Some Take Aways from the Invisible Man
Now that we’ve all finished reading the Invisible Man, I think there are some lessons that we can all take away. One of the most important things that I’ve learned is that the racial prejudice causes people to see others only as they want to see them. For example, despite the many valid contributions that that the Invisible Man made to the Brotherhood, they always questioned his credibility and authority, making him feel insecure. Even though he had good intentions, if they did not align with what the Brotherhood wanted, they reprimanded him.
In addition, another important take away is that the world is full of blind men – people who cannot see the truth because privilege gets in the way; examples of such men include Bledsoe and Mr. Norton. Bledsoe thinks that because he has a position of power, he can resist the White man’s authority while Mr. Norton believes that by giving back to the Blacks, he can make up for the original sins of this country.
Finally, I think the last take away is that there is no solution to the issue of prejudice. Prejudiced thinking occurs as a consequence of a lack of exposure and interaction among people of different races. There is no surefire way to eradicate prejudice, we can only take steps to reduce it, for example, by creating more opportunities for the different races to intermingle fewer people will continue to embrace stereotypes. Overall, this novel was a great read and I think it really helped magnify the issues that Black men continue face in America even to this day.