Blindness in "Native Son" Compared to "Invisible Man"

            The books Native Son by Richard Wright and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison have many differences, but one similarity is the idea that many characters surrounding the main character are blind. In Native Son, Bigger Thomas kills two young women, causing a trial that is heavily used as an excuse for blatant and violent racism. During this time, Bigger notices and points out a certain “blindness” to racial issues that the characters around him experience. In Invisible Man, the main character tells the story of how he discovered his invisibility. When he refers to his invisibility, one definition might be that he feels he is only seen for his skin color and surface appearance instead of his actual self, so his actual self is invisible. Invisibility and blindness aren’t exactly the same, but in these books they make the same point: black people (specifically in these books, the main characters) are viewed superficially because of their race. 

One example in Native Son, would be Mary and Jan’s blindness. When they first meet Bigger, they try to treat him as an equal by shaking hands and eating together in black restaurants, however, instead their actions were condescending. This is because they forced Bigger to do all of these things even though it made him feel uncomfortable. They were oblivious, or blind, to their own wrongs and racism. In Invisible Man, the character is telling the story of how he discovered his own invisibility. So far, we are still learning why exactly he feels invisible. I can, however, guess that the narrator may go through a similar thought process as Bigger. As he is now living in New York instead of the South, he is seeing the differences in how black people are treated. Although New York may be less violent towards black people, there is still a definite blindness that people feel towards their actions and feelings about black people, similar to Mary and Jan.