Literary_Allusions

__**Literary Allusions**__ //Rick Cocchieri//

//The idea of the cyclops/blindness// by Homer //"For a swift instant, between the gesture and the opaque glitter of his glasses, I saw the blinking of sightless eyes. Homer A. Barbee was blind."// (Ellison, 133)
 * __The Odyssey__**
 * Chapter 5 of Invisible Man**- The narrator find out that Reverend Homer A. Barbee is blind. Homer is the name of the author of __The Odyssey__.

They are portrayed as Greek Sirens (dangerous bird women who are seductresses). They usually feature scaled feet or a fish tail and lure sailors to their deaths. (Invisible Man, Major Themes, Wikipedia) The picture to the right portrays an example of a greek siren luring an abandoned sailor to his death. //(Picture from Wikipedia: Greek siren, March 3/08)//
 * Chapter 1 of Invisible Man**- The narrator describes the dancing white woman during the Battle Royal as //"a fair bird-girl girdled in veils calling to me from the angry surface of some gray and threatening sea."// (Ellison, 19)

Cyclopean idea.
 * Chapter 22 of Invisible Man-** The narrator accuses Jack of trying to control his group and make it so that he has the most influence. Just then, his fake eyes pops out. This can be seen as a more direct implication towards Homer's __The Odyssey.__

//"I was sitting in a cold, white rigid chair and a man was looking at me out of a bright third eye that glowed from the center of his forehead."// (Ellison, 231)
 * Chapter 11 of Invisible Man-** The narrator awake at the factory hospital and describes what looks like a third eye in the center of the doctor's head. This can also be seen as a more direct quote to cyclopean idea in Homer's __The Odyssey.__

__//**Totem and Taboo****: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics**//__ //An investigative study by Sigmund Freud//

__Background__: Totem and Taboo was a book written by Sigmund Freud. Originally published in German in 1913, it is composed of 4 essays that were published in the journal //Imago//. They described it as 'an application of psychoanalysis to the fields of archeology, anthropology, and the study of religion.' The main controversy was that Freud felt incest was something everyone desired but had to repress. It consists of: //"The Horror of Incest", "Taboo and Emotional Ambivalence", "Animism, Magic and the Omnipotence of Thoughts", and "The Return of Totemism in Childhood"// Of them all, the last was most influential and shocking for that matter. (Background Information supported by Totem and Taboo, Wikipedia)

__Reference in Invisible Man:__ Near the beginning of the book, the narrator listens to Trueblood tell Mr. Norton a story about how he raped his daughter and how he woke up from a dream unable to control himself. Although he was disgusted, he couldn't bring himself to move until his wife removed him forcibly. Later on in the novel, the narrator actually sees a hard copy of this work. On page 180 in the Invisible Man, Emerson's son was reading the book and left it out while he went away. It is believable that the book was mentioned just to recap the meaning of the event Trueblood described and the trouble it got the narrator into. //(Sigmund Freud, photo, 1938 provided by Aeiou Enyclopedia)//

__**The Bible**__

Here, the narrator is preparing to exit the subway to enter new York City. He alludes to the story of Jonah and the whale when he says he was regurgitated from the belly of a frantic whale. Also the narrator is confused in a huge city and can't find his way around until someone helps him find the Men's House. In the Bible, Jonah is one of few prophets who has seen failure because of misguidance. This is also the case with the narrator after he exits the subway station and wanders around before finding his place. (6-8:Invisible Man, Gradesaver)
 * Chapter 7 in Invisible Man-** //"The train seemed to plunge downhill now, only to lunge to a stop that shot me out upon a platform feeling like something regurgitated from the belly of a frantic whale."// (Ellison, 158)

__**Moby Dick**__ by Hermin Melville

The narrator calls himself 'Jack the Bear' in the prologue of I__nvisible Man__. On page 6 of Ellison's __Invisible Man__, the direct quote states //"Call me Jack-the-Bear, for I am in a state of hibernation."// He also alludes to Moby Dick by Herman Melville when he states "Call me Jack-the-Bear..." most likely referring to "Call me Ishmael." He more directly does this in the beginning of the novel when he states "I am an invisible man." (Ellison, 1) (Prologue: Invisible Man, Cliffnotes)

__**Jack The Bear** **and Br'er Rabbit**__ //Character from African American Folktales, Assocaited with Br'er Rabbit// Uncle Remus

__Introduction:__ (Definition of Trickster, Wikipedia)
 * trickster** - god, godess, spirit, man, woman, or anthropomorphic animal who plays tricks or otherwise disobeys normal rules and norms of behavior

(Br'er Rabbit, Wikipedia)
 * Br'er Rabbit-** Hare represented in the storytelling traditions in Central/Southern Africa. Traditional folklore is skill an aspect of Bantu-speaking peoples. It has been suggested that Br'er Rabbit, the American interpretation, represents the black salve who uses brainpower to surpass obstacles and to commit acts of revenge against his enemies (white slave-owners).

//This picture features Br'er Rabbit (right) and the **tar baby** (left) which was a trap made of tar in order to try and capture Br'er Rabbit in a particular tale. (Tar baby picture, Wikipedia)//

This most directly relates to the narrator's position as Br'er Rabbit. There have been repeated attempts where he was 'captured' or supposed to be 'captured' from the white people and even black people. Also, as stated above, the interpretation reveals that Br'er Rabbit wanted to get revenge on his enemies. The narrator claims himself that he wants to get revenge on Bledsoe for sending him away from the college intending for him to stay away and for writing a degrading note to get him a job in New York. Brother Jack also takes advantage of the narrators speech abilities in order to delude his perception of the truth, that he was more interested in wider political gains then for the equality of blacks. These instances can be seen as the tar babies that the narrator had to face.

__Jack the Bear:__

In the Prologue, the narrator addresses himself as Jack-the-Bear and he has made a home out of a manhole. Therefore, it would be plausible to compare the 'manhole' the narrator is living in to a 'bear's den' as described by Wheatstraw in Chapter 9.
 * 1.** The narrator is reminded of Jack-the-Bear when Wheatstraw says //"Man, this Harlem ain't nothing but a bear's den.//" (Ellison, 174)


 * 2.** He also says //"it's the best place in the world for you and me, and if times don't get better