invisible Man (Para 3)
• 13.It had a tremendous effect upon me…
Why and how did the grandfather’s words have
such a great impact on the narrator?
1st, the narrator could never be sure of what his
grandfather meant. The old man had been meek
and obedient all his life, yet he called himself a
traitor and a spy and spoke of his meekness as a
dangerous activity. So his words were like a
constant puzzle without an answer.
Invisible Man (Para 3)
• 13.It had a tremendous effect upon me…
Why and how did the grandfather’s words have
such a great impact on the narrator?
2nd, whenever things went well for him, instead of
feeling satisfied and happy, he felt guilty and
uncomfortable because he was reminded of his
grandfather’s last words. He was considered an
example of desirable conduct, but according to
his grandfather, he was undermining the whites
with submissiveness and humility. In a word, he
was guilty of treachery like his grandfather. He
was afraid that someday the whites would see
through him, and then he would be lost.
Invisible Man (Para 3)
What role did the grandfather play in the
story?
1) He was the narrator’s ancestor（root).
Ancestors are not just parents, they
are sort of timeless people whose
relationships to the characters are
benevolent, instructive, and protective,
and they provide a certain kind of
wisdom.
2) Conflict
3) Similarity between grandfather and me
Invisible Man (Para 3)
• 14.When I was praised for my
conduct…because they didn’t like that at all:
If they acted as desired by the white men,
they were undermining them with their
submission. That, of course, was against
the wishes of the white men. Someday the
whites would discover the truth and that
would ruin them. But if they acted any other
way, trying to be sulky and mean, the white
men certainly would not like that at all.
Invisible Man (Para 3)
• 14.When I was praised for my
conduct…because they didn’t like that at all:
• What the narrator said reflected the
dilemma in which the blacks found
themselves. As a result, the blacks would
suffer. Many blacks didn’t see the situation
as clearly as the narrator who had heard
and remembered what his grandfather said
on his deathbed. That is why he was more
mentally tormented than the other blacks.
Invisible Man (Para 3)
• 15.Note that I believe this-how could I…I
only believed it worked: As I remembered
my grandfather’s words about overcoming
the whites with submission and humility, it
was impossible for me to believe any more
that humility was the secret and essence
of progress. I only believed that humility
worked, able to help you get what you
wanted.
Invisible Man (Para 3)
• 16.On my graduation day I delivered an
oration…for our whole community: These few
sentences at the end of Paragraph 3 serve as
a transition to Paragraph 4. The part from
Paragraph 4 to Paragraph 90 is a detailed
description of the battle royal incident.
• 17.It was a triumph for our whole community:
It was a great success and the whole
community felt happy and proud of me. Here
the word “triumph” is used to imply exultation
or joy over a victory or achievement.
Invisible Man (Para. 4)
• 18. What is the function of Paragraph 4?
It tells us about the setting of the battle royal.
The setting is a necessary element of a story.
From this paragraph we learn that the
narrator was to give his speech at a smoker
in a leading hotel in the town. The time is
round 1950, the place is a hotel in a Southern
town, and the occasion is a gathering of the
leading white men of the town. Bearing these
in mind will help us readers understand why
things happened that way and what was the
meaning of all this.
Invisible Man (Para 5)
• 19.What is Paragraph 5 about?
Besides giving more details about the place, this
paragraph introduces the people involved in
the incident—the town’s big shots, who were
“wolfing down the buffet food, drinking beer
and whisky and smoking black cigars,” and the
other black boys who were to take part in, who
were “tough guys”. The narrator said that he
had misgivings over these black fellows and
suspected that fighting a battle royal might
detract from the dignity of his speech.
Invisible Man (Para 5)
• 19.What is Paragraph 5 about?
