Invisible Man Prologue - Chapter 4

The protagonist believes he is an invisible man, as people never truly see him but rather see him as a manifestation of their beliefs. He remembers a confrontation with a white man on a dark and deserted street. He had accidentally bumped into the white man, who had then abused him with a racial slur. The protagonist had beaten the man with repeated demands of an apology but the man only had curses for him, and he realized then that the man had never truly seen him. The protagonist was invisible to him, and so the man had been beaten nearly to death by a phantom. The following morning, he had seen the news to find a report about a man being mugged and beaten in the street.

The protagonist now lives in a hole in the ground, it isn’t a cold damp place, but rather a warm place that he had lit with over a thousand bulbs powered by stolen electricity. He used to pay his bills, and live like regular people, but then he had realized that he was invisible and so had snuck into this hole in a building, and stolen the electricity from a power company. The protagonist had once been given a “reefer” when he had asked some men for a cigarette. The weed had taken him out of time and space while he listened to Louis Armstrong sing, “What did I do to be so black and blue?” He had witnessed a black woman lamenting the loss of her master after slavery had ended, and though she had hated her master, she had loved him since he had given her sons. The protagonist asked the woman about freedom, but it made her cry, and one of her sons threatened him for making his mother cry. The protagonist had resolved never again to smoke weed.

The protagonist’s grandfather on his death bed had confessed that he had been a traitor, as he had betrayed his own race, and urged his family members to fight for their rights. This had shocked the family since his grandfather had been a mild man, who had worked as a slave and then been a very humble free man. His grandfather’s dying words had remained with him, and he had pondered their meaning quite often. The protagonist was a stellar student in school so much so that the speech he had made on his graduation about humility had earned him the opportunity to speak at an extremely important gathering of all the rich men of his town. The gathering was not quite what he had expected, as he was first put in a ring with other black youths for a battle Royale. Before the fight had begun, the young boys had watched the men jeer and claw at a young naked blonde dancer. Then the boys had been blindfolded and put into a ring to fight one another while the rich white men of town smoked cigars, laughed, and yelled racial slurs.

The protagonist had been able to see through his blindfold, and though he had been beaten soundly by the others, he had yet managed to remain in the ring until he and one of the biggest fighters were the only ones left. The protagonist attempted to reach a secret agreement with the fighter but the other fighter wanted to win. The protagonist was knocked out, but the young black men were then further humiliated as they were made to claw for their money over an electrified rug. The boys pounced on the money only to be shocked, while all the men laughed and attempted to push the boys onto the rug. All through the fight, and later while he had been on his knees grabbing money from the electrified rug, the protagonist only thought about when he would give his speech. He was finally allowed to speak, but the men heckled him throughout it, and the situation became quite tense when the protagonist accidentally used the words “Social Equality” instead of “Social Responsibility.” The night ended with him receiving a leather briefcase and a scholarship to the state college for black people.

The protagonist is unsure of his memories about the college, but he remembers a statue of the founder as he is in the middle of lifting a veil from the covered head of a slave. The protagonist cannot be sure whether the founder had been lifting the veil or lowering it. He recalled a time when he had chauffeured with one of the trustees, an aristocratic white man, Mr. Norton, who claimed to be like Emerson. The protagonist listened to the man tell him, that he did all his work for the college due to his beautiful daughter who had passed away while they had been traveling in Europe. The protagonist brought him out of the college grounds, and near a log cabin inhabited by the family of Jim Trueblood. The white man had grown wild with curiosity as he had learned that Jim, a black farmer, had impregnated both his daughter and wife, both of whom now stood outside the cabin with their swollen bellies. The protagonist was ashamed of Jim, as he did not want white people knowing that black people could commit such heinous acts. The protagonist was forced to remain and listen to Jim tell Mr. Norton about why he had done such a hateful thing. He had explained that he had been lying on a cold night with his daughter between him and his wife, and had begun to have sex with his daughter while he had been sleeping. The man explained how his wife had nearly killed him right there, and though he had left his family, he had realized that he could be nothing but himself and so had returned to find both his daughter and wife pregnant. Jim described how the black people had wanted to throw him out of their lands, but that the white man had learned of what he had done and protected him. Now, he was quite happy, as he had gotten a lot of money from the white folks. Mr. Norton had stumbled away in a feverish state after giving the man a hundred-dollar bill and asked the protagonist to drive him to a place where he could get a whiskey.

