Anger in Invisible Man
Our narrator, T.I.M, has been slowly getting worn down by his experiences in life. In the prologue, we are allowed to glimpse into his head and see what he is going to become, and how violent he can get. Then the narrator we meet in the first chapter is totally different. He is completely docile, and willing to do anything to please the white men above him on the social ladder. Even when he gets to college and eventually messes up, he still doesn’t want to leave the school. That means losing his chance to truly be able to move himself along in life. Despite all of his hardships, I thought it would take a lot longer for TIM to crack. I didn’t expect him to beat up Mr, Brockway. I have really enjoyed the book so far, but I feel like there are a lot of cracks in the story. Maybe that is on purpose because of the narrator being an unreliable narrator, or because the readers are supposed to actively read, but it really is starting to annoy me. I want to understand the narrator and his seemingly sudden turn to anger makes me confused. He was so docile in the first chapter that I am having a hard time accepting this change as being believable.
I feel like his anger stems from the narrator’s inability to find himself and his true identity. He is constantly covering up things of his past by identifying with a different group and conforming to their standards. He may think that through these groups, like his college and the brotherhood, he will belong somewhere, but he never seems to get that satisfaction. It is interesting to be able to follow him through these changes in his life, and I think the sudden anger comes from somewhere deep within, lashing out because he isn’t satisfied with is identity. He has nightmares about his past, which shows that it is always going to follow him no matter how hard he tries to suppress those memories and truths about himself. I feel like the only way he is going to be happy is if figures out his true identity.
I feel as though the narrator resorts to violence as a means of obtaining power over White men. Although his acts of violence stand in stark contrast with his docile nature from the first chapter, I see it as an extension of his speech-giving self. He becomes an individual who cannot find reasonable words to explain himself and so resorts to violence as a means of showcasing that he is indeed in the right and Whites, no matter what they do, cannot bully him or push him around.