. From the information provided, we infer that the
narrator was totally isolated, not only from the
white people but also from the other black
boys. All these details contribute to building a
confrontational atmosphere in which the
protagonist was to find himself in later on. He
was surrounded by hostile whites and pitied
against nine tough boys. A fierce conflict is
expected to come on soon. A compelling story
usually evolves around conflicts that intensify
as the plot develops until a climax is reached.
Invisible Man (Para 5)
• 20.The fourth side was clear, revealing a
gleaming space of polished floor.
剩下的一边没有拴绳索，这一侧的外面留出一片
擦的光亮的地板。
• 21.In those pre-invisible days I visualized
myself as a potential Booker T. Washington.
In those days before I realized I was an
invisible man, I imagined that I would become
a successful man like Booker T. Washington.
The implied meaning is that after I discovered
who I was, I no longer held that illusion.
Invisible Man(Para.6-9)
• Part II (paras 4 to 98)
The main body of the battle royal incident
is from paragraph 4 to 98. It can be
further divided into 4 subsections: the
naked white girl’s dance; the fight itself;
the grabbling for the prize money; the
narrator’s speech.
Invisible Man(Para.6-9)
• 22.What are Paragraph 6 to 9 about?
Paragraph 6 to 9 form the first subsection
in which the author describes the white
girl’s dance.
Invisible Man(Para.6-9)
• 23.I was shocked to see some of the
most important men of the town quite
tipsy: The narrator was shocked because
normally these leading white men—
bankers, lawyers, judges, doctors,
teachers, and pastors—behaved in such
ways that made people respect them and
look them up as the town’s leading men,
but now the narrator was able to see the
vulgar side of these important men.
Invisible Man (Para 6-9)
• 24.Our bare upper bodies touching and shining
with anticipatory sweat：
我们赤裸着上身蹭在一起，由于期待而流出的汗珠在
闪闪发光。
• 25. We were rushed up to the front of the
ballroom…tobacco and whiskey.
我们被推赶到了舞厅的前头，那里的烟味和酒气更加
刺鼻。
• 26. My teeth chattered, my skin turned to goose
flesh, my knees knocked:
我的牙齿直打战，浑身起鸡皮疙瘩，膝盖也在发抖。
Invisible Man (Para 6-9)
• 27.I wanted at one and the same time…to love her
and murder her. One the one hand, he felt so
embarrassed that he wanted to run away from the
ballroom. On the other hand, he took pity on the
girl and so wanted to protect the naked girl, but at
the same time he wanted to destroy her because
after all she was the immediate cause of their
embarrassment.
• Why did the narrator feel this way? This again
shows that his reaction to the naked dancing girl
was one of great confusion caused by mixed and
conflicting feelings.
Invisible Man (Para 6-9)
Then why did some of the white men threaten
the boys if they didn’t look?
These white men tortured the black boys by
forcing them to look at the naked girl so that
they would see how the boys would react. In
fact they were using the black boys as an
outlet for discharging their morbid feelings.
These two conflicting attitudes of the white
men created an inescapable dilemma for the
black boys.
Invisible Man (Para 6-9)
• 28.slipping and sliding over the polished floor:
Alliteration.在光滑的地板上滑倒了，溜出去了
很远。
• 29.Chairs went crashing, drinks split, as they
ran laughing and howling after her:
他们疯狂地笑着，声嘶力竭地呼喊着，追逐那个
跳舞的姑娘， 好多椅子撞翻了，酒也洒了一
地。
Invisible Man (Para 6-9)
• 30.What is the purpose of the descriptions of
the naked white girl’s dancing? How is this
episode related with the battle royal?
The dancing of the white girl and the battle
royal of the black boys are related in several
ways. First, both were performers staged for
the entertainment of the white men. Like the
black boys, the dancing girl was treated by
the white men merely as an object for
entertainment, a plaything（被玩弄的人）
compared to a kewpie doll.
Invisible Man (Para 6-9)
She was not regarded as a human being with dignity.
