2. What is the vet’s advice to IM? (153-6) What does it mean to “Be your own father?” (156) Does his advice resonate with Bledsoe’s or IM’s grandfather’s or is it an alternative to both? How so?
3. What does IM think of Harlem at first? (157-61) Why is he so afraid of riots?
4. What are the IM’s aspirations for his time in New York? (163-64) What do they all center around?
5. Why is IM so interested/worried/intrigued by the idea of being watched (165)
6. Do you think that the IM is making the most of his opportunity/freedom in the North?
4. Invisible Man’s whole intention once he arrives in the North seems to be making a great impression, as great as he can, in order to return to the South. His goals include being on time to all of his meetings with the men whose names are written on the letters he carried with him from Dr. Bledsoe. He’s attempting to squash his resentment and be as passive as possible when he thinks to himself, “Maybe if it hadn’t happened I would have never received an opportunity to meet such an important men face to face” (163). He claims that he wants to “slough off” his southern ways of speech and be “charming” like Ronald Colman. He seems to be wanting more than anything to be able to pass in the North so he can get back down to the South and do...basically the same thing. “”Give them what they wanted down South, that was the way” (163).
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5. IM seems to be so fascinated with the idea of someone watching him because no one actually is watching him. He’s fascinated that he sees black men being trusted with money on Wall Street and doesn’t understand why that is allowed to happen. He’s been told that the post offices are guarded. He is convinced that someone must be watching him because he is moving about so freely and is unable to grasp at this point that he is invisible and genuinely suspects that there could be policemen or detectives with guns following him, which of course is not the case. This is the first time he is really invisible on the streets.
3. At first the Invisible Man is scared of Harlem because he is in a crowd of people especially when he gets on the subway as well as he walks through the crowded streets that are flooded with many people. While he is on the subway he is extremely close to a white woman and begans to become more frightened because he thought he might get in trouble for touching her and being that close. At that moment he thinks that there might be a riot because he was touching her and she might yell out for help and begin a riot. He is afraid of riots because he is not used to white people and black people living around each other peacefully. When he passes the black protest and sees the white cops just laughing and not paying much attention to the protest he does not understand how that could be happening because where he was from it was not possible for black people to protest and not get attacked by white cops thus starting a riot.
ReplyDelete3.Vet is really out spoken and states outrages things. He’s not afraid to “put into words what most men feel, if only slightly” (Ellison 154). Crenshaw is the opposite of vet. He quiet, but Vet does get under his skin a lot with his crazy stories and speeches. I guess you can say that Crenshaw tries to put Vet in his place, but obviously that doesn't seem to work. In this section the Vet talks about how IM is going up north to be free and reminds him that back in the day it would be a crime to go and that he’s lucky to be going in the daytime because colored people always had to sneak and leave at night. This was probably the only normal statement he gave at the bus stop. Then he asks Crenshaw as if Crenshaw has had that experience. Crenshaw gets offended and at this point I believe Crenshaw knows that Vet is crazy. He even says that he he’d wished that Vet would hurry and get depressive cause maybe he wouldn’t talk so much, but even Vet mocks he about that by saying, “ yes doctor […]. I’ll be depressive soon enough, but while you eat your candy bar just allow me to chew the rag, there’s a kind of substance in it” (154). Who says that (lol). I think IM believes that vet is a little crazy as well, but not entirely. Vet does give IM “fatherly” words of advice; “Be your own father, young man”(156). I’m not sure if this stuck with IM or if he took Vets’ advice seriously because he thought Vet was “comical”.
ReplyDeleteQuestion six poses the question as to whether or not the Invisible Man is making the most of his new opportunities/freedoms in the North. To answer the question, I believe the Invisible Man is making the most of his time in the North as far as pleasing Dr. Bledsoe and the University, but as far as using the trip to enlighten himself on a personal level, he is not making the most of his trip. He says “I tried to plan my time in the North. I would work hard and serve my employer so well that he would shower Dr. Bledsoe with favorable reports” (Ellison, 156). His whole mind set is structured around pleasing Dr. Bledsoe and being reinstated at the University. At this point Invisible Man is more interested in gaining Dr. Bledsoe’s approval than understanding his “invisibility.” Out of several experiences on his way North, the exchanges between the vet and Crenshaw could have benefited Invisible man most. When the vet and Crenshaw are changing buses, the vet says “ Leave the Mr. Nortons alone, and if you don’t know what I mean, think about it” (156). The vet says this because he understands that Norton is not interested in truly seeing the black race succeed fully, but is interested in seeing them succeed enough to where he can say he was partly responsible for trying to help humanize the Black race. Invisible Man should have deeply thought about this, and understood that his trip North had the possibility to have double advantageous. As far as being determined to please the white man and Dr. Bledsoe Invisible Man succeeded, but as far as realizing the true implications of being Black, the Invisible Man was still oblivious to his “invisibility.”
ReplyDelete2. The vet advises IM to "learn to look beneath the surface...come out of the fog...and remember that you don't have to be a complete fool in order to succeed." In addition, he tells him that he should "play the game, but play it in your own way" (153). The vet seems to be telling IM to be attentive of the things going on around him, and find meaning in them as it pertains to this prominent racial divide. Otherwise, and the vet is witnessing him fall into this trap, IM will simply be mindlessly following the predetermined path of the Negro as dictated by the whites. He recognizes that it is important to try and satisfy the whites to some degree, but in the meantime, IM should be engaged in self-discovery and become aware of how the rules of this race-driven game operate. In telling IM to be his own father, the vet is suggesting that he should learn to look out for himself and provide for his own betterment and advancement, just as a father would do for his own child. I think that the vet's advice is much more complex and advantageous than the advice given to him by Bledsoe. Rather than simply gaining respect through association by gaining "contacts with powerful and influential people" (145), the vet offers a route that offers much more long-term fulfillment and a true way of learning how to better himself while escaping the tyranny of the white authority. The vet's advice agrees more with IM's grandfather. His grandfather told him to "overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction..." (16). In both the vet's and IM's grandfather's advice, it is clear that both of them are proponents of "playing the game", but in a very clever, subversive way in order to dilute the power that the whites have over them.
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