Significance Of Darkness And Blindness example essay topic

Ellison's Invisible Man is one of those books that is so full of symbols that it is near impossible to ignore them. While Invisible Man may have more symbols than a drum set, there are definitely a few that really stand out. The most prominent symbols are the overabundance of darkness and blindness throughout the novel. This concept can be found in a number of places and plays a major part in the development of the story. While the main character, Invisible Man (IM) takes pride in the fact that he has nothing to do with neither darkness nor blindness in the prologue, there are other characters that not only possess these undesirable characteristics, but embrace them as well. These characteristics define their personalities and direct their actions, just as the darkness of the city directs their actions, but in a much more powerful manner.

Right from the get-go, IM expresses his pride in his lack of darkness. His "hole" that he makes mention of in the prologue is so full of light that there is no mistake that he knows what is going on in the world. This lack of darkness that fills his hole is his way of keeping out the bad things in life, and to keep his own existence from halting. "Without light I am not only invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one's form is to live a death" (Ellison 6).

While he may contain no darkness, the rest of New York is dark enough for anyone. New York is so full of disillusionment that no one can escape. The darkness of New York may be masked by millions of lights, but there is darkness to be found in that light. Everyone that doesn't realize that they are being shrouded in darkness has been blinded, be it literally or metaphorically. Few can escape from this state of blindness, and many have been sacrificed to protect it. Brother Jack is one of those few who not only have been blinded by the darkness, but also supports the spread of it.

While he feels that he is in complete control of the city, he is being controlled by the city. His yearn to become the sole leader of the city has led him into being controlled by the city's reluctance to comply. Brother Jack's only way to blind the city into following him is to find an innocent and pure minion whom he can confuse into doing his bidding. When IM falls into Brother Jack's life, IM is still so under the influence of his experiences in his past life that he is easily manipulated by Brother Jack's cool words and undying support. Only later does IM discover how self-centered and manipulative Brother Jack is and how he is literally blind, or at least partially. I looked at him again for the first time, seeing a little bantam rooster of a man with a high-domed forehead with a raw eye socket that wouldn't quite accept its lid.

I looked at him carefully now with some of the red spots fading and with the feeling that I was just awakening from a dream (Ellison 476). This blindness has a direct relation to Jack's misconceptions about his control over the city and how he himself has been doused in darkness by his own doings. While there are few people that IM looked up to with utmost respect, Reverend Homer A. Barbee was one of them. Barbee is seen as one of those infinitely wise old people that has lived through everything imaginable, and he wants everyone to know it. But maybe he takes it a little too far, for he may think that he knows all that there is to know, but he is still blind to the truth.

Barbee believes that the black people of the nation have finally become all that they can be and have triumphed over the evils of oppression, but all over the country there is painfully obvious discrimination. Barbee's blindness not only veils his vision to what is directly in front of him, but to what is all around him as well. He doesn't see that his own close friend, Dr. Bledsoe, is promoting this segregation. This blindness causes IM to rethink all of his actions, "old Barbee had made me both feel my guilt and accept it. For although I had not intended it, any act that endangered the continuity of the dream was an act of treason" (Ellison 134). While Barbee is blind to the misgivings of the world around him, Mr. Norton is blinded by his belief in his superiority that comes from his money.

He is so disillusioned that he fails to see the grotesque occurrences that are happening in the farmhouses just a few miles away from where he is, such is revealed in chapter two when Norton meets True blood. He is so caught up in his belief that everything he touches turns to gold, including entire races, that when it comes time for him to actually meet someone from outside of his safely enclosed world, the sudden flash of light as the darkness begins to dissipate nearly kills him. The shift of everything he believes to be true is so jarring that it leads to a whole new darkness, one that can not be recovered from and tears his life apart. What is effected the most by darkness is New York itself. While most of the inhabitants of New York keep relatively under control during the day, the whole city undergoes a change when night comes around. Night is when Ras the Exhorter comes out of hiding to spread his beliefs among the people, night is when Rinehart does his number running, night is when the fights and riots break out.

While the darkness of night both acts as a catalyst for the fights and riots and helps conceal them, it is only when the streetlights get knocked that it gets really wild. Everyone gets so lost in the confusion of being blinded from what is going on around them that all they can think to do is fight their way out of it. This power of darkness over the people is present in many instances throughout the story, including the battle royal in chapter one, a major fight in chapter seventeen, and a full scale riot in chapter twenty-five. Many of the most important plot turns come about when the lights are knocked out and IM is forced to mingle with the people and fight to survive. It is in the blackness of the coal cellar in chapter twenty-five that IM realizes how truly invisible he is. That inescapable blackness that nearly drives him crazy within just a couple of hours.

Without that experience in the cellar, he would never have overcome all of his crazed thoughts towards Jack, Bledsoe, Norton, Ras, and many others. The significance of darkness and blindness is eminent throughout the entire novel. The darkness is used to propel the plot through confrontation while blindness is used mainly as an indicator for whom isn't to be trusted. Without these symbols, the novel would lack the necessary tools to progress towards the conclusion at which IM discovers that everyone has been too caught up in the fight for conformity to just allow it to come naturally through just living their lives. "life is to be lived, not controlled" (Ellison 577). "Invisible Man", Emmerson.