In this sense, the dancing girl was invisible. She
realized this somehow. That is why she danced
“with a detached expression on her face”, and the
narrator said that he saw the “terror and disgust in
her eyes, almost like my own terror and that which
I saw in some of the other boys”. It is clear that the
author places the two events together because of
their similarities. What’s more, the episode has a
symbolic meaning. When forced to watch the white
naked dancing girl, the black boys were scolded
and threatened by the white men, whether they
looked at the girl or not. This situation was typical
of the dilemma and confusion in which black
people often found themselves trapped.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 31.Paragraph 10 to 28 form the second
subsection of the battle royal incident,
describing the violent and brutal fight
itself. Please pay attention to the
specific words that make the narration
realistic and vivid.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 32.All ten of us climbed under the
ropes…with broad bands of white cloth.我们
十个人从绳索下钻进场地，让人用白色宽布条
蒙上眼睛
Blindfold: the word has two meanings. Literally
it means to cover the eyes of someone with
cloth or bandage. Figuratively, it means to
hinder the sight or understanding of someone.
The author uses both meanings in this story.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 32.All ten of us climbed under the ropes…with
broad bands of white cloth.
• Note the color of the cloth bands is white. The
author is hinting that it is the white people who
cause the blindness of the blacks, blocking
their vision and keeping them from knowing
the truth. Blindfolding is an important symbol of
the story, implying blindness and invisibility. In
the battle royal, blindfolds were placed on the
fighters’ eyes, making it hard for them to control
their motions. Just as in real life, all kinds of
bondages are placed on the blacks, and
consequently they can’t control their own life
and destiny.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 33.I want you to run across at the bell…I’m
going to get you.铃声一响，你就给我跑过去，
照准他的肚子狠狠地揍。你不打他，我就打
你。
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 34.Yet even then I had been going over my
speech…as bright as flame:
“as bright as flame” is a simile, comparing each
word of his speech to bright flame. When
blindfolded, the narrator was thrown into
darkness, which is a symbol of ignorance. Yet to
him, the words of his speech were as bright as
flame. Note the contrast between dark and light.
As light is often a symbol of hope, what the
narrator meant was the only hope for him to get
out of darkness was his speech. He believed
that if he could give the speech the white men
would recognize his value.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 35.But now I felt a sudden fit of blind terror.
由于眼睛看不见了，我突然感到一阵恐惧。
• 36.I strained to pick up the school
superintendent’s voice…familiar sound.
我竖起耳朵，竭力想听出督学的声音，似乎从
他那稍微熟悉的声音中可以得到一点安全感。
• 37.For those days I was what they called
ginger-colored…like a crisp ginger cookie.
那时，人们称我的皮肤为姜黄色，听那人说话
的狠毒劲儿，似乎要把我当成一块姜汁饼干
放在嘴里嚼碎。
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
1)Ginger-colored: Brown or light brown. That shows
that the narrator had some white blood in him. In
the old South, interracial marriages were strictly
forbidden and illegal. However, it was not
uncommon for white masters to have sex with
slave girls. So it was not strange for some black
children to be brown-colored or ginger-colored.
Although some of these people might look down
upon their own race with darker skin, they
themselves were equally despised by the whites.
2)Like a crisp ginger cookie: here the narrator is
being compared to a cookie. This is one of the
hints of the dehumanization of the black boys.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 38.I could hear voices grunting as with a
terrific effort.
我能听到哼哧哼哧的声音，似乎费了很大的力气
发出来的。
• 39.Para. 19 begins the depiction of
blindfolded fighting. In this short paragraph
several specific verbs are used to describe
the fighting scene.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 40.Para 20 emphasizes the cruelty of the
blood fight. Try to pick out details to illustrate
this.
• 41.My saliva became like hot bitter glue.
simile. 我的唾液变得又热又苦，粘粘糊糊的像
胶水。
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 42.A glove connected with my head, filling my
mouth with warm blood.我的头部猛遭一击，
顿时满口是热乎乎的鲜血。
• 43.I felt myself going over, my head hitting
the floor.
