Sight & Blindness in the Invisible Man
Throughout the novel, Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison works with many different images of blindness and impaired vision and how it relates to sight. These images prove to be fascinating pieces of symbolism that enhance the themes of perception and vision within the novel. From the beginning of the novel where the Invisible Man is blindfolded to the end where he is walking down the streets of Harlem in dark glasses, images of sight and blindness add to the meaning of many scenes and characters. In many of these situations the characters inability to see outwardly parallels their inability to understand inwardly what is going on in the world around them. Characters like Homer A. Barbee and Brother Jack believe they are all knowing but prove to be blind when it comes to the world they are in. By looking at the characters with impaired vision one can better understand their struggles with understanding the world around them that they, however, are not yet aware of.
In the battle royal scene many black youths, including the Invisible Man, are brought together by the prominent white citizens of the town. Here they are gathered into a boxing ring while a naked white woman dances sensuously in front of them. The white men threatened the black boys if they looked and if they didn’t. The white men at once made the black boys want to divert their stares and at the same time forced them to watch. The white men were instantly controlling what the young boys were seeing. By controlling their vision the white men made the black boys embarrassed, ashamed and, upset, whishing that they couldn’t see the spectacle before them. The power the white men had is sickly forced upon the black boys by controlling what they see. This was taken a step further when immediately after the women stopped dancing the boys, “allowed [them]selves to be blindfolded with broad bands of white cloth” (21) . The white cloth symbolizes the white men’s power over the black boys. Immediately the Invisible Man, “felt a sudden fit of blind terror” (21). The “terror” of not knowing and being shut out of the visible world is a pain inflicted upon the black youths by the white men. The black boys can no longer hold on to any dignity when they are figuratively “blindfolded” by whites. The Invisible Man admits shamefully that, “I had no dignity” (22). The idea of blacks being figuratively “blindfolded” by whites symbolizes the helpless of people like the Invisible Man when around manipulative white men. The actual blindfolding reduces the black boys to flailing beasts and the fighting is pure chaos. This degrading act of being forced to stare at a naked woman followed by being blindfolded and forced to fight proves to be one of the most compelling examples of how powerful vision and blindness are when controlled by someone else.
