Setting The Tone In Ralph Waldo Ellison's The Invisible Man

Setting the Tone in “The Invisible Man Prologue”

In “The Invisible Man Prologue,” Ralph Waldo Ellison uses music to add layers of dimension in the progression of the narration. The use of Louis Armstrong’s jazz piece, Black and Blue, as a leitmotif in “The Invisible Man Prologue,” aids in constructing the dynamic tone of the prologue. I will discuss how the tone within the “Invisible Man Prologue” transforms from a more passive sentiment to a call to action, to finally boiling over with frustration and anger. I will do this by analyzing the linearity in the way the evolution of tone, tempo and musical pattern of Black and Blue mirrors the evolution of the intensity of tone in “The Invisible Man Prologue.” First, I will map out the progression

of the shifting tones and technical characteristics within the song and then I will analyze corresponding sections of “The Invisible Man Prologue.” Finally I will synthesize the comparison of complimentary similarities within the two pieces.
The piano’s gentle walking along the musical scale opens Black and Blue, and is met with the deep, long undertones from the trombone, and the crawl of the trumpet line breaking the surface. There are moments within the first section of the music, slight pauses, or hesitations, which set the scene and create a weary, yet yearning, tone. The lazy, tired drag pulls on from note to note, not adhering to the strict standard 4/4 time signature, but rather falling just short of the beat in some places, and skipping barely ahead of the beat in others.
At the first introduction of Black and Blue in “The Invisible Man Prologue,” the narrator describes his life in terms of the song and the irregular swing: “Invisibility, let me explain, gives one a slightly different sense of time, you’re never quite on the beat… Instead of the swift and imperceptible flowing of time, you are aware of its nodes… And you slip into the breaks and look around.” The narrator uses music, specifically Louis Armstrong’s piece, as a vehicle for his liberation from the oppression he faces on a daily basis.

With word choices such as “slip into” and “flowing”, the tone of this passage mirrors the tired, laid-back tone of the Black and Blue introduction as the narrator is unwinding, engrossed in

song.
As the music pulls from note to note, landing occasionally on a spot where silence has the same effect as sound itself, the beaten-down narrator pulls on from day to day, trying to get by in the unjust world he lives in.

He is able to immerse himself in the music as a means of escape. Due to his invisibility, the narrator states, he is ‘never quite on the beat’, perfectly matching the syncopation of notes in the song, which don’t always fall directly on the beat. Wilfried Raussert’s article, Jazz, Time and Narrativity, explains the illusion of what it truly means to feel like one is not ‘on beat’ with the rest of society, “It is Ellison…who explores the literary possibilities of musical time and form… Relating it to breaks in jazz, he makes clear that a regular flow of time is not part of the world outside mainstream culture.” Because the narrator is black, he experiences a life of so-called invisibility, which will never align with the experience of white people within

society.
The musical piece transitions from a stumbling tempo into a more driving rhythm, transforming the tone from weary to pleading and rallying. Taking hold of the reins of the piece are the trumpets, beginning with the insistent quadruple repetition of a note before diving into a more up-tempo recapitulation of the initial theme. The musical infrastructure adopts the conformation of a call and response style, with the trumpet notes initiating a reply, and a pick up of pace, from the rest of the jazz ensemble.
The passive tone when the reader is first introduced to Black and Blue in “The Invisible Man Prologue,” transitions to a rallying tone, as seen in the scene of a preacher speaking, attempting to arouse and inspirit his congregation:
“In the beginning…”
“At the very start,” they cried.
“…there was blackness…”
“Preach it…”
“Now black is…” the preacher shouted.
“Bloody…”
“I said black is…”
“Preach it, brother…”
“Black will git you…”
“Yes, it will…”
“Yes, it will…”
Intensifying the moment, and adding to the rallying tone are the word choices “cried”, “shouted”, “bloody”, and “preach”, which are powerful and straightforward. All characteristic of highly-strung emotional situations, the connotation of the words contributes to the building of tone. The repetition of phrases from preacher to congregation is prevalent, pushing the insistent, rallying tone. He is engaging the masses in the political agenda and injustice in a form that engages them with the issue.
The congregational call and response structure of the writing is reproduced in the call and response form that the music takes. The trumpet acts as the preacher, and the rest of the ensemble, the congregation. As the trumpet rallies the band to pick up the pace and intensity, the preacher within the text rallies his listeners. The increased tempo of the music is explicitly mentioned, as the narrator uses the music as an escape, “beneath the swiftness of the hot tempo there was a slower tempo…and below that I found a lower level and a more rapid tempo.” This increase in musical tempo discussed in the prologue matches the bump up in intensity the narrator feels while experiencing the meaning behind the song, and receiving the message that he is being called to action.
The trumpet additionally serves as the leader of the piece of music within the final moments of the song. Rising from the rest of the music at the end of the piece are the shrill pulses of the trumpet line, like a voice rising above the crowd in protest. The vibrato creates a desperation embedded in the notes blown, and the increasing intensity of the group as a whole of the tempo, shaping of the lines, and crescendo in volume characterize the terminating tone as frustrated. The ensemble disperses from the central theme, the drums, trombone, clarinet and trumpet overlapping with each other in a chaotic frenzy that culminates in a final chromatic ascension ending with the highest note played during the entire song pulling it to a close.
This culmination of frustration is carried within the syntax of the final passage. The invisible man views himself as the victim and has difficulty comprehending the injustice within the world, “I don’t think so, and I refuse it. I won’t buy it. You can’t give it to me. He bumped me, he insulted me”. With direct verb choices such as “refuse”, “bumped”, “insulted”, and the negative, demanding, words “don’t”, “won’t”, “can’t”, the accusatory and frustrated tone emerges. Reiteration of italics of “he, me, I” that frequently occur on the last page give a feeling of insistence.
Without direct invocation of the song, Black and Blue, in this final portion of the text, the song acts as a phantom, hovering just above the syntactical surface of the passage. As the music augments, the invisible man’s angry frustration increases, illuminating the parallel between the music and the man’s emotions. The reiteration of italics of “he, me, I” that pop in and out of the last page echo the blaring notes from the trumpet line that surge from the rest of the ensemble. The italics stand out from the other words, identical to the way the notes played by the trumpet can easily be picked out from the notes played by the other instruments. The notes feels like a final cry, questioning the injustice, riddled with a twinge of anger and the inability to grasp why the world is the way it is, and how that can be considered right.
The ghost of this musical final cry is reincarnated in the intense final questioning of society in the narrator’s thoughts. Both the narrator and the song seem to be asking, “Why don’t they understand? Why can’t they see it’s not my fault?”. The song itself has called the narrator to action, and parallel to the climatic ending within the music, the narrator is swelling with angst to do something, anything, to make a change. With the highest note of the song played also being the last, this puts a literal interpretation of what it means to ‘end on a high note’. By ending on a high note that alludes to improving, the narrator hopes the future will bring improvement through action.
In this essay, I have discussed the parallels between music and literature in “The Invisible Man Prologue”. The dynamic tone and structure of Black and Blue relates to the transitioning tone as the prologue progresses. The journey Black and Blue takes throughout the duration of the song mirrors the journey the narrator experiences as he goes through stages of understanding his place in society and the injustice in the world for him as an ‘invisible man’.