In “Invisible Man” the main character goes underground in
attempts to discover who he is. He is not really an invisible man but a man who
is not noticed by others. The character struggles throughout the novel to be seen
and noticed. He at first is highly anticipating the speech he is to give to the
respected white men in his community for a scholarship, but he comes to realize
that the only way he will be able to give the speech is through being degraded
in the battle royal where he competes against other youth black men. He then
receives a scholarship to a university where he looks up to the dean of the
school. Again, though, he is brought down and looked down upon when he tries to
do everything that the dean tells him to do to impress him and be known. The
dean in the end expels him from the university. Another instance in the novel
where the invisible man tries to be seen is through giving his speeches on
racism. That, again, is brought down by the brotherhood who downgrade him to
giving speeches on women’s rights and not about what he truly is passionate
about speaking about and where people actually want to listen to him and be
strongly impacted by.
This can relate to our society since the beginning of time.
The competition for wanting to be seen is shown throughout everyone’s life.
Whether it be through wanting the lead in the play or wanting to get the boss
position at your job. The struggle to be seen can be shown in even little
things like competing to be your mother or father’s favorite child. The issue
of being the invisible man can also relate to racism the main character was
discriminated against for the color of his skin and that is the reason for why
he was strongly degraded throughout the novel and why some people did not
respect him as a person. Racism is another extreme issue of invisibility that
we have in our society still today. It’s something that we will never fully get
rid of in our society.
