Sarah's African American Literature Blog

Insanity – the state of being seriously mentally ill; madness. Throughout Invisible Man , the reader encounters several characters who are defined by this description. Ellison also allows his audience to question the Narrator’s sanity, as the dreamlike visions of his life leave us questioning his reliability and rationale. As the Narrator tells his story, he describes several characters as being mentally unstable, starting with his grandfather. When he spoke of undermining white society, the parents removed the children from the room and drew the blinds, calling him crazy. The grandfather had never spoken of such things before and obviously they were shocked that he would hold such a viewpoint, but that doesn’t explain their overly drastic actions. The vet is another example of this same occurrence. The narrator and his family react the way they do because they know that these “insane” people are correct. Especially for the narrator, however, this is something that is almost impossib...

In class, we discussed how Mr. Norton and Mr. Dalton represent similar stock characters in the two novels. They believe they are contributing to Bigger’s and the Narrator’s “people” while they are practically doing the opposite. In Ellison’s Invisible Man, Mr. Norton is portrayed as a type of white god, who graces the campus with his presence, once or twice per year. He comes “bearing gifts” when he visits, as he is a wealthy donor and important contributor, and the Narrator compares him to St. Nicholas. As the reader learns in later chapters, it is of the utmost importance that these wealthy benefactors only see what they are meant to, never truly learning about the surrounding environment of the campus. The narrator, oblivious to this implicit rule, breaks it, in every way possible.             “Will you promise to tell me my fate?” asked Norton. The narrator totally baffled by the question is surprised that he would ask suc...