The protagonist took the trustee to the Golden Day, which was hosting the black inmates of a veterans’ mental asylum. He was extremely worried about the deteriorating condition of the trustee, and so rushed into the already crowded bar without a second thought. The barkeeper refused to serve him alcohol to take to Mr. Norton since he had a grudge with the protagonist’s college as it was trying to shut down the Golden Day. The unstable veterans were milling about in freedom among the prostitutes that inhabited the rooms above the bar since their attendant was preoccupied. The protagonist was able to bring Mr. Norton into the bar with the help of some mental patient since his condition had deteriorated significantly causing him to lose consciousness, and the presence of the white man caused a lot of disturbance among the black patients. The patients soon began to riot, and when their powerfully built attendant, Supercargo, attempted to restore order, they beat him mercilessly and subdued him.

The protagonist and Mr. Norton were then rescued by a patient from the asylum, who impressed the trustee greatly by correctly diagnosing his rare condition. The inmate surprised both of them by informing them about his illustrious career as a doctor after graduating from their college. He claimed that he had been instituted because he had saved someone’s life, and he then called the protagonist a zombie, who had no thoughts of his own but followed only those of the white man. He called both of them obscenities and threatened them with violence as he suddenly instructed them to leave. The protagonist drove the trustee back to the college, and upon his instruction brought along the college director, Dr. Bledsoe, to see him. He fearfully informed the director where he had taken Mr. Norton and was admonished as the director explained that they only showed white people things that they wanted them to see. The director composed his face into a mask of pleasure before he entered the trustee’s room. Inside, he blamed the protagonist for the trustee’s poor condition and compelled him to return to his dormitory. Mr. Norton informed the director that his deteriorated health had not been caused by the protagonist just as he had been leaving. Later the protagonist received word that the director wished to speak to him, but when he presented himself at Mr. Norton’s room he discovered that the director had gone to the chapel. The protagonist wished to drive Mr. Norton around some more to win back some goodwill but learned that the trustee would be departing soon. He told the older man that he would soon learn the answers to the questions of fate that the trustee had posed to him at the beginning of their drive.

Analysis

Blindness and invisibility are major themes that are explored in the novel, and the protagonist chooses to hide his identity, which is a form of invisibility, in an attempt to empower himself to tell his true story. He explains how the color of his skin has reduced him to an invisible being as he recounts the encounter with a racist blond man in the streets. This white man does not truly see the narrator but sees him as a representation of racial stereotypes, and the narrator attempts to have the blond man acknowledge him as an individual rather than as an idea of a race. However, he fails to bring this about as is demonstrated through the account of the news, which transforms the violent protest into a robbery, thereby making the narrator feel ever more invisible.

This first section of the novel features a harrowing sequence in which the narrator is forced to degrade himself in front of a jeering crowd of racist white men as a reward for performing well at school. The blindfold that the black youths are forced to wear during the battle royal represents the metaphorical blindness of the white men in the room, who do not see the boys as people, but rather as inferior beings that can be manipulated for entertainment. The blindfold also represents the narrator's own blindness, as he fails to view the men's actions as racist and instead looks on them as his benefactors.

The speech that the narrator makes in front of the gathered white men contains many excerpts from a speech that was made by Booker T. Washington at the Atlanta Exposition Address. Washington was a black educator who argued for black people to focus on economic success rather than on protesting civil rights since he felt that the improvement in socio-economic conditions would automatically compel better treatment of his race. The author argues against this view through the reaction of the white crowd that heckles the narrator as he makes the same argument.