We learn as we read the novel that the narrator does not mean this literally, there are 3 ways that this idea of invisibility can be interpreted in a deeper, figurative sense. These are the following; firstly, he is a black man, so he could feel invisible because people do not see him because of the colour of his skin, there are pre-conceived ideas in people’s minds and they often only see what they want to see, in this case it is shown that the narrator feels as if he is irrelevant and in a way invisible. This is outlined in the prologue; “a matter of the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes which they look through their physical eyes upon reality.” The narrator also does not necessarily want to be seen in the beginning, so it could be seen as him labelling himself as invisible because he is ashamed of who he is. The third way this can be interpreted is in the way that the narrator is not an individual, he does not have a specific identity as shown for the beginning part of the novel and he does not know who he is, therefore he could be lost in the masses and not seen as anything special or significant, therefore describe himself as ‘invisible’. This is shown in the beginning episodes in the novel and emphasised as the novel …show more content…
The narrator develops as a person and begins to rebuild his identity as we see further on in the novel, but the issues that existed in America in terms of racialism at the time that this novel was written are also shown through the constant idea of having to be invisible or feel invisible as black people. The blindness that seemed to encompass the society at that time is shown continually in the novel encompasses the civil rights movement in the USA and how many white people were blind to what was happening and many black people were blinded by their anger at white