Invisible Man Anticipation Guide

1. I really like the photograph by Jeff Wall, especially the light display (of "exactly 1,369 lights", due to it being a recreation of the setting in Invisible Man) on the ceiling. It reminds me of a makeshift crystal chandelier. It's interesting to note that the vast majority of the light bulbs are either dim or not on at all, which makes me wonder what the lights themselves individually symbolize, whether they're influences or ideas... or maybe they're just light bulbs. The overall tone of the picture is calm, with the unique light display casting a warm, hazy glow on the room. Not one area visible in the room is completely dark, and the room itself is likely proportionally smaller than it appears. I noticed this because the far wall in front of the camera is actually behind a wide (facing out, anyway) dresser and if the man in the picture were to stand up to his full height, he would have the majority of his head in the lights. The clutter of the room as well as the angle from which Wall took the picture (a corner, judging by wall distance) makes the space look larger than it actually is.
2. "(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue" has a double meaning in the title: black and blue can refer to the physical coloration of bruises, showing how racism has hurt the narrator, or it can be black and blue as two separate entities with Black being the race of the narrator (and of Armstrong himself) and "blue" being a common synonym for sadness. The tone of the song itself is extremely mournful: coupled with Armstrong’s unique voice, the lyrics themselves convey abandonment by everyone the narrator knows; even the mice (i.e. pests or scum) of the building he lives in refuse to associate with him. The song and its lyrics are definitely darker than what the picture by Jeff Wall conveys, but the idea of loneliness is present in both works. In the photograph, the man in the picture is not the main focus, and in fact blends into his surroundings with the eye initially being drawn to the ceiling. The man/narrator’s face is also worth mentioning in both works, despite the fact that they are the opposite of each other. The man’s face in the photograph is hidden away from the audience as he’s facing away from the camera, but in the song, the narrator cannot hide his face from (what is presumably) the public eye.The part of the passage that resonates the most with me is the narrator's desire for validation and the need to prove something.
3. Personally, I have a lot of ideas – most of which likely will not come to fruition for practical purposes – and nothing to do with them at the moment, and the lack of available action in my life has caused a lot of stress for me in wanting to show that my ideas and goals are not only plausible, but because they are what I want to do, they matter just as much as the ideas or circumstances that have a greater likelihood of succeeding. The idea that there’s a specification for where the narrator/audience that he is addressing is in life (“real world” as opposed to just “world” alone) also reiterates that there is a possible difference between what I want and what I am going to get, and that’s just how it is realistically, and that’s okay. Realism and a sense of actuality is required when achieving goals that are planned out in a mind primarily closed off to what the best (and worst) course of action there is for getting from Point A to Point B.