Many people say that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, but no one ever said anything about not judging a book by its first chapter. In the novel, Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison uses the first chapter to introduce major themes, characters, conflicts, motifs, mood, and tone. Chapter one is the story of the battle royal where the narrator fights other black men for the entertainment of white men. Through this chapter, Ellison immediately exposes the audience to the effect of racism on the narrator and the limitations brought about by devoutly following a single ideology. This introduces readers to the conflicts the narrator will face and the motifs that go along with those conflicts. Chapter one also provides an indication of the mood and tone
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The audience learns quickly that the novel is about the narrator struggling to find who he really is because he said, “First I had to discover that I am an invisible man” (15). Throughout this discovery, readers know that he will face challenges of social preconceptions about who he is because he said, “All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too” (15). This is seen as he doesn’t challenge what the white men tell him to do in the battle royal, and it is seen throughout the novel as he doesn’t challenge people like Bledsoe and Norton who determine his fate for him. The audience can also see that the narrator will confine himself within ideologies instead of forming his own values. The invisible man described himself, saying “I visualized myself as a potential Booker T. Washington” (18). In this way, he aligns himself with someone else’s values; therefore, he struggles to find himself when he sees himself as someone else. The narrator continues to limit himself throughout the rest of the story by confining himself within the ideologies of other people, such as the Brotherhood. He accepts the Brotherhood’s ideals as his own, so he loses the opportunity to develop his own values. As the first chapter introduces, the narrator willingly accepts other people’s …show more content…
The battle royal creates a dreamlike and surreal mood. The smoke from the cigars, the description of the woman’s dancing, and the narrator’s description of being “transported” (19) all make the scene feel like it could be fake. This mood is brought back in other chapters of the novel as well. For example, chapter 11 in the hospital creates a surreal mood as the narrator describes the strange faces he sees and his unfamiliar surroundings. Ellison also uses the first chapter to introduce a straightforward tone. Chapter one begins with the narrator telling the audience statements about his past and who he is. Such as, the narrator said, “I was naïve” (15). This shows readers that the narrator has taken his time in solitude underground to reflect upon his past, and now, he tells his story as he remembered the events happened. Although parts of the story seem heightened or exaggerated, it reverts back to the direct tone that tells readers that the narrator is telling the story how he originally perceived the
The audience learns quickly that the novel is about the narrator struggling to find who he really is because he said, “First I had to discover that I am an invisible man” (15). Throughout this discovery, readers know that he will face challenges of social preconceptions about who he is because he said, “All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too” (15). This is seen as he doesn’t challenge what the white men tell him to do in the battle royal, and it is seen throughout the novel as he doesn’t challenge people like Bledsoe and Norton who determine his fate for him. The audience can also see that the narrator will confine himself within ideologies instead of forming his own values. The invisible man described himself, saying “I visualized myself as a potential Booker T. Washington” (18). In this way, he aligns himself with someone else’s values; therefore, he struggles to find himself when he sees himself as someone else. The narrator continues to limit himself throughout the rest of the story by confining himself within the ideologies of other people, such as the Brotherhood. He accepts the Brotherhood’s ideals as his own, so he loses the opportunity to develop his own values. As the first chapter introduces, the narrator willingly accepts other people’s …show more content…
The battle royal creates a dreamlike and surreal mood. The smoke from the cigars, the description of the woman’s dancing, and the narrator’s description of being “transported” (19) all make the scene feel like it could be fake. This mood is brought back in other chapters of the novel as well. For example, chapter 11 in the hospital creates a surreal mood as the narrator describes the strange faces he sees and his unfamiliar surroundings. Ellison also uses the first chapter to introduce a straightforward tone. Chapter one begins with the narrator telling the audience statements about his past and who he is. Such as, the narrator said, “I was naïve” (15). This shows readers that the narrator has taken his time in solitude underground to reflect upon his past, and now, he tells his story as he remembered the events happened. Although parts of the story seem heightened or exaggerated, it reverts back to the direct tone that tells readers that the narrator is telling the story how he originally perceived the