Invisible Man: Chapters 1-2

Chapter 1

1. How does the Battle Royal illuminate to the narrator the differences between Blacks and Whites? It creates not only a physical divide between the races -- inside and outside of the ring -- but the language that is used against the fighters ("those black sonsabitches"; "tear [the narrator] limb from limb") only once the black men are blindfolded shows that the white men are not truly confident with the violent side of their racism until they believe they cannot suffer the consequences for it later.
2. What shocking surprises does the narrator have that night? He is forced to fight one-on-one with a peer much bigger than he (which he was not meant to do in the first place at the smoker), then made to scramble for "money" (really just tokens) on an electrified rug, and finally given a briefcase containing scholarship documents for the state college (for black people, as segregation was still in place).
3. How does the Battle Royal symbolize the narrator’s struggle for identity? The BR symbolizes the narrator's struggle for identity through the fact that he is blindfolded (he cannot discern what is different between himself and the other men) and also pitted against another man alone at the end -- to the white men watching the brawl, there are no differences between the two fighters, because they are both black, and to them, that is all that matters.
4. How does it symbolize the plight of Blacks in that time period in general? The BR symbolizes the plight of the black race in that era overall in a literal sense: they are fighting each other to appease the white men, their oppressors, unaware that whatever they gain from beating out their peers will be bittersweet.
5. The narrator gives a number of speeches throughout the novel. This is the first. Study it carefully and write a brief summary. What is the topic and why is that topic ironic? The topic of the narrator's speech is that humility is "the very essence of progress", and yet he is laughed at and belittled by the men who brought him to speak, showing that the "social responsibility" that the narrator speaks of (including an excerpt from Booker T. Washington's orations, who preached the same principle) is in actuality a one-way street. Humility is actually just a nice way to say "subservience".
6. In what ways are the Blacks at the smoker humiliated? Why do the White men take such pleasure in that humiliation? An initial humiliation might be that of the black men being forced to watch the blonde woman dance/become sexually aroused in front of the other men and each other. They were then forced to fight each other in the boxing ring (or otherwise be threatened with violence). These humiliations delight the white men because they are forcibly justifying their own backwards beliefs and stereotypes about black men being stupid and animalistic.
7. The narrator clings to the White man’s chair and thinks of tossing the man on the electrified rug. How does this scene symbolize the consequences of Black rebellion in a White world? The scene (especially the ending where he is kicked into the rug by Mr. Colcord) shows that no matter how much black rebellion fights against what they believe is the lesser of two evils (the person rather than society as a whole), the two evils are codependent and will eventually work with each other to stamp out dissidence from the status quo.
8. List all reference to the image of blindness. The blindfold is the obvious reference, but there is also smoke in the room and blinding lights focused on the stage for what is assumed to be dramatic effect for the evening's "entertainment".
9. What is the significance of the narrator’s dream at the end of the chapter? The clowns symbolize the black men in the Battle Royal (and throughout history that existed only to please white people), and the fact that the grandfather does not laugh at them shows that he has silent respect for doing what they must in order to survive, working for themselves and their own preservation. In regards to the envelope and letter, the many layers prior to reaching the letter show "years" or false promises lauded onto the black race for a better future. The message -- "Keep This N**ger-Boy Running" -- reveals that all the progress had, in the end, been for naught.

Chapter 2

1. How does the statue of the founder fit into the sight imagery begun in the Prologue? The fact that the narrator is unsure as to whether the veil is being lifted or dropped onto the slave fits into the imagery from the Prologue by building on the idea that "recognition is a form of agreement"; if the narrator believed the veil was lifted, then he was subscribed to the belief that education was setting black people free. However, if he believed the veil was being dropped, then he was in the camp of believing that the educated black people were keeping those who still were affected in some way by slavery subjugated because of their ignorance.
2. Look at the “Maxims of Emerson” handout. Are Norton’s comments ironic? Why or why not?  Norton's comments are indeed ironic because while he says that Emerson's philosophies were important to black people, he seems to subscribe to several of them as a white man, especially #9 and #6: "The civilized man has built a coach, but lost the use of his feet" (Norton, being a founder of the school, has built a "coach" in the sense that he has drivers that are members of the university, and by being driven around by the students, is not using his feet in the literal sense) and "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man" (Norton states outright that the narrator and his "first-hand organizing of human life" are his fate).
3. Notice that Norton smokes a cigar. Does this connect him to other men of power? Who? This connects him to other men of power due to the fact that cigars are often more expensive (so I'm told) than other smoking products like cigarettes. Other men of power related to Norton through the mention of cigar smoking include robber barons/captains of industry, rich (multi)millionaires that profited off of the work of their subordinates, like Carnegie and Rockefeller. Men like them were usually drawn in newspaper cartoons with cigars.
4. Do you sense anything unnatural about Norton’s relationship with his daughter (on p. 51)? Norton idolizes his daughter, but particularly in her looks and being "too good" (and pure) for this world. It comes across as a little sexual.
5. Norton seems amazed that Trueblood has “looked upon chaos and [is] not destroyed.” What do you make of this comment? I think that Norton considers incest to be one of the most heinous crimes to be committed (rightfully so) and does not know how the man can live with himself after doing such a thing. It might also be the point where Norton starts to see Trueblood as being inhuman for his actions.
6. How might the clock in Trueblood’s dream symbolize the modern mechanized world? The clock symbolizes the modern mechanized world because it goes on and on, picking up speed without caring for those not keeping up. The white lady is preventing Trueblood from going into the clock because if he modernizes out of the sharecropper (post-slave) mentality away from making her family money off the land, then she will suffer. When Trueblood enters the clock, he is met with things that he cannot comprehend and frighten him, particularly because he does not have the education to progress along with the technology.
7. Do you find any symbolism in Trueblood’s name? It could have something to do with the fact that he had sex with his blood relative, but also that he is a physical representation of the white man's fears and assumptions about how black men behave: he is black men's "true blood".
8. Did you find the incest story disturbing? Why does Ellison include it? Ellison includes it because it is another example of how sometimes negative stereotypes are perpetuated, yet the people that do perpetuate stereotypes are still human and capable of holding conversations and moving on from their shortcomings, rather than wallowing in what others have deemed flaws. I did not find the incest story particularly disturbing, but that again, I am rather detached from things like that.
9. Read the final paragraph on p. 67 that begins “Things got to happenin’ right off.” What do you make of the White community’s willingness to help Trueblood? How does this relate to the grandfather’s deathbed speech? I believe that the white people were willing to help Trueblood because they pitied him. Not in a good, selfless way of helping, but more in the way where you want to donate to a cause because you see the victims of violence and/or disaster as being too pathetic to help themselves. This relates to the deathbed speech of the grandfather because Trueblood, by accepting the help of the white people and continuing to work for them, is living "with his head in the lion's mouth". While it is doubtful that he will be prosecuted for his crimes against his family, he is constantly at odds with what is "respectable" (working for white people, "[overcoming] them with yeses") and what he has done to forever sully his family's reputation.