namesake) to utilize the concept of double consciousness as a tactic of the narrator in Invisible Man. W.E.B Dubois has suggested that double consciousness is a way of thinking about oneself that is specific to African-Americans. My argument is that humor is the main way that the narrator employs double consciousness in the novel. As he learns to see the cruelty of the people in control of his fate, he learns also to look at it from a stranger’s perspective, and laugh at himself. Thus the concept of humor is itself an act of double-consciousness. Also, important is Smith’s claim that “Ellison’s invisible man is . . . an artist” (Smith191), as comedy is merely a stylistic quality of the narrator’s tone. The narrator’s response to violence in the novel, is as much an artistic approach as it is comedic. Another important critic in this first chapter is Jean-Christophe Cloutier and his analysis of Invisible Man as a “Comic Book World.” While I agree that comic books probably influenced the form and identity-related questions in the novel, Cloutier misses the point of how the protagonist of Invisible Man rises above the violence and hostility that he sees in Harlem, which is through comedic art. Cloutier begins to approach this conclusion when he suggests that “the young Invisible Man overcomes his disillusionment when he understands that the answer to Negro leadership lies in individual power,” (Cloutier 301), but what’s most important is the form of which this power takes place—words on a page. This is significantly different from the kind of universe Cloutier seems to be invoking in his essay, which is one of violence and vigilantism. The second chapter will compare Ellison’s use of humor to what classical philosophy has to say on the subject. Typically, there are three motivational theories of humor which describe its use: the relief, superiority, and incongruity theory. Each will be mentioned in relation to the novel as it will be important to maintain that the three theories are often considered separately (Perks 121). I separate the comedic episodes of the novel into four categories: blatant or outright
laughing and moaning are reflective of the “black/blue” dynamic which originates from the Louis Armstrong song, and which, in many ways become the framework for the novel. Blueness is the negative side; worn and torn; the color of bruises, the moaning of the blues singers and the congregation. We often use the word blue as being synonymous with depression. The blackness, on the other hand, is smiles, laughs, and the entertainer figure. At the same time the obvious ramifications of being black in Western society carry with them a kind of adversity. The inescapable blackness experienced by the narrator, what causes him to be invisible, is reminiscent of the “Sambo” Image, in which black males are stereotyped into the role of cheery and funny entertainers (Boskin 7-8). Invisible man is even called “Sambo” during the battle scene in the first chapter. What invisible man realizes is that seeming to conform to the expectations of his identity placed upon him by the Sambo image is, rather ironically, his only chance at survival. This, in essence, is the message that his grandfather had tried to convey to him in the befuddling array of advice that appears in the beginning of the novel, which invisible man claims haunts him throughout his life. His dying grandfather “had spoken of his meekness as a dangerous activity,” telling our narrator to “overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to deth and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open” (Invisible Man, 16). It is not until the end of the novel that invisible man is able to make sense of this advice, that his only chance is overwhelming optimism and complacency. In doing this he learns he can, paradoxically, form his own agency, which he eventually does through writing, giving his own shape and meaning to his experience, through the lens of humor that is both black and blue. Most notably, the “Sambo” paradigm takes material form in the cast-iron bank of a “very black, red-lipped and wide-mouthed Negro” (Invisible Man 319) which the narrator finds at
in the writing of Ellison’s namesake, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Jack Turner explains how Ellison’s ideas for “moral and intellectual awakening” (Turner 656) are largely borrowed from Emerson. Turner continues to explain how the history of race relations is a critical to what he calls “Democratic Individualism,” the formation of a specific universe and identity through deconstructing another’s, while still maintaining “honest confrontation with reality” (656). This undoubtedly holds true in Invisible Man, and is supported by Ellison’s essays. “Double consciousness” necessitates, for Ellison, “an awareness of the tragic nature of the American experience; the dark underside of our history (Collected Essays 434).” By this he means the civil war and race relations. Progress requires Americans, of any race, to deeply acknowledge the tragedies that came before them and not to belittle them. Without the ability to do this, the narrator would be unable to “transcend” his suffering and develop a comedic sensibility from it. In Valerie Smith’s article, “The Meaning of Narration in Invisible Man,” it is made evident that “the protagonist exchanges single- for ‘double consciousness’” (Smith 198). This process of amending Emerson’s single consciousness is underscored when the narrator learns to make humor out of his experiences. As Smith says, once invisible man has reached disillusionment, he gains the ability to “learn from his humiliations, instead of running from them” (201). He begins to approach his Southern roots and allows his identity to become more and more apparent. Simultaneously, the acceptance of the unfairness of things that defines his disillusionment begins to permeate the language and attitude of the novel. This is the embodiment of the blues aesthetic. This being said, however, there is one aspect of Ellison’s understanding of the blues aesthetic, which also applies to his personal philosophies, that has been understated in the large body of criticism which deals with his novel. This is the secret ingredient in Ellison’s writings;
each other, they have to fight one another” (Ellison, taken from Address to the Harvard College Alumni, Class of 1949). Works Cited Anderson, Paul Allen. “Ralph Ellison on Lyricism and Swing.” American Literary History 17.2 (2005):280-306. Web. 13.11.2013 Bergson, Henri. “Laughter.” Comedy. Ed. Willie Sypher. Garden City, NY: Doubledoor Anchor Books, 1956. 61-146. Print. Boskin, Joseph. Sambo: The Rise and Demise of an American Jester. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. Print.
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