Mirrors and Glasses
In Chapter 23 of Invisible Man, the main character and narrator puts on a hat and a pair of sunglasses to disguise himself from Ras the Exhorter's men, who are trying to find him and beat him up. Throughout the chapter, he is mistaken for a man called Rinehart, who is apparently extremely well known all over Harlem for his roles as "Rine the runner and Rine the gambler and Rine the briber and Rine the lover and Rinehart the Reverend" (498). He puts on many different roles, but always wears the same costume, and so our narrator is mistaken for all of these different versions of the same man while wearing this disguise. During this time our narrator has the realization that he is an invisible man, and that if Rinehart can just walk around being all of these different people, he can pull off something similar. One of the threads that sort of ran through this chapter though but was never really openly discussed was the way that our narrator's ability to see other people is also hampered here.
While walking around wearing the green glasses, the narrator finds himself, "struck by the merging fluidity of forms seen through the lenses. Could this be the way the world appeared to Rinehart? All the dark-glass boys? 'For now we see as through a glass darkly but then--but then--' I couldn't remember the rest" (491). Here the narrator's experience seeing through this filter on the world reminds him of a bible verse that he cannot quite remember but is right on the edge of his brain. The verse that he is quoting here is “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” from Corinthians 13:12. At least this is how it is in the King James translation, in other versions, it is translated as a mirror, rather than a glass. I found this to be one of the key points that is touched on lightly but not fully explored in this chapter. This verse seems to be all about recognition, about the obstacles to seeing other people but then when you finally do see them, face to face, you can finally see and be seen by them. Furthermore, the versions of this verse that refer to the object as a mirror, rather than a glass, seem to only heighten this meaning and really relate to invisibility as it is established at the beginning of the novel. On the very first page of this book when he is defining invisibility as a concept, the narrator says, "I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass" (3).
When you are looking through something that distorts your vision, it is not just that you appear distorted to others, the world also appears distorted to you. When looking into a mirror, that distortion is even more intense, because rather than seeing what is in front of you, you see yourself reflected back. Later in this same chapter, the narrator talks to Brother Hambro, and wonders "How would he look through the green lenses?" (504). The narrator is vaguely aware, but not quite, that when he looks at the world through these green-colored glasses, his vision of others is just as distorted as their vision of him.
I thought your post was really interesting, and it seems to me like the distortions you mention are kind of a metaphor for race. I mean, a white person could never really see a black person because they have different glasses obstructing their view. They do not have the same experiences. In that way, though, we could never really fully see anyone else because nobody has the exact same experiences. And, I believe that's true. I also think we are often invisible to ourselves because we bury some of our experiences when we don't like thinking about them, or just in general we forget certain things happened. And, if you're invisible to yourself, how would you be visible to someone else?
ReplyDeleteYes, I definitely think this is interesting, and gets into what we were talking about in class when we discussed how the threads toward the end of the book about everyone actually being invisible, not the narrator, fit into the theme of race and racism in the book. If everyone is invisible, how is the narrator special? I do however think that his invisibility may be stronger than others' according to the author (though I'm not sure I agree - the white characters didn't seem very visible, even if known or famous). Still not sure what the author was leading toward by having the narrator realize everyone's invisibility.
DeleteOne line you mentioned really stuck out to me. The narrator says he's "struck by the merging fluidity of forms seen through the lenses". I think this line is also useful to describe how the Narrator is seen by others throughout the book. The most prominent examples are Norton, the Brotherhood, and the 2 women he gets with during the novel. To all of these people, the Narrator is just a black boy, interchangeable with every other black boy. His form is fluid because he has no identifying features other than his skin. By identifying the green-colored glasses, he's able to see how others see him.
ReplyDeleteI think that this post is really interesting especially in the context of the conclusion of the novel. While the narrator is presented with this idea that perhaps everyone is invisible to everyone as a result of their own invisibility (wow that sounds very convoluted) in this moment you're describing, he only remembers part of this bible quote. In this moment, the narrator doesn't fully understand this universal invisibility. But at the end of the novel, he has come to see it, culminating in his final line of "Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?"
ReplyDeleteI love this post and find it really fascinating. The glasses make it much more obvious that his view is distorted, that he's seeing other people through a specific lens, but I don't think this is the only time the narrator's view of people is tampered with - to me, he's always looking through a distorted lens (everyone is), it's just not noticeable to him because that's the only way he's ever seen the world. That aspect of distortion and mirroring is still there, since he's seeing the world and the people in it through the context of his own life experiences, like some other people also mentioned in the comments. I think that's something that the narrator hadn't quite gotten in this chapter (or at any point? I can't quite remember), which I think can be seen in how he can't quite remember the full quote.
ReplyDeleteI'm suddenly thinking again about that passing comment during his first Brotherhood speech, where he plans to wear dark glasses on stage in the future (like Rev. Homer Barbee back at the college). He never mentions this again, and clearly he's not giving speeches in shades throughout this section, but it does suggest a connection between the new identity he tries out in that first speech, and the Rinehart Revelations that dismantle all his faith in the Brotherhood. When he finally does put on the dark glasses, it's not because the lights are too bright--it's because he wants to *hide* his affiliation with the Brotherhood, and thus his identity. It's a *disguise* that (paradoxically) serves to teach him a profound lesson about the fluidity of identity.
ReplyDeleteThis was a cool post, and the chapter you're discussing in it is really interesting. The narrators increasing awareness about how he is perceived, as well as how he perceives others is a fascinating process to read, and you made some good thought-provoking comments about it. You also did some research about the specific bible portion he's quoting, and I think that's pretty cool.
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