There are many parts in Invisible
Man that are very
"dreamlike" and surreal. In the first few chapters it was only small
parts of the story, such the dreams that he had, or situations like the events
that happened in the Golden Day. But as the book goes on the situations he is
put in and the things that occur have become more and more surreal, like
something out of a crazy dream.
I think that there are a lot of really
good examples of this in the events leading up to and during his time working
at the paint factory. It starts out as him crossing a bridge blanketed in fog,
walking into the unknown. This scene on its own is pretty surreal, the fact
that he is crossing a bridge into a place that he can't see, with fog all
around him. But it only gets more surreal when he arrives at the paint factory,
where he bounces from job to job being yelled at by all kinds of different
people. First by Mr. Kimbro for messing up the paint and then he is sent to
work in the basement with Mr. Brockway who is a bit odd and seems more like
someone that would be encountered in a dream rather than real life. He is old
and uneducated yet is somehow the only person who is able to keep the boilers
and other parts running.
Then he goes to get his lunch but is
caught in a union meeting where he is called a "fink" and yelled at
more until they decide to take a vote and then vote him out of the room. This
part is very surreal how they go from calling him anti-union to suddenly having
a vote about whether or not to let him into the union. After this he goes back
to the basement were Mr. Brockway yells at him for being a part of the union,
which he isn't, this yelling climaxes in a fight between him and the old man
who ends up biting him and losing his dentures. This part, while comical, is
totally unreal and would probably never happen in real life. This scene ends
with the boiler exploding and the narrator passing out.
After the narrator passes out the book
becomes even more dreamlike. He is waking up, as if from a crazy dream, only to
find it's all real and he is in the factory hospital. In the hospital, instead
of operating on him to fix the injuries he sustained in the explosion they
decide to try an experimental electroshock treatment that renders him unable to
move while they treat him. This part of the book is when a reader would have a
hard time trying to tell if any of what was happening is real. The narrator has
just woken up from an already surreal fight and explosion only to find that the
doctors have decided against conventional methods and moved on to experimental electroshock
treatment.
This part of the novel is so surreal that
it would be very easy to convince the readers that he is actually at home
dreaming all of this and that none of it is real. I think that this is done to
help usher in a transition in the attitudes of the narrator. Gone is the
submissive accepting narrator from the first chapters and in his place we have
a narrator that is starting to change his view on everything and beginning to
notice his invisibility.
First of all, great blog post! I really like how you summarize your argument by saying that the narrator's sudden change in character can be attributed to the fact that he has been simply dreaming this whole time. In fact, that would put the whole book in a new light! In class, many of our discussions have been based around the fact that we didn't like how the narrator is submissive and passive. We wanted to listen to the sarcastic, cynical and confident narrator that we were introduced to in the prologue. The fact that all these chapters might just be dreams of the narrator in the prologue is a really interesting take on this novel so far, and one that I actually enjoy imagining.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the surrealism of almost all the events taking place and that leads me to question the validity of his recollection. Has all or even any of it happened or is he just like the narrator in Fight Club (which Jonah goes into greater detail on his blog)? Who's to say he's not high or drunk while remembering all of this? We don't know which is why we, as readers, are prey to the narrator's whim. That being said, there must be some base truth to everything unless he's completely delusional/insane. For each event, all the background seems to be valid (such as delivering a graduation speech leading to the battle royale) so it's only the dreamlike, slowed down, action (battle royale, Golden Day, etc.) that we question are reality. I can't wait to finish the book and find out the truth.
ReplyDeleteI think that this entire book is very dreamlike from the start. In the prologue the narrator seems very witty and skeptical of just about everything, then we jump in to the Battle Royale scene where he has to fight to give a speech. Then the Golden Day scene where the narrator just needs some whiskey to give to Mr. Norton, the bar tender refuses. We just move from one surreal thing to another, and I am curious to see if we ever really come out of this dream like state
ReplyDeleteThe book definitely has a surreal quality to it. In fact, I find it really cool how similar to a dream that certain parts of the book are. Things that would seem odd or seem like they would phase a person just…don’t. The paint factory is a very good example of this, with the hospital inside, the weird short man in the basement that has no education but operates the entirety of the paint making machines, and whose apparent knife actually turns out to be teeth. The hospital itself has an odd psychedelic air, with the character losing all concept of himself and being exposed to bright lights and odd nazi-esque doctors.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you that there are many dream like parts of the book, but I would say that other than the scene right after when the narrator leaves the hospital, the first chapter is the most dream like. I do realize that Battle Royals did really occur, but the parts with boys, almost men jumping on an a carpet and getting electrocuted to pick up coins that are nothing more than advertisements is much more surreal than many scenes later in the book.
ReplyDeleteI do also agree with you that the reason for this ultra surreal scene after the hospital is to make this shift between the character of the narrator in the beginning of the story, compared to him after the hospital scene. The things he does, the way he acts, all see a dramatic shift afterwards, and they're all bringing him closer to that man we met at the beginning of the prologue.