Invisible Man and the Narrator's Oblivion

In Invisible Man, the narrator worries that all African-Americans will be stereotyped by the actions of just one individual. When he drives Mr. Norton around, he is worried that the people Mr. Norton sees will influence his opinion of African-Americans. The narrator is anxious to leave Mr. Trueblood’s farm because he does not want Mr. Norton to hear Mr. Trueblood’s story. While Mr. Trueblood is talking he thinks, “How can he tell this to white men, I thought, when he knows they’ll say that all Negroes do such things? I looked at the floor, a red mist of anguish before my eyes.” (58). For this same reason, the narrator does not Mr. Norton to enter the Golden Day and see the shell shocked veterans. Although he is worried about the misrepresentation of African-American men, he does not notice the similarities between the white characters he meets.

In Chapter 1 of the novel, the narrator is humiliated before a large group of white men, including the school superintendent who he refers to as “All of the town’s big shots” (17). He is forced to fight other African-American men, but his suffering is treated as entertainment by the white men. The narrator, beaten and exhausted, then delivers his speech where he is ridiculed and humiliated. Once he has finished, he is given a scholarship to the state college for Negroes.

In Chapter 2 of the novel, the narrator accompanies Mr. Norton and listens to Mr. Trueblood tell Mr. Norton about how he impregnated his own daughter. The story has an odd effect on Mr. Norton, most likely because of his relationship with his daughter who passed away. After the story, Mr. Norton gives Mr. Trueblood 100 dollars, which confuses the narrator. He fails to see the similarity between his experience and Mr. Trueblood’s storytelling.

 At first glance, Mr. Trueblood’s storytelling does not seem to play the same role as the narrator’s fighting and speech, but Mr. Norton’s shock seems to be a result of his obsession with his daughter rather than his disapproval and disgust of Mr. Trueblood’s actions. He is intrigued and exclaims, “You did and are unharmed!” and “You have looked upon chaos and are not destroyed!” (51). He refuses to leave even when the narrator is uncomfortable and prompts him to go, “I looked at Mr. Norton and stood up, thinking it was a good time to leave; but he was listening to Trueblood so intensely he didn’t see me”. Mr. Norton and the superintendent both view the humiliation of the African-American men as a source for their own entertainment. Not only would they pay for things like this, Mr. Trueblood remarks that the Sheriff and other white men would give him food, drink, and tobacco to tell them the story.

All the white men in the novel share the same perception on the uniformity of African-American men. In Chapter 1, the narrator expresses he feels superior to the other “tough guys” in the elevator with him. Although the narrator notices the difference between him and the other men, the white men use them for the same purpose: their entertainment. Mr. Norton shares these views although they manifest subtly. He speaks on the founder’s role in the college as “a king, or in a sense, of a God” (45). The vet recognizes this and comments Mr. Norton views the narrator as “a mark on the scoreboard of your achievement, a thing and not a man, a child, or even less – a black amorphous thing” (95). The narrator dismisses what the vet has to say and stays under the control of white men who, in a sense, keep him running.