Invisible Man Chapters 25 to END Reading Questions

Chapter 25

1. What causes the riot? → No one knows for sure who or what caused the riot. There are many interpretations about how it was caused.
2. Think about the Book of Revelations in the Bible. In what ways is Ras like one of the four horseman of the Apocalypse? → Ras is holding a spear that is taunting the narrator. He sends out men to hunt the narrator down and kill him. Ras is also riding a big black horse.
3. What drives the narrator underground? → The men that were sent by Ras to kill him. They pushed him into a manhole and take the latter away so he cannot escape. All they give him is a pack of matches.
4. What does the narrator do with the papers in his briefcase? How is this action symbolic? → The narrator burns down all of the documents contained inside the briefcase. This shows that the narrator is destroying his past.  

Epilogue

1. In what ways did the novel come into a full circle? --> The beginning(the prologue) is where the narrator has been throughout all these time. He is in a hole where he is truly invisible from the outer world.

2. Is this a satisfactory ending for the novel? --> I think that it kind of ended in a cliffhanger. I did not like the ending.

Invisible Man Chapters 23 and 24 Reading Questions

Chapter 23

1. What symbolism do you find in the narrator’s purchase of dark glasses?

→ The dark glasses symbolizes the different identities and the stereotypes as it correlates to Rinehart that has many different disguises.

2. What are Rinehart’s various identities?

→ Briber, pimp, gambler

3. Is there any symbolism in Rinehart’s name (rind and heart)?

→ Rind is the hard layer on a fruit and hart sounds similar to heart. A hard heart. It means that Rinehart doesn’t care about anyone and is a person that no one really knows who he is.

4. Has Rinehart learned to play an identity game?

→ He has learned to play the identity game by having different disguises and hiding his real self.

Chapter 24

1. Contrast the narrator’s encounter with Sybil with that of the woman in red whose husband came home early.

→ Sybil and the women in the red are both married women. Sybil is drunk when she tells the narrator about how she feels about him while the women in the red is not. The women in the red actually sleeps with the narrator while Sybil does not.

2. What is the significance of the last line in the chapter?

→ The significance of the last line of Chapter 24 was to show the narrator’s thoughts after leaving the brotherhood. He becomes comfortable with being invisible again.

Invisible Man Chapter 20-22 Reading Questions

Chapter 20

1. The narrator has been away from Harlem for several months. What “emergency” calls him back downtown?

→ Brother Tod disappeared.

2. What changes have taken place in the movement since he left. (Note how things have changed in the Jolly Dollar Bar.)

→ The people have realized that the brotherhood is corrupt and want the white people to control the black community.

3. What does Ellison mean when he says that returning to Harlem was “like returning to the city of the dead?”

→ By saying this he means that he is returning to a society filled with corruptions. Since the brotherhood is controlling all of the people there, they don’t think for themselves.

4. What is Clifton selling?

→ Clifton is selling the sambo dolls

5. How does the Sambo doll relate to the Sambo bank?

→ It is supposedly used for entertainment.

6. What do you think the doll symbolizes? Consider the fact that it is a puppet whose strings are pulled.

→ The sambo doll symbolizes the power that the whites have over the black people and how the black people entertain them.

7. How does Tod Clifton die? What is the narrator’s reaction to his death?

→ Tod is shot by a police officer. The narrator feels like being in the brotherhood wasn’t worth it.

Chapter 21

1. Why does the narrator feel guilt over Clifton’s death?

→ He feels guilty for not stopping the cop.

2. Look at the funeral speech. How many times does the narrator use Clifton’s name? Why so many?

→ The narrator says Tod’s name 22 times. He says it so many times to emphasize that he was an important man.

Chapter 22

1. Why is the meeting with the Brotherhood described in terms of a dream?

→ The meeting is described as a dream because it symbolizes a way of progress.

2. On p. 463, the members are said to have “flowed in one channel too long and too deeply.” What does this mean?

→ The brotherhood was too focused on expanding and obtaining power rather than helping out the people in the community. The goal they had set was not being satisfied.

3. Why does the Brotherhood object to the phrase “personal responsibility?”

→ They are not focused on the people, they are more focused on obtaining power.

4. Contrast the reaction of The Brotherhood to the funeral speech to the audience’s reaction to the graduation speech. Has the narrator come full circle?

→ The brotherhood did not like the speech that the narrator was giving at Tod’s funeral. The narrator talks about having personal responsibility which upsets the members of the Brotherhood and therefore make them react negatively.

5. What is the significance of Brother Jack’s glass eye? How does it develop the sight image that is throughout the book?

