Vision Motifs

The visions of the Invisible Man and surrounding

characters are displayed through eyes, impaired

vision, veils & blindfolds, and other symbols. Vision is an

integral motif in Invisible Man.

Eyes Eyes are referred to throughout

Invisible Man. Many different kinds of eyes are

used throughout the novel in describing IM’s experiences.

The moon is referred to as “a white man’s bloodshot eye”(110).

People are “always watching you . . . waiting for a wrong move”(165).

“Studying me with his penetrating eyes; the others...looking out of eyes that were meant to reveal nothing and to stir profound uncertainty” (462).

“The face of that clock . . . hid a pair of searching eyes”(165).

“The man looked at me out of a bright third eye that glowed out of his forehead”(231).

IM feels as though he is being watched in everything he does. These eyes symbolize how self-conscious he is about his appearance and actions.

Invisibility “That invisibility to which I refer

occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those with whom I come into contact. A matter of construction of their

inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality”(3).

“In those pre-invisible days I visualized myself as a potential Booker T. Washington”(18).

“I’d make them see invisibility felt if not seen, and they’d learn that it could be as polluting as a decaying body”(509).

“Time ran fluid, invisible, sad”(532).

“Well, I was and yet I was invisible, that was the fundamental contradiction. I was and yet I was unseen”(507).

Visions of invisibility display the black community’s feelings of unimportance.

Impaired Vision The vision of both

IM and those around him is impaired in different ways to symbolize the unawareness of racism toward the black community.

“But now I felt a sudden fit of blind terror. I was unused to darkness”(21).

“I crossed a bridge in the fog...”(196).

“There is no point in blinding yourself to the truth. Don’t blind yourself...”(192).

“My eyes were out of focus...covering one eye with my hand to avoid crashing into trees”(146).

“Between the gesture and the opaque glitter of his glasses, I saw the blinking of sightless eyes”(133).

“They think we’re blind...they’ve dispossessed us each of one eye from the day we’re born” (343).

“You know, if we aren’t careful, they’ll slip up on our blind sides and--plop! out goes our last good eye and we’re blind as bats!”(343).

“She said, looking at me out of one bleary eye, ‘Georgie’s blind ‘sa mole in a hole doesn’t know a thing about it”(524).

“They were blind, bat blind, moving only by the echoed sounds of their voices. And because they were blind they would destroy themselves and I’d help them”(508).

Impaired vision is used in the novel to symbolize that IM is very naive to the ways of the world, and unable to see it truly. As the novel progresses, references to impaired vision are not used as often, showing that he is gradually opening his eyes to the world around him.

Veils & Blindfolds “The cold Father symbol, his hands outstretched in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil that flutters

in hard metallic folds above the face of a kneeling slave; and I am standing puzzled, unable to

decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place; whether I am witnessing a revelation or more efficient blinding”.(36).

decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place; whether I am witnessing a revelation or more efficient blinding”.(36).

“I looked up to see two agitated physicians and a nurse, and thought, It’s too late now, and lay in a veil of sweat watching them manipulate the controls”(243).

“The Founder looked down at me remotely, benign, sad, and in that hot instant, profoundly disillusioned. Then a veil seemed to fall”(103).

“There was nothing to do but what we were told. All ten of us climbed

under the ropes and allowed ourselves to be blindfolded with broad bands of white cloth”(21).

“Below, they were waiting, hands and handkerchiefs shading their eyes”(459).

Veils and blindfolds are used to symbolize the characters being partially blinded to the truths of the novel.

Perception IM uses visions to convey his

perceptions of the world. “The crowd was still standing,

looking on as we carried Tod Clifton away. And as I took one last look I saw not a crowd but the set faces of individual men and women”(459).

“Clifton had chosen to plunge out of history and, except for the picture it made in my mind’s eye, only the plunge was recorded, and that was the only important thing”(447).

“Why should I worry over bureaucrats, ‘blind men’?”(258).

“It was some kind of toy, and I glanced at the crowd’s fascinated eyes and down again, seeing it clearly this time. I’d seen nothing like it before”(431).

“It was as though I’d learned suddenly to look around corners; images of past humiliations flicker through my head and I saw that they were more than separate experiences. They were me; they defined me”(508).

The vision motif is important in Invisible Man to give the reader a way of understanding the IM’s thoughts and feelings.