In most works of fiction invisibility is seen as a power. In Invisible Man, however, Ellison subverts this common assumption and makes us see and consider another side of this common superhero ability. Is invisibility really a power, and what are the different types of invisibility? Read on to find out.
The obvious first step here is to define the difference between literal and figurative invisibility. Actual invisibility is commonly found in comic books as a superhuman power that allows the user to make their body completely invisible. On the other hand, a figurative invisibility, which is most likely what Ellison is going for in Invisible Man, is the result of someone not being seen by others as themselves, but rather as a generality or some sort of assumption. What I mean by this is that someone is figuratively invisible if they’re immediately disregarded and shoved into a stereotype box by everyone. To be able to more accurately compare these two types of invisibility, we have to set some parameters around the literal invisibility. Namely the fact that most iterations of this power let the user become invisible at will; in comparison, the figurative invisibility is everlasting as long as the people around the invisible person continue to stereotype him or her. With this being said, the following comparisons will assume the use of literal invisibility is more or less irreversible.
The following quote shows how debilitating invisibility can be, “You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you’re a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And, alas, it’s seldom successful” (Ellison 4). After being invisible for too long one longs to be recognized and seen as a person again. This leads me to wonder if the narrator of Invisible Man will ever feel this way. I think that overall he likes being invisible seeing how much of a kick he gets out of it, but deep down there is likely some part of him that wants to live a life recognized by others. This example shows the most negative aspect of invisibility: the crushing solitude. This is an apparent feature of both literal and figurative invisibility. Eventually the user or person affected will want to be seen again but it’s out of their control. I think that Ellison wanted to convey this message of hopelessness because some people may say that the narrator of Invisible Man should just not be invisible anymore. This is very invalid because no matter what the narrator does he’ll be put into a box. While this is a bleak part of invisibility, other negatives of invisibility have also been lightly touched on so far in Invisible Man.
The entire scene at the brothel in Invisible Man shows one of the biggest faults of invisibility. Many of the people from the insane asylum can actually be seen as very self aware instead of insane, and the reason they’re this way in the first place is because the know they’re invisible. The don’t care as much about their actions and they know that no matter what they do, most people still won’t see them. This extreme self awareness leads them to doing and saying lots of things that most sane people normally wouldn’t. This is an idea that’s commonly seen with literal invisibility. I imagine that if a person got the ability to go invisible most would use it to do whatever they thought of, no matter how illegal. There’s a sense of empowerment and invincibility that comes with being invisible. We see this early on in the story when the narrator nearly kills a man and then runs away laughing because he knows nobody will even think twice about who did it. Most people will automatically ignore the occurrence and brush it off as some stereotypical guy who attacked the man. Another example is how the patients treated Mr. Norton. They mock, drag around, and joke about him excessively and are generally very disrespectful which is completely unheard of considering Mr. Norton’s standing as a rich white man. While invisible, you don’t have a filter.
These two angles of comparison between literal and figurative invisibility show how close they actually are. It’s sad to think that actually being invisible can be so similar to being stereotyped. Despite being conceptually different, both have similar effects of making the person affected either feel extreme loneliness and strive to become noticed or spiral downwards and begin to exploit the boons of invisibility and use it irresponsibly. As an ending, seeing the horrible results stereotyping can lead to, think twice before making an assumption. In other words, don’t judge a book by its cover.