→ The significance of Brother Jack’s glass eye is to show his blindness or failure to see the people around him as a human being. It shows that he really does not have any knowledge of the black community and is not helping the black community.

Invisible Man Reading Questions Chapters 16-19

Chapter 16

1.     List all the images of blindness in this chapter. What do you think the narrator means when he says he has become “more human?”

à “We’re blind as bats”

2.     How does the narrator use the image of blindness as the central theme of his speech?

à He uses the image of blindness to display how he feels being a black male in society.

3.     Be prepared to discuss the speech as a further expression of the narrator’s developing identity.

à By the end of the speech, the narrator feels as if he is becoming someone and beginning to have an identity.

4.     The rewritten quote from James Joyce is often discussed. Do you think that it is the duty of an individual to represent a particular race, gender or group? Do you believe it is more important to concentrate on developing ones individual identity?

à I believe that everyone should represent himself or herself in the way they want to be represented. One person cannot represent a whole gender, race or belief.

5.     What is The Brotherhood’s reaction to the speech? What is your personal reaction? What criticism of The Brotherhood is implied here?

à They didn’t like the speech because it did not comply with what they believed in.

Chapter 17

1.     How much time has passed since the narrator’s speech?

à 4 months

2.     Describe Brother Hambro.

à He is a lawyer and a taskmaster.

3.     What is Ras’ political doctrine and why is it in conflict with that of The Brotherhood?

à Ras believes that they shouldn’t help the white people because they will backstab you.

4.     Who is Tod Clifton? Why do he and the narrator become friends? Note that “tod” means death in German.  Why does Ras spare Clifton’s life?

àTod Clifton is a young brother of the Brotherhood. Ras spares his life because he is black.

5.     Ras pleads with the narrator to become a part of black unity and leave The Brotherhood. His arguments are similar to those of Black Panthers and others who came to the political forefront in the 1960’s. The Communist Party did, in effect, betray the Blacks who helped build the party in the 1930’s. What side do you believe Ellison is supporting?

à Ellison supports in the side of the Black Panthers because he wants to get civil rights no matter what. He says that whites betrayed the black community and therefore white people are

6.     What is significant about the portrait of Douglass that hangs in Brother Tarp’s office? How is Tarp like Douglass? Like the narrator’s grandfather?

à Tarp sees that Douglass as an inspiration.

Chapter 18

1.     Consider the symbolism of the link of chain Tarp gives the narrator. It what ways does it link the narrator to Tarp? To his past? Is it significant that Westrum rejects that link?

à The chain symbolizes what he used to be or the person he used to be. It links to the narrator because it’s similar to the lifestyle he had when he was in the South. It is important that Westrum rejects the link because it shows that he does not like the brotherhood.

2.     What seems to cause the fight between Wrestrum and the narrator? What do you think is the REAL reason for this fight?

à The fight was between the link of chains. They were really fighting for authority.

3.     At the end of the chapter, the narrator is sent out of Harlem. Why would The Brotherhood remove a successful member of the party and send him off to lecture on a subject about which he knows so little either by training or personal experience?

à They did not want the narrator to receive all the attention or publicity. They did not want to be invisible.

Chapter 19

Note that chapter 19 is a transitional chapter like chapters 7 and 12.

This chapter details the narrator’s seduction by the nameless “woman in red.”

1.     In what ways is Ellison playing with the idea that white women are drawn to Black me?

à The white women states that she wanted to be with a black male.

2.     What reaction does the woman give when her husband comes home?

à She didn’t care if her husband was home. It’s as if the narrator was not their with her.

3.     What is the narrator’s action?

à He is shocked that the husband didn’t do anything about him sleeping with his wife.

4.     Do you think this chapter is humorous, or is it serious social commentary?

à The scene is a serious social commentary because it shows that they saw the narrator as an object instead of a human being just because of his skin color. It shows that they see them as something that’s not even human.

Invisible Man Chapters 13-15 Reading Questions

Chapter 13

1. Peter Wheatstraw foreshadows the encounter with the yam seller. How do these encounters differ? What changes are revealed in the narrator’s identity? How is his change in identity linked with his desire to show Bledsoe as a fraud?

→ The encounters differ because the narrator wants to express to people that he is from the south and is not ashamed of it anymore.

2. In the eviction scene, the narrator makes his second speech of the novel. Study it carefully. Compare it to the first speech. Take notes about the narrator’s developing identity.

→ His audience changed from a white audience to a black audience. He is directing his speech to black people.