我觉得自己摔倒了，头部撞到了地上。
• 44.Streaks of blue light filled the black world
behind the blindfold.蒙眼布后面的黑暗世界里
闪过一道道蓝光。
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 45.I lay prone, pretending that I was
knocked out…
I lay with the front of my body facing down,
pretending that I was beaten
unconscious and couldn't get up.
• 46.I could see the black, sweat-washed
forms weaving …thuds of blows.
我可以看到黑糊糊的、大汗淋漓的身影在
蓝色的烟雾中穿梭般的移动，就像喝醉
酒的舞者，随着快速鼓点似的击掌声的
节奏左右跳动。
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 47.Para. 21-24 stress the hysterical, chaotic and
anarchic aspect of the fight. The word “Anarchy” has
three meanings: the complete absence of
government(无政府状态)；political disorder and
violence, lawlessness(政治混乱，无法无天)；
disorder in any sphere of activity(混乱状态)。The
last meaning suits the sentence here. If we read the
whole novel, we will find that the protagonist is to
experience a series of events later on, such as riots
in New York streets, which are characterized by
anarchy and commotion. Then we realize that this
battle royal incident may be interpreted as a symbol
for the anarchic conditions of modern life.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 48.No group fought together for long…were
themselves attacked.
没有一伙人能在一起持续打上一阵子的。两人、
三人或四个人对付一个人，不一会儿他们之间
相互打了起来，再不就是自己被人攻击了。
• 49.The boys groped about like blind, cautious
crabs…hypersensitive snails.
小伙子们像瞎眼的螃蟹小心翼翼地摸来摸去，他
们猫着腰，护着腹部，端着肩，缩着脖子。他
们紧张地伸出胳膊，在充满烟雾的空气中试探
性地挥动着拳头，好似高灵敏度的蜗牛伸出一
节节的触角。
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
49. The author likes to use metaphors and similes
in his depiction. In this way, instead of using
many adjectives or adverbs, he helps the
readers form concrete pictures in their minds. In
this sentence, the two similes the author uses
are both connected with animals—crabs and
snails. We may wonder why? First, these
images are more vivid than general adjectives
and adverbs. Also, comparing the black boys to
animals reveals that the white spectators simply
didn’t see the black boys as dignified human
beings, but regarded them as subhuman.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 50….there were no rounds, no bells at
three minute intervals to relieve our
exhaustion.烟呛得人无法忍受，我们混乱
的厮打根本不分回合，更没有隔三分钟摇
铃一次的间歇让我们喘气。
• 51.The room spun round me, a swirl of
lights, smoke, sweating bodies…white
faces.整个大厅都在旋转，灯光、烟雾、被
亢奋的白人围在中间的大汗淋漓的身体，
都在不停地打转。
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 52. Paragraph 25 to 28 describe the final
moment of the fight in which only two fighters
were left in the ring—the narrator and Tatlock,
the biggest of the gang—to slug it out for the
winner’s prize. Tatlock was the winner.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 53.Hardly had the bell stopped ringing in my
years than…toward me.
耳朵里的铃声还没断，第二遍铃声就当的一声响起
来了，只见那大个子迅速超我扑过来。
• 54.He kept coming, bringing the rank sharp
violence of the stale sweat.
他不断朝我扑来，猛烈的进攻和刺鼻的臭汗味混合
在一起。
• 55.A lucky blow to his chin… “I got my money on
the big boy.”
我的一拳正好打在他的下巴上，他倒在地上。这时，
有人大声喊：“我的钱押在那个大个子上。”
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 56.Hearing this, I almost dropped my guard. I
got confused:…
1)What was the narrator confused about?
At this point the narrator was at a loss as to
whether he should try his best to win or he
should show humility by letting the big boy
win. Up to that time he was still thinking of
humility.
