Snapshot 7.8. Invisible Man: Cultivating Conversations About Literature
ELA in Grade Twelve (cont.)Steve: He’s very unintelligent.
Christopher: You think he’s unintelligent?
Julia: I think he’s kind of naïve, but I don’t think he’s unintelligent.
Christopher: Intelligent, but naïve. Kind of drives me nuts.
Julia: But it’s kind of hard to blame him, too. He gets so much conflicting advice.
Christopher: Yeah.
Steve: I have no pity for him, though, ‘cause he has no sense of self.
Julia: That’s something I wrote down, too. He calls himself “invisible man” but
doesn’t do anything about it. It’s pretty clear he doesn’t appreciate [being
invisible], but he doesn’t do anything about it.
Christopher: It’s kind of weird to think about, like why?
Julia: So a discussion question could be like, Why doesn’t he do anything about his
invisibility?
Christopher: So, do you guys think this book is more about society, or just him, or like
blacks or something in this time period?
Maribel: I think it’s supposed to be about society. That is why we are reading it in
English. There’s supposed to be a larger message.
Julia: I think that is an interesting question, though. Because even though it is
supposed to be a commentary about society, he’s very egocentric, for lack
of a better word. He talks about himself and his own invisibility a lot, but he
doesn’t really seem to talk about if anybody else feels like that or if anybody
else has the same situation.
Students return to scanning the text.
Maribel: On page 170 he says, “My doubts grew. Perhaps all was not well. I remained
in my room all the next day. I grew conscious that I was afraid; more afraid
here in my room than I had ever been in the South.” He’s like just sitting in
his room scared of what’s going to happen next. He’s almost like a kid, you
know.
Julia: That could be part of the commentary, though, that the black people can’t
properly be themselves and they’re always confined to this childish behavior
or whatnot because society has alienated them.
Steve: No, ‘cause if you look at the other people, like Bledsoe, who’s in a position of
power, and he’s black, so I don’t think it’s that.
Julia: Yeah, that’s true.
Maribel: We need more discussion questions.
Christopher: Well. I kind of wrote down the questions we had, like, Why is he such a self-
estranged dude?
Julia: Is the narrator being estranged, or is he estranging himself?Grades 11 and 12 Chapter 7 | 779