Invisible Man

This story was a little hard to decipher at times. But then again it reminded me a lot of Booker T. Washington from earlier this semester. In the beginning it seems that this man could really be invisible but sticking to a more realistic view I knew this wasn't magic or storytelling. The invisible man was feeling invisible because no one knew who he truly was, maybe not even himself. You go on to read and even though in class discussion many were against the idea that racism and stereotyping was involved I do believe it was. Being African American and proud to be so in this time was difficult. When I read about the "mugging" my first thought was well this is very racially involved. I thought this because this man was not mugged he was approached first and beaten up shortly after. I feel that the man mugged was ashamed of himself and wanted to portray himself more as the victim by saying he was mugged by a black man at that. As you go on to read and the grandfather gets involved and the talk of war is brought up I began to understand this a little more. Like Booker T. Washington there was much play on the education of races and manipulation as well. The invisible man knew he was not more powerful or more authorative than the men holding him down but he was smarter and stronger-willed. This story goes through trouble to get to triumph unlike more of the uplifting things people like to read where light troubles and triumphs are mixed in to have a happy ending. The invisible man gets in fights, he is beaten, he is torn down, he is ashamed of himself, he is a coward to me as well when I read the things he says sometimes. But in the end it is always like he really did play of the lion and lamb act. He was the lamb and the white men were the lion he used trickery, manipulation, motivation, and praise to get to where he wanted to be and the "lion" didn't even notice. His meekness and cowardness wasn't that at all it was merely a way to get a scholarship. I know I've said it before but reading this constantly took me back to the reading on Booker T. Washington. African Americans were outnumbered and pushed down when it came to being successful and educated. The white men always thought they were better and higher. It is sort of ironic and even humorous that playing on being "undeducated", "ignorant", "agreeable", "meek", were all an act. The invisible man knew exactly what he was doing and he got the last laught ( well his grandfather did ) in the end.