If I Had a Son His Name Would Be Ellison

Ralph Ellison, by Jenny K.

Surveying my bookshelf and getting down my copy of Invisible Man from 11th or 12th grade (the 90's were boom time for diversity in private schools) I was flooded with memories of characters and scenes from the novel: The Prologue, Battle Royal, The Vet, Dr. Bledsoe, The Optic White Paint Factory, Tod Clifton, Ras the Destroyer . . . When I taught 7th and 8th grade I would teach The Battle Royal scene as a short story and students would beg to read the rest of the book! Imagine that; middle-school students begging to read a 581 page book!  That's how powerful Invisible Man is, and I feel a special affinity for anyone who has read and enjoyed it.

Roman Lawson reciting The Prologue from Invisible Man better than any trained actor could have!

In my opinion, Invisible Man is the best novel ever written and should be required reading for all Americans. What has surprised me most about working at my new school is how deep and wide the gap is between blacks and whites in America (sometimes I feel like a canary in a coal mine).  If the continued realities of segregation prevent Americans from getting to know each other across color lines, literature can be a conduit for understanding.

"Invisible Man," by Jeff Wall

However, Invisible Man is not just a window into the black psyche for white Americans, as Toni Morrison has implied (Morrison said that she knew that Invisible Man wasn't written for "us" because black men were not invisible to her).  I have to respectfully disagree with Ms. Morrison (gasp!) and argue that Invisible Man, first published in 1952, was a novel ahead of its time. It was written precisely for those of "us" who were heading North and entering an integrated world without a roadmap.  Consider this quote:

 

"The Invisible Man," by Gordon Parks

“Son, after I’m gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy’s country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit you or bust wide open.”

 

How I Feel at Work Half the Time

At the beginning of my teaching career, I was given the dubious advice that I should be "the spook who sat by the door."  The subtext of that comment was that if I was to survive in the world of education I should just "sit down and be quiet."  However, I didn't want to be anyone's spook; I wanted to be a shape-shifter like the narrator of Invisible Man.  I wanted to use people's inability to see me to my advantage, to "play the game, but [not] believe in it."  The power of Invisible Man is that it features black characters who are doing more than just reacting to white racism; they are thinking, evolving human beings who remake the world as they define and refine themselves.

If you haven't read Invisible Man, it is definitely worth the effort -but save it for when you have time to really grapple with it.  You can also listen to the audiobook masterfully read by Olivia Pope's Daddy, Joe Morton.