Perception
In both Native Son and Invisible Man, perception
plays a critical role in the development of the plot and characters, and through
this, ultimately displaying the profound and perpetual effects of racism.
In Native Son, there are several moments when Bigger
uses others’ demeaning perceptions of him to his own
advantage. He uses it to avoid suspicion and to carefully craft his cover-up
story. Similarly, as the narrator of Invisible Man begins to become more and
more self-aware, his understanding of others’ perceptions of him plays a big
part in the way he acts. The narrator is constantly calculating how the
implications of a certain event may affect his image. However, while Bigger
uses the negative perception (specifically the false perception of black people
being unintelligent) of black people to his advantage, the narrator of Invisible
Man wants to break the stereotypical lens through which black people are
looked upon, and instead build himself what he thinks of as a more positive image.
Over the course of three chapters, the narrator’s
understanding of how people view him (and how people view Mr. Norton/white
people in general) has already changed drastically. In the first chapter we see a
completely naïve boy who doesn’t seem to have much self-awareness, if at all. He
is unable to see the consequences of racism in how people view him, or don’t
view him at all. He believes that he can still sway peoples’ opinions about him
by behaving in a certain way and achieving a certain standard.
By the second chapter we see that the narrator has gained a
bit more of an understanding, or at least an interest, in how people see him. His
discomfort and aggravation at Jim Trueblood telling his story to Mr. Norton
seems to largely stem from this heightened sense of self-consciousness. He’s
worried that Trueblood’s impression on Mr. Norton will reflect onto Mr. Norton’s
perception of him as well. Despite some progression from his absolute naivety in
the first chapter, both the narrator and Mr. Norton don’t see each
other, but the narrator is unable to completely catch onto that because he hasn’t reached
that level of understanding at this point.
Getting into the third chapter, the narrator experiences outright
rejection of the usual social order for the first time in the story. This
experience makes the narrator uncomfortable because he is again concerned with
how Mr. Norton thinks of him. However, this chapter reveals a new development
in the narrator. Amidst his fear of being judged wrongly by Mr. Norton, the
narrator experiences a satisfaction in seeing Mr. Norton disrespected. This
satisfaction has several implications. One of them, and perhaps the most
significant, is that it can (and seems that it is beginning to) lead the narrator to break the rose-tinted glass through which he has been viewing Mr. Norton thus far,
and may even eventually lead him to think less importantly about how Mr. Norton
sees him.
Throughout the first few chapters of Invisible Man, this
idea of perception, particularly regarding the narrator’s understanding of it, has
been an indicator in his development. As the story moves along, it seems that it will be crucial to follow this progression in order to understand the narrator’s
increasing understanding and how he eventually became the person he has become,
writing his story in the basement of an apartment filled with light bulbs.
Your post has made me realize how expertly Ellison is slowly but surely transforming the narrator of Invisible Man into the man we see in the prologue. He's on the path towards what he dubs as enlightenment which, in other words, is an extreme sense of self awareness. It's interesting how different Ellison's gradual approach is to Wright's straight out approach. Bigger is self aware from the beginning, and he has already realized what his life is going to look like, whereas the narrator from Invisible Man still has hope that he can be something great. Do you think these are just the two approaches the authors chose, or are these two very different styles each trying to point towards a different message?
ReplyDeleteIt's intriguing to see the connections between Bigger and the narrator of "Invisible Man" that you've pointed out. We discussed in class how "Invisible Man" was a kind of response to "Native Son" and I think you've found an interesting aspect of the separation between invisibility and perception. In "Native Son", rather than invisibility, it is perception that seems to be focused on by the author. For example, Bigger's perception of all white people as one entity or the way that Bigger uses the whites' perception of him to his advantage. In contrast, "Invisible Man" focuses on one's invisibility and how people can't truly see each other. The narrator in this novel has been seen in the prologue to attack a white man and get away with it due to this fact. I hope that as we read more of the novel, there can be more connections drawn between "Native Son"'s focus on perception and "Invisible Man"'s focus on invisibility.
ReplyDeleteAs you pointed out, perception is such a key part to both of the stories we have read/ are reading thus far, and in turn I think perception is a huge part of racism, which encapsulates both books entirely. As you pointed out, both Black narrators are consciously aware of how they think other people view them, and their perceptions, whether those be entirely true or not. We know that Ellison is directly trying to respond to Wright, so it makes sense that both of them start out this way. They both are consciously aware of their place in society, as black men. However, they go about with this knowledge very differently. While Bigger almost 'plays' into what society expects of him; While we know that the narrator in Invisible Man is entirely capable of doing so as well (ie, him wanting to murder Blensoe) he does not, and instead hopes to, I guess, break the perception. He wants to prove the white people wrong in a way. And unfortunately, learns the hard way that this is sort of impossible in most ways.
ReplyDeleteI think you make a really good point about how perception is a key role in the character development in both characters, and I find it interesting the parallels between Bigger and the Narrator despite them being so different. As you mention, the way perception affects both characters is completely different, and is incredibly important to their character development, which I think is what makes it really interesting as we see that they have very few similarities. It is almost as if, as a response to "Native Son", Ellison uses similar factors that affected Bigger one way to show how they can create someone completely different as if they were two different flowers stemmed from the same root.
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