When interacted with other people, the Invisible Man maintains a negative and dark aroma around himself. But when alone, he lives in light. The darkness symbolizes eeriness and danger. Walking through the dark, it is understood to walk with fear and uncertainness of what is to happen next. While the light symbolizes purity and freedom. The light gives a sense of security and alertness that isn’t available in the dark. We soon learn that the Invisible Man is in fact a black man. One dark night, the invisible man was approached by a man that called insulting names towards the Invisible Man. Throughout the fight, the night was dark and had no trace of lightness. The Invisible Man kicked him repeatedly and prepared to slit his throat. At that moment, the slightest streak of light from a car stabbed through the darkness. With the slightest streak of lightness, the fighting stopped and the man was free, just like the fight never happened. The light confirms his reality, the fact that he is in fact nothing supernatural. The light symbols the white society, and how they reject him as a person due to the color of his skin. The author uses the symbols of light and dark by portraying good and bad of the different races.
The Invisible Man is nothing supernatural. He is a man of substance, flesh and bone, and possess a mind. In the world that he lives in, he is simply invisible to those who refuse to see him based on the color of his skin. Only one can become invisible if others refuse not to see him. This begins a recurring idea of blindness. The blindness of the Invisible Man shows how people willfully avoid being able to see the truth and accept his race. In this society, “That invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come in contact.” (Ellison, 3). This can be related into todays society, the constant struggle of #BlackLivesMatter. African Americans are constantly portrayed by the color of their skin instead of how they are. Today, people clutch their purses a little tighter and lock their car doors when African Americans are within sight.
I am agree with you when you said that we soon learn that the Invisible Man is in fact a black man. One dark night, the invisible man was approached by a man that called insulting names towards the Invisible Man. Because I think that the narrator relates an incident in which he accidentally dumped into a tall, blond man in dark. The blond man called him an insulting name, and the narrator attacked him, demanding an apology. He threw the blond man to the ground, kicked him, and pulled out his knife, prepared to slit the man’s throat. so only at the last minute did he come to his senses. He realized that the blond man insulted him because he couldn’t really see him. I think also the next day, the narrator read about the incident in the newspaper, only to find the attack described as a aggression. The invisible man was the victim of the brutal aggression.
I like your point on the contrast between what the light and dark symbolize. I think it’s also symbolic using these two extremes because when you think about these two colors, only one is an actual color. Black is representative of the absence of light, it is what is shown when nothing else of substance is present. White is when there’s an abundance of all colors and is overwhelming so it appears as white. When we think about things in black and white we often times associate it with right and wrong, fact or fiction, sadness or enlightenment. I think specifically in regards to invisible man it portrays the hardships of being a person of color who is just trying to exist and to be seen as a person. In addition, I also thought the way the lightness held such hope and optimism for this man who was tripping on drugs was an interesting approach to explaining what is held in the white light. But to be quite honest, the abundance of light also reminded me of death because when one dies it’s often said that “they see the light” before they pass. I suppose there’s a lot of play on words with the light and dark and it is open to interpretation.