In the first chapter of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the narrator attends an event where he presents a speech in hopes of receiving a scholarship. At this event, the narrator is forced to participate in some sort of battle for the audience’s own entertainment. When they finally remember he was supposed to present a speech, he must talk while blood fills his mouth and his eye throbs. The audience still makes fun of the narrator as he talks. Despite the racist remarks and physical pain inflicted on the author during this event and chapter, when he receives the scholarship he is completely overjoyed and ignores any ill feelings that experience should have given him.
In chapter sixteen, readers observe the narrator give another speech, however the way the event plays out is completely conflicting with the first speech he gave in chapter one. In this chapter, the narrator is giving a speech for the brotherhood, a seemingly progressive organization. The narrator seems to expect the crowd to be hesitant towards him after the other members give their speeches, however they are actually very excited to hear him speak. At first, he is very nervous (perhaps his subconscious remembering the events of chapter one), but the crowd becomes very encouraged by his words. It seems like the brotherhood had given him a speech to go off of, but he veers his own way instead of saying what they want to hear.
The main obvious difference between chapter one and chapter sixteen would be the people attending the speech. The people in chapter sixteen are genuinely excited to hear the narrator speak and value his words, while the audience in chapter one mocked him and weren’t actually paying much attention. Another big difference is the way the narrator gives his speeches. In chapter one, the narrator has written and planned everything he wants to say, while in chapter sixteen he is improvising and speaking from the heart. In chapter one, he says what is expected of him and apologizes when he accidentally says “equality” because he knows the audience and organizers don’t agree with that ideology. In chapter sixteen though, the narrator doesn’t care that the brotherhood may not want him to go off script. During his speech, the narrator mentions blindness a lot. I feel like during the first chapter he was blind to what was going on around him, and in chapter sixteen he is finally beginning to understand that blindness and become a more “conscious” character like we see in the prologue.
I think a big difference in the speeches also has to do with the narrator. In chapter 1, he is nervous about his speech throughout the battle royal (when he has other things to worry about). He also has the speech completely memorized. Compare that to chapter 16, when he give a totally spontaneous speech.
ReplyDeleteI agree that in many ways the narrator seems more aware and critical-minded and "eyes open" going into the Brotherhood period, and that this makes for some significant differences from that first speech. But there are "boomerang" moments that keep reminding us of chapter 1--the fact that it's in a boxing arena, where a fighter was once *blinded* during a fight; the narrator is constantly "blinded" by the bright stage lights (recalling his white blindfolds in chapter 1). Like so many moments in this novel, even as Ellison depicts "progress," he tends to undercut it with irony.
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