Vision and Self-Realization in Invisible Man

Vision is a term that has various definitions that can be used to describe the word in numerous different circumstances. In the Invisible Man, Ralph Emerson uses the definition meaning to uses the senses to see physical objects as well as things that are not present but that are perceived with experiences. Throughout the Invisible Man, the narrator illustrates with words his journey towards accepting who he really is and how he came to the conclusion that he is not the man he believed himself to be. In his hero’s journey, the narrator experiences numerous eye-opening emotions and struggles which help shape him into the man he ends up seeing himself as by the novel’s conclusion. The most recurring theme in the novel is the motif of vision,

The narrator wakes up and claims to have no memory of the previous events, as well as finding himself unable to understand what the doctors are asking him. His “mind was blank, as though he had just begun to live” (233). This is the narrator’s rebirth. This is the scene in which the Invisible Man is no longer the same, passive man he once was. He is now fearless and has courage that he never thought he could retain. He also possesses anger towards the white power structure and certain individuals who he once respected, such as Dr. Bledsoe. While he is going through the electric shock therapy, the narrator has a moment of self-discovery. He realizes that he wants “freedom, not destruction” (243). He believes “when I discover who I am, I’ll be free” (243). He figures out that there is a connection between his identity and escaping the machine that transmitted the electric shocks through his body. After this instance of self-awareness, the narrator becomes alert and the shocks stop because the doctors see that he is conscious now. After the he leaves the hospital, the narrator realizes that he is “no longer afraid of important men” (249). He understands that he cannot expect anything from those men so he should no longer fear or respect them

The policemen trap him in the hole, which soon becomes his refuge. Ironically, the narrator finds that he is a black man in a black hole. While he is underground, he begins to heal mentally and emotionally. This is the nadir of his story. This is the place where he has a confrontation with death and learns to accept it. This marks the death of the narrator’s innocence. He then thinks to himself that he wants to help save other people from losing their own innocence. In the prologue of the novel, the narrator states that he is “in a state of hibernation” (6). When he comes out of the nadir and into the world with a new light, he declares that “the hibernation is over” (580). He means that he wants to forget about the man who he thought he used to be. He wants to shed his old skin and start