The theme of invisibility in “The Invisible Man” is mainly concerned with society’s inability to confront the truth behind racism. Because people don’t see racism as a problem, they are lead to make negative assumptions and stereotypes of how African Americans in society should act. Since society is blind to the truth, they are unable to see African American individuals such as the narrator for who they really are. Instead, they are judged collectively as group. However the concept of invisibility not only applies to African Americans in the story, but women as well. Throughout the novel women often play a stereotypical role in society and are not seen as individuals but as something less than human.
Woman in the plot are often subjected to basic stereotypes of how they should appear in society. To start off, the battle royal scene depicts the woman dancer as a “circus kewpie doll with a face heavily powdered and rouged, as though to form an abstract mask” (Ellison 19). This example of the dancer parallels with the theme of not being recognized as an individual and being invisible. In this scene the dancer wears a hypothetical mask of makeup to look how white men want her to look yet at the same time, this mask prevents her from being seen as person and individual, and instead is seen as an object of entertainment used for pleasure. Another example of the invisibility of women, is the character Mary. Instead of being the strong independent figure she should have been portrayed as, she fits into the basic female motherly role. For example she finds the narrator and says “I’ll take care of you like I done heap of …show more content…
Just like the narrator, women in the story suffer from being judged by stereotypes instead who they actually are, making them
Woman in the plot are often subjected to basic stereotypes of how they should appear in society. To start off, the battle royal scene depicts the woman dancer as a “circus kewpie doll with a face heavily powdered and rouged, as though to form an abstract mask” (Ellison 19). This example of the dancer parallels with the theme of not being recognized as an individual and being invisible. In this scene the dancer wears a hypothetical mask of makeup to look how white men want her to look yet at the same time, this mask prevents her from being seen as person and individual, and instead is seen as an object of entertainment used for pleasure. Another example of the invisibility of women, is the character Mary. Instead of being the strong independent figure she should have been portrayed as, she fits into the basic female motherly role. For example she finds the narrator and says “I’ll take care of you like I done heap of …show more content…
Just like the narrator, women in the story suffer from being judged by stereotypes instead who they actually are, making them