Question

Prove that the narrator of The Invisible Man (Prologue and Chapter 1 only) is truly invisible, showing the impact of his grandfather's dying words.

Answer 1

According to the narrator of The Invisible Man, the narrator is not physically invisible though he is invisible because of others reactions to him. They don’t accept his reality and live as if he isn’t visible to them at all. A direct example of his invisibility in the first chapter is the incident of the narrator bumping into a white man on street. He went on attacking the white man until he apologized. During a gathering of the most influential white citizens of the town, he delivers a speech for which he is so delighted that he ignores the voices of his dying grandfather who on his deathbed spoke quite bitterly about black Americans comparing their lives to warfare and noting more and that he himself felt as if a traitor. The narrator’s grandfather had advised the narrator’s father to undermine the whites with “grins” and “yeses” and agree to the whites to death and destruction.” These last words of his grandfather had immensely changed his attitude towards society considering all whites as opponents.