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Invisible Man


            The narrator sees his self as invisible. Not to the physical eye, he is "unseen" as a person, an individual. "People refuse to see me. the see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination." To passerby, he is a simple Negro, not a human being. This is an effect to the racism strongly felt by society in the early nineteen hundreds. Even when he savagely strikes out at a man in the street, the narrator is not "seen." In the beginning, you are at the end of the story. He is aware of his invisibility, but only after a lifetime of frustration, disappointment, and disillusionment.
             When he reaches the college, he could not be happier. The narrator sees himself emulating the prestigious black president of the college, one Dr. Bledsoe. During his outing with a rich white trustee, Mr. Norton, he mistakenly takes the important white man to the underprivileged part of the black community. Mr. Norton, unable to cope with the "reality" of the un-idealized description of black life, he sits in a state of shock. When Dr. Bledsoe hears of this, the president immediately calls him in for a conference. In their conversation, Bledsoe speaks angrily to the narrator on his un-excusable act: "The only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie!" This is the first time the narrator is introduced to his invisibility, and the first time his illusions of how the world works are shattered. "You"re a nobody son. You don't exist." Also, Bledsoe's actions shatter the narrator's view of him as a role model. Bledsoe's declaration of his rise in an all-white society by denying them control brings about the remembrance of the narrators dying grandfathers last words,".overcome"em with yeses, undermine"em with grins.let"em swoller you till they vomit or burst open." Later, after he is dismissed from the school, he is further angered and hurt by Bledsoe's trickery with fake letters of recommendation to important white business leaders in Wall Street.


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