3. How does the narrator meet Brother Jack? The Brotherhood is a thinly veiled version of the Communist Party. Richard Wright, Ellison’s first mentor, was an active member in the Communist Party. At Wright’s request, Ellison wrote a number of articles for leftist publications between 1937 and 1944, but never joined. He objected to the Communist Party’s limitations of individuality and personal expression.

→ The narrator meets Brother Jack on a street.

4. What new piece of paper replaces the letters from Bledsoe as the narrator’s identity?

→ The envelope that was given to the narrator by Brother Jack.

Chapter 14

1. What pushes the narrator to accept The Brotherhood’s offer? The fact that Mary Rambo is taking care of the narrator (being short of money already) and he was not contributing at all.

→ He accepts Brotherhood’s offer because he feels like he needs to repay Mary Rambo for all the nice things she has done for him.

2. Note that the building is called the Chthonia. In Greek mythology, this is another name for Hades’ realm, the underworld. What descriptions and images can you find that convey the sense of entering an underworld type of realm? Why is entering the world of The Brotherhood like entering the underworld?

→ The Chthonia is filled with darkness.

3. The phone number has been replaced by a new name in an envelope? Why? Why are we never told of this new name?

→ (not sure)

4. How does the party scene remind the reader of how limited and/or hypocritical most whites are in the understanding of the treatment of Blacks?

→ They are very racist towards the black people even if they do want to help the black people have civil rights.

Chapter 15

1. Think about the symbolism of the Sambo bank. Is it related to Clifton’s Sambo doll? What about the fact that it belonged to Mary Rambo? What about the bank’s “grinning mouth” that swallows coins? Think back to the Battle Royal in Chapter 1.

→ The Sambo bank symbolizes the hard work that the black people have to do on a day to day basis just to get what they need. They needed to keep the white people entertained in order to make a living. The fact that Mary used to own this bank means that she has also gone through racial discrimination and has struggled.

Invisible Man Reading Questions 10-12

Chapter 10

1. Consider the racial connotations of Liberty Paints. Think about the company name, trademark, slogans, government contracts, and Optic White. What do you think the company symbolizes? Why has the company been hiring Blacks?

→ The company symbolizes the idea of having an all white America.

2. Think about how Optic White is manufactured. What do the 10 drops of “dead black liquid” symbolize?

→ The 10 drops of dead black liquid symbolizes the hard work that they make the African Americans do and slavery.

3. Note that Lucius Brockway works deep in the basement of the factory, hidden from view. Is this symbolic? How is Brockway like Bledsoe? How is he different?

→ Brockway is hidden because he is not important. They don’t put much importance to him because like Bledsoe, he is black and therefore has no power.

4. How is Brockway himself like the 10 drops?

→ The people don’t know he is there.

5. After the explosion on p. 230, the narrator is thrust “into a wet blast of black emptiness that is somehow a bath of whiteness". How does this immersion of a Black man into a world of whiteness continue the expressionism of the chapter?

→ It shows that whites were taking control of the black people and making them do whatever they want them to do. It’s a sense of emptiness because they have no will to do anything on their own.

Chapter 11

The expressionist images of chapter 10 are black and white. Here they are death and rebirth.

1. What images of this chapter echo the Battle Royal?

→ When the narrator realizes he is invisible.

2. The doctors at the factory hospital shock the narrator until he enters a warm watery world. Look for other images of the womb and birth.

→ The crowning of the baby and the contractions the mother has.

3. Afterwards, the narrator is a blank slate with no memory or identity. How do the doctor’s questions develop this image of rebirth?

→ They tell him about his past.

4. Why has the narrator been reborn? What aspects of his old identity have died?

→ The narrator has been reborn to fix the mistakes from the past and find out his own identity.

5. Buckeye the Rabbit is the same as Brer Rabbit. Remember the reference to the Tar Baby in chapter 10? In realizing that he is Buckeye the Rabbit, the narrator finds the wit and strength to escape from the machine. How is the machine like Trueblood’s clock? How does Buckeye the Rabbit embody the folk wisdom of the narrator’s childhood? How has he been reborn into the identity he at first denied upon arriving in New York?

→ The machine is like Trublodd’s clock because there is no way out meaning that time waits for no one.

6. What lesson has the narrator learned?

→ The lesson learned is that you should not be afraid of what will happen next.

Chapter 12

1. In what way is the narrator childlike?

→ The narrator is childlike because he no longer cares what he does right.

2. How does he permanently close off the link with his old aspirations and dreams?

→ He does this by leaving where he was at and thinking about going back to the South.