Invisible Man-Chapter 1 Thoughts

Aside from the prologue, the first chapter of any piece of literary merit is important in foreshadowing some important themes and motifs that are revealed through the rest of the text. Just a brief summary of this first chapter: the narrator is supposed to be delivering a speech to the "white folk" that explains how there should be an advancement in the treatment of black Americans around the nation. To his surprise, he is told to take place in a "battle royal" type of fight in which he has to fight other black men for the entertainment of the white folk. There is also a scene in which black Americans are told to fight for fake gold coins on an electric rug in order for the white men to be entertained. The narrator does eventually give his speech, and is rewarded with a calfskin briefcase with a scholarship to a state college. 

I think the death of the narrator's grandfather is incredibly important as a foreshadow. For example, the grandfather claims, "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 or bust wide open."Throughout his life, the grandfather was incredibly meek and accepting towards the white men as if he was a "spy". This is parallel to how the narrator feels towards the white folk throughout the chapter. In fact, the grandfather seems to describe this general submissiveness as "treachery". Treachery has the denotation of a betrayal of trust as if submitting to the white men is breaking ties with the black Americans around him. One of the scenes that I think is incredibly interesting is the scene of the blonde lady dancing as a "creature [who] was completely hypnotized". Creature connotes being under the complete control of another. In this sense, she seems to be under the complete control of the white men that pedestal her as a form of entertainment. However, the difference between her and the black men is that she is white. In this way, maybe this text is not merely about the struggle of racism but rather the struggle of obtaining an egalitarian society from a pervasive standpoint. As I've started to index, I have noticed that the speaker constantly compares himself to a "drunken man". Being drunk causes one to lose the ability to control one's own behaviors, thus it seems as though the narrator is in a constant state of being drunk because he is unable to control his own behaviors with the dominancy of the white men. The speaker also claims, "The boys groped about like blind cautious crabs crouching to protect their mid-sections, their heads pulled in short against their shoulders, their arms stretched nervously before them, with their fists testing the smoke-filled air like the knobbed feelers of hypersensitive snails." Throughout this chapter, Ellison refers to most of the characters through an animalistic parallel. For example, crabs are only able to move side to side, which could indicate a sense of stagnation for the black men who are unable to progress within this society. However, it is interesting to note that both the white men and the black men are given animalistic characteristics, which could be the speaker's way of foreshadowing the eventual equality between everyone.