2)Consult the dictionary and see the difference
between synonyms like confuse, puzzle,
perplex, confound, bewilder.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 57.Should I try to win against the voice out
there…for nonresistance?
If I should try his best and win the fight, then I
would be winning against the bet of that white
man, who shouted “I got money on the big boy.”
In that case I would not behave with humility,
and yet my speech talked about humility as the
essence of success. So maybe I should let that
big boy win without putting up resistance, for
this was time for me to show humility.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 58.A blow to my head as I danced about sent my
right eye popping…my dilemma.
1)His dilemma was settled when he was hit hard in
the right eye and then he could not get up to go
on fighting. The fight ended in his defeat.
2)我正在左右跳动，忽然一拳打在我的头上，我的右
眼像玩具跳偶一样暴了出来，这把我从进退两难中
解脱了出来。
3)Send sb./sth. doing sth: to make someone or sth
move quickly through the air, e.g. The explosion
sent pieces of glass flying everywhere.
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 59.I lay there, hazily watching a dark red spot
of my own blood…the canvas.
我躺在地上，朦胧中看到自己的一块深红色的血
斑渐渐化成蝴蝶状，闪着红光，然后浸透到污
迹斑斑的拳击场地上。
• 60.When the voice drawled TEN I was lifted
up and dragged to a chair.
当那人拖着长音数到10时，我就被人拉了起来，
拖到椅子上。
Invisible Man (Para 10-28)
• 61.Perhaps, I thought, I will stand on the
rug to deliver my speech: It is only natural
for the protagonist to think so.
Unfortunately things didn’t happen as he
had expected. He and the other black
boys would have to suffer another
humiliating experience before he had the
opportunity to deliver his speech. What
happened next was quite unexpected to
the narrator as well as to us as readers.
Invisible Man (Para 29-46)
• Paragraphs from 29 to 46 describe how the
white men further humiliated the black boys
even after the battle royal was over. Instead
of giving the money the boys were
supposed to get for their performance, the
white men made fun of them by making
them scramble for the money on an
electrified rug. This part adds to the general
chaos of the whole scene.
Invisible Man (Para 29-46)
• Para38
• I lunged for a yellow coin lying on the blue
design of the carpet.., around me. 我立即扑
向地毯蓝色图案上面一枚黄澄澄的金币，一
接触地毯我就惊恐地尖叫起来，同时身旁响
起一片尖叫声。
• 2．Laughing in fear and embarrassment..,
by the painful contortion of the others.: 他们
大声笑着，以掩饰心里的恐惧和窘态。有的
把身子往回缩，不失时机地捞起别人在抽搐
时碰到地毯外的硬币。
Invisible Man (Para 29-46)
• Para40 1 trying to avoid the coppers and to
get greenbacks and the gold.尽量不去拣小铜
钱，而是瞄准了钞票和金币。 copper: a coin
of copper or bronze greenback: any piece of
U. S. money printed in green ink on the back
Invisible Man (Para 29-46)
• Para40
• 2 Suddenly I saw a boy lifted into the air.., by
many flies.
• In this sentence two similes are used to
compare the boy： 1）to a circus seal；2）to
a horse stung by many flies.
• these black boys were dehumanized in the
racist society.
Invisible Man (Para 29-46)
• Para41 That's good hard American cash..
Hard cash is money that consists of notes
and coins, not cheques or credit cards; hard
currency is money that will not lose value
because it is from a country that has a strong
economy and can be used in other countries
to buy things.
Invisible Man (Para 29-46)
• Para42 And we snatched and grabbed: The
verbs "snatch" and "grab" both mean to seize
something quickly, but they are also different.
To snatch means to take something away
from someone with a quick violent movement.
To grab means to take hold of something with
a sudden or violent movement.
