As mentioned in class, there are names in Invisible Son that allude to other people and their works. For example, Emerson is first mentioned by Norton when he asks the narrator if he’s “gotten to Emerson yet?” Ralph Waldo Emerson is a famous author who wrote the well known essay Self-Reliance. When Norton asks the narrator if he’s reached Emerson yet in school Ellison is teasing that the narrator hasn’t yet reached self reliance. This idea is furthered later on when we meet another Emerson: Emerson Jr. This man tries to tell the narrator all about what is going on around him and what life actually is. He’s trying to take down the curtain around the narrator’s self contained, submissive world. After this meeting, the narrator finally gets some self reliance and goes out to get his own job. Emerson, however, is not the only one whose name can be analyzed.
Bledsoe is another important character is the story, and his name has meaning as well. Bledsoe comes from an old byname which means cheerful. This meaning is ironic because we eventually see that Bledsoe is anything but cheerful and he treats the narrator horribly. His name acts as a mask that hides his true nature. This idea of names representing the fake side people show goes along well with the idea of invisibility and hiding your ideas and feelings.
A name with a very comedic meaning to it is Norton. Norton is a surname that was first used in the Middle Ages as a way to show where someone was from. Norton literally means ‘north town’. This is a very comedic reference made by Ellison because Norton’s entire identity is the fact that he’s from the north. He’s just another rich white man coming down from the north to help out the narrator’s school. This is all the narrator sees when looking at him.
Overall, names serve as masks in Invisible Man, but their uses vary. On one hand, the name Emerson is used to allude to a famous work that adds meaning to the story. Bledsoe’s name represents the facade of happiness and contentment he puts on. Lastly, Norton’s name shows his entire persona and character. While each serves a slightly different purpose, they all have a hint of comedy to them, and I can’t help but wonder if they were mainly put in to reward the attentive reader.
Name Information: Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press, 2003.
This is fascinating. I'd heard the blood-pun in Bledsoe's name before, but I was unaware of its etymology (although I'd bet five bucks that Ellison knew). And Norton's name as literally referring to the mythic place of origin from which he descends on the college (how many times does Bledsoe remind the narrator that Norton comes from an important Northern city?), since that's clearly his most important attribute when he's in the South. Trueblood's name also contains some ironic implications. Have you found anything on Supercargo? Or Lucius Brockway?
ReplyDeleteAnd what do we make of the fact that perhaps the most (ironically) significant name in the novel is the narrator's, precisely because we never learn it? (Or never learn *them*, since he's now on his second name!)
I never gave a second thought to the names of characters in any books and this was also the case with this book. Its super interesting to me that Ellison had fun with the names to make these jokes. It also seems to make complete sense as the characters name completely match who the characters act like, such as Norton being a northerner who is completely blind to the things going on in the south. Perhaps Ellison wanted to add more to the story, showing that the attributes that we end up associating with each character is indeed how the characters are like.
ReplyDeleteThis is an incredibly interesting blog post. Norton and Bledsoe are really never names you would think of as jokes, but make perfect sense when you seem them in this new light. I wonder what other names in Invisible Man might actually be allusions. Trueblood, for instance, definitely seems like it could be a reference of some kind.
ReplyDeleteI just did a quick google search on the name and it seems that it means a "loyal person." This might be another ironic use of a name because he was not being faithful to his wife and society by having sex with his daughter. He is the epitome of not being loyal. That's just my take on the name, however.
DeleteI do really like the idea that even Bledsoe's name is a mask. He is so involved in maintaining his esteemed reputability and high standing by wearing this mask which hides his true self. As the narrator puts it later in the novel, he would be embarrassed to be seen eating chitterlings as this act would remove his mask and show people who he really was. As you pointed out, Ellison goes even further into this idea by naming him a name which means cheerful, which how he looks on the outside. This shows the multi-layered mask which Bledsoe relies on to maintain his position of power.
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