The Invisible Symbols

In the first chapter of The Invisible Man the main character passes through a series of situations that act as symbols for the situation that the black men had to tolerate in the time of the story. This happens when the narrator participates in the white men´s "Battle royale" and he gets blindfolded. The impairment given to the narrator represents the social restrictions that difficults the life of black people in the novel. This metaphoric representation of society also shows the incapacity of trascending the predjudice against him, including the incapacity of comunicating his feelings towards his situation.

Another symbol of the african-american opresion is the electrified mat where the money is laying in the white men reunion. The obstacle represented by the electric power shows how the predjudice of the white man destroys the possibilities of black people, in this case economical. In add, the way the white men force the narrator to fall on the electrified mat represent how the enforcement of the white men´s "superiority" is as harmful for the black man as its own submission to them.

In conclusion, the first chapter shows the current situation of black men in the novel through the actions of the narrator when he is surrounded by white men.