Invisible Man (Para 29-46)
• Para44 1t seemed a whole century would
pass before 1 would roll free：Actually it was
a brief moment but it seemed almost like
eternity to the narrator who was suffering and
struggling in pain and humiliation．
• 2. 1 was seared through the deepest
levels．．．to the point Of explosion：我体
内的这股气被烧到最深层，被燃烧加热到了爆
炸点。
Invisible Man (Para 29-46)
• Para45 1.1 rolled away as a fumbled football
rolls off the receiver‘s fingertips：我又滚开了，
就像一个没接住的橄榄球从接球队员的手指尖
上滑掉了．tumble：(AmE)to drop a ball after
catching it．
Invisible Man (Para 29-46)
• Para45
• 2. that time l luckily sent the rug sliding out of
place．．．to pick them up：这次算我运气，我
把地毯踢出了原地，硬币哗啦哗啦地滚到地板上，
小伙子们一哄而上，抓抢那些硬币。
• Para46 1 was limp as a dish rag： simile
comparing the narrator to a thing我浑身无力软得
像洗碗布。
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• Paragraph 47-90 form the last
subsection of the whole battle royal
incident. In this part the narrator finally
got his chance to deliver his wellprepared speech. However, in the
middle of his speech, he made a
mistake, but everything went well in the
end and he was given an award—a
scholarship for college.
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 63.We of the young generation extol the
wisdom…words or wisdom…
1)Obviously the narrator meant Booker T.
Washington by “that great leader and
educator”.
2)extol: to praise highly, to laud
3)我们年轻一代赞美那位伟大的领导人和教育
家的智慧，是他首先说出这些闪耀智慧之光
的话语。
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 64.Cast down your bucket where you are: this
sentence is to be interpreted on two levels,
literally and metaphorically. As a metaphor these
words mean to make full use of, or to take
advantage of what you have and do the best you
can. In the original speech, after telling the story
about the ship lost at sea, Booker T. Washington
said, “cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in
commerce, in domestic service, and in the
professions.” Here he is turning to the
metaphorical meaning of the phrase.
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 65.To those of my race who depend
upon bettering their condition…where
you are.
我对那些指望在异乡改善境遇以及对和南
方白人近邻友好相处的意义认识不足的
同族兄弟们说，“就地取水吧。”
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 66.“Cast down your bucket where you
are”—cast it down in making
friends…we are surrounded…
Make full use of what you have and do
the best you can. Take this attitude in
making friends in every honorable way,
making friends with people of different
races among whom we live.
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 67.Paragraph 55 paints a picture of contrast: the
narrator speaking with great effort because of
blood in his mouth from the cut and the white
men laughing and talking while he was speaking.
Thinking that delivering his speech was the only
chance for him to get recognition from the white
men, the narrator tried hard to say every word of
his speech in spite of the great pain from the
fight. He had even to swallow blood to utter his
words clearly. Yet, the white audience did not
pay due attention to him at all. Only a few men
and the school superintendent were listening,
the others still talking and laughing loudly, “as
though deaf with cotton in dirty ears.” This is
another striking example of white men’s racial
discrimination against the blacks.
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 68.I gulped it down, blood, saliva and all.
我一口全吞咽下去了，分不清是血还是唾液。
• 69.What powers of endurance I had during
those days…in the rightness of things:
The three exclamations are put in brackets to
show they were comments made by the
narrator later on when he was looking back
on those days and events. They were said in
a tone of irony, indicating that he was too
naïve in those days.
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 70.I made a mistake and yelled a phrase I had
often seen denounced in editorials, heard
debated:
The narrator said “social equality” when he was
supposed to say “social responsibility”. Social
responsibility and social equality were very
different in that the former stressed duty and
obligation while the latter stressed rights.
Apparently the white men only expected the
black people to work hard, to make their
contributions to society but they didn’t allow them
to enjoy equal rights. So equality was absolutely
a forbidden word. The narrator made this slip of
the tongue for this phrase “social equality”
appeared so often in newspapers or in debates
that it was there in the back of his mind.
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 71.The laughter hung smoke-like in the sudden
stillness.
All the white men were shocked by the word
“equality”, and they suddenly stopped laughing,
their laughter hanging in the air like smoke.
• 72.I opened my eyes, puzzled:
A moment ago people were talking and laughing
loudly, and suddenly the hall became still. The
narrator was not aware that it was his mistake
that caused this stillness and so he was puzzled.
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 73.You weren’t being smart, were you, boy:
Here the word “smart” implies being saucy,
impertinent, trying to seem clever in a
disrespectful way.
Eg. Keep your smart remarks to yourself.
• 74.We mean to do right by you, but you've got
to know your place at all times.
We intend to do the right thing by setting you up
as a role model, but you must never forget
who you are.
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 75.I was afraid they’d snatch me down:
I was afraid that they would take me down from
the platform by force.
• 76.Someday he’ll lead his people in the
proper paths:
By “the proper paths”, and later, “the right
direction”, the speaker stressed the important
role of a black leader who would lead his
people in the political direction according to
the needs and demands of the white people.
Invisible Man (Para 47-90)
• 77.My eyes filled with tears and I ran
awkwardly off the floor:
He was so excited that tears came to his
eyes, and embarrassed by this display of
emotion, he ran off the floor. Now, it seems
that after all that had happened, the
bloody battle royal came to a happy
ending for the narrator. However, as
readers, we feel that the author won’t end
the story that way and that there must be
sth else.
Invisible Man (Para 91-94)
• Paragraph 91 to 94 bring the story to a
final end. The narrator was overjoyed with
his triumph, and that night he dreamed of
his grandfather and awoke with the old
man’s laughter ringing in his ears. Note
how the end of the story is related with the
beginning where his grandfather’s last
words were regarded as a curse.
Invisible Man (Para 91-94)
• Para91 I even felt safe from grandfather,
whose deathbed curse.., my triumph: In
Paragraph 3 the narrator said "When I was
praised for my conduct I felt a guilt that some
way 1 was doing something that was really
against the wishes of the white folks..." So
the grandfather's words usually took away his
joy brought by his success or achievement.
But this time his success was so great that he
felt thoroughly overjoyed without any slightest
feeling of guilt, thinking he was safe from the
grandfather's deathbed words. We will soon
find out that he would be proven wrong.
Invisible Man (Para 91-94)
• Para92 them's years: (ungrammatical) They
are years. What the old man meant was
those endless envelopes represented history
in general and the years that would go by in
the narrator's life in particular.
• Para93 1.To Whom It May Concern: used in
a letter of recommendation addressed to an
unknown person.敬启者
Invisible Man (Para 91-94)
• 2. Keep This Nigger-Boy Running: The writer of
a letter of recommendation is supposed to
support the person in his application for a job.
What the narrator read in the letter was certainly
very strange. In fact it foreshadowed what was
going to happen later to the narrator. After being
expelled from college, the narrator went to New
York to begin a new life only to find that things
were no better than in the South. There he was
kept running from place to place, going through
a series of frustrating experiences before he
settled down in a hole in the ground.
Invisible Man (Para 91-94)
• Para94 1.I awoke with old man's laughter ringing
in my ears: Earlier the narrator had smiled
triumphantly into his grandfather's face in the
photograph, but in the end his grandfather was
laughing triumphantly. The ending of the story
tells us that it was impossible for the narrator to
get rid of the influence of his grandfather's
deathbed words. The grandfather and his words
appeared several times, all at important
moments, especially at the beginning of the
ending of the story.
Invisible Man (Para 91-94)
• 2. It was a dream I was to remember and
dream again.., to attend college.
• This part in parenthesis is a comment made
by the narrator several years later. At the time
of the dream he didn't understand the
meaning of this dream. It seemed that he
didn't try to understand it, for the most
important thing at that time was for him to
attend college. Only many years later after
dreaming the same dream again and again
and after going through a series of bitter
experiences, did he have an insight into its
meaning.
The end