Mr. Norton, The Beginning vs the End

Addison McClure 

    In the last chapter there was a scene that stood out to me. The narrator runs into Mr. Norton again. The narrator is relaxed and laughing as he talks to Mr. Norton. While he can clearly remember Mr. Norton, Mr. Norton has no clue who he is. There is a huge shift in tone between how the narrator approaches the situation versus how he used to. In chapter 2 the narrator is acting as a driver for Mr. Norton, the elite of the college. The narrator is in a constant panic trying to make sure he does nothing that makes him stand out. He views the world at face value. He lives scared that one wrong move will bring his downfall and he lets people step all over him. Mr. Norton has all the control in the conversation. Compare this to the interaction they have on page 578. The narrator believes that Mr. Norton has only approached him because he wants to save face. He says “to lose your direction is to lose your face. So here he comes to ask his directions from the lost, the invisible” (577). The narrator is already approaching the conversation with a different worldview. He is analyzing the structure of society not so he can play along, but so he can almost mock the system he is mentally freed from. 

    The conversation between Mr. Norton and the narrator at the train station is a humorous one. It resembles the original interaction, but now the narrator has taken his power back. He sarcastically brings up Mr. Norton’s original comments where he referred to the narrator as “his destiny”. In chapter two he uses this description to dehumanize the narrator, but now it has come back to bite him. The narrator taunts him by repeatedly asking if he recognizes him following it with “but I’m your destiny” as he backs Mr. Norton into a pillar. Mr. Norton quickly runs away from him. The power the narrator is able to take back through being the one laughing rather than being the one laughed is incredibly visible by the end of the novel. 

    This scene is also a clear indicator of how conscious the narrator is of his invisibility. He refers to himself as invisible as he observes Mr. Norton approaches him. There is a great line that he says at the end of this moment, “Till now, however, this is as far as I’ve ever gotten, for all life seen from the hole of invisibility is absurd” (579). The narrator is not completely content. He spends much time questioning his mind. This quote though is a point where the narrator fully lets the uncomfortable side of invisibility set in. He feels he can laugh at those who are oblivious and he has gained self confidence, but in exchange for this worldview does he lose his ability to form true passion? He has dug this hole of invisibility and he cannot go back. He says himself “the true darkness lies within my own mind”  (579). There is a depressing nature to his new lifestyle. He no longer follows the pure interests he once had, but could he have ever done so? He cannot choose to be ignorant and live a blissful life because systematic racism would never let him go. The feeling of him discovering his invisibility is not one of completion, but one of feeling stuck. I strayed a little far away from my beginning point, but pages 577 through 579 are just so complex. Usually you expect a story to end with a message of hope, but Invisible Man is a story that will not give readers that satisfaction. 

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