Loss of Identity in Invisible Man
No matter how hard the Invisible Man tries, he can never break from the mold of black society. This mold is crafted and held together by white society during the novel. The stereotypes and expectations of a racist society compel blacks to behave only in certain ways, never allowing them to act according to their own will. Even the actions of black activists seeking equality are manipulated as if they are marionettes on strings. Throughout the novel the Invisible Man encounters this phenomenon and although he strives to achieve his own identity in society, his determination is that it is impossible.
In the beginning of the novel, the Invisible Man is forced into a battle royal with other black youths in order to entertain a white audience. In this battle, he is blindfolded, and as they boxed one another, an electric current runs through the floor and shocks them. Symbolically, the blindfold represents the black youths' inability to see through the white men's masks of goodwill. The electricity represents the shocking truth of the white men's motives, conforming the boys to the racial stereotype of blacks being violent and savage. The electric current sends the boys into writhing contortions, which is the first instance where the marionette metaphor is exhibited in the book. Even though the Invisible Man's speech is the reason he thinks he is at the event, the battle royal then becomes the true entertainment for the white folk who are watching.
Electricity is used later in the book to demonstrate this marionette metaphor when he receives "shock therapy" in a hospital after being injured at Liberty Paints. The wires that are attached to him are the "strings" of the marionette that dances on cue with the shocks he receives. The doctors sit back and watch him spasm from the shocks saying, "they really do have rhythm." In both the instances involving electricity, the Invisible Man has no control over his movements. The marionette metaphor is therefore exemplified in a physical sense. However the Invisible Man observes others in the book that manifest this metaphor in a psychological sense.
The concept of blindness is a reoccurring theme in the book that serves to control the blacks. Reverend Barbee's sermon is the first encounter involving symbolic blindness. The sermon reinforces the values of the school, which give the impression that blacks have the opportunity to gain true equality if they work hard enough. Barbee tells the story of the founder of the school. Barbee regards the Founder as a god of sorts, whose ideology should be trusted completely, like a religion. The sermon declares that the Founder's ideology and life represent a universal example that should be followed. Interestingly enough, Barbee is physically blind and therefore displays how this ideology is followed blindly. This serves to pigeon hole the efforts of the students at the college, keeping them in control, further emulating this marionette metaphor. Although at this point in the book the Invisible Man does not yet realize it, this is his first encounter with this metaphor in a psychological sense.
Later on in the novel, the Invisible Man joins the "Brotherhood," and the theme of blindness is again demonstrated. At first he feels as if his membership to the Brotherhood will allow him to finally be heard, but as the story progresses, he discovers that this is hardly the case. Not only does he realize that he himself is blindly following the ideology of the Brotherhood, but also that the entire committee above him is also blind. The committee's blindness is symbolized by the Brother Jack's glass eye. Jack's eye falls out precisely as he describes the Brotherhood's ideology. This is symbolic in that it proves the blindness of this ideology and also the attempt to conceal it. Not only does the eye fall out, but Jack uses its timely departure to declare that his loss of eye in service towards the Brotherhood represents his loyalty. This reveals the concept that blindness is required in order to be a member of the organization. This being the case, it becomes evident that even though the Invisible Man tries to attain an identity in the Brotherhood, he is still blindly following its ideology. This reduces his leadership role in black society to nothing more than a white man's puppet, which embodies the marionette metaphor.
A few chapters after the incident involving Brother Jack's eye, the Invisible Man runs into a former member of the Brotherhood named Tod Clifton. Clifton is found on the street pedaling "sambo" dolls. The doll's represent the stereotypical grinning, obedient, "good slave." The Invisible Man is shocked to see Clifton selling these dolls, but at the same moment Clifton gets up and leaves because he sees a police officer approaching to stop him from selling the dolls. When the officer attempts to intercede, Clifton lashes out and hits the officer. The officer immediately pulls out his gun and kills Clifton. The Invisible Man heads back to his office with one of the sambo dolls and discovers that although it appears that the dolls move on their own accord, they move as a result of being pulled by strings, like a marionette. Clifton, however, fails to conform to this metaphor by hitting the police officer, and is killed. This gives a fatalist representation of the marionette metaphor that leaves a lasting impression in the Invisible Man's mind. At this point in the novel, he is close to the realization that he will never have a true identity.
In the final chapter, a riot breaks out in Harlem. The Invisible Man realizes at this point that he has fallen victim to a tragic deception. In following the Brotherhood's ideology, and acting as a marionette controlled by white society, he has betrayed his heritage and played an active role in the Brotherhood's subtle plan to destroy the black community of New York.
During the riot the Invisible Man encounters Ras the Destroyer, who tries to lynch him. Faced with the prospect of death, the narrator has an existentialist revelation that everything Ras and the Brotherhood are fighting for is merely absurd, and he would rather live out his own absurdity than die of someone else's. "I ... recognized the absurdity of the whole night ... And I knew that it was better to live out one's own absurdity than to die for that of others, whether for Ras's or Jack's." This realization finally allows the Invisible Man to cast off his shroud of invisibility.
The Invisible Man does so by burning the briefcase he was given in chapter one and its entire contents, which is comprised of symbols from his former ideology. This serves as a clean break from his past. He then rejects the idea of a single ideology, because a single ideology limits the complexity of each individual and puts the evolution of a society at a standstill.
Invisible Man is full of symbols that reinforce the oppressive power of white society. The single ideology he lived by for the majority of the novel kept him from reaching out and attaining true identity. Every black person he encountered was influenced by the marionette metaphor and forced to abide by it in order to gain any semblance of power they thought they had. In the end the Invisible Man slinks back into the underground, where he cannot be controlled, and his thoughts can be unbridled and free from the white man's mold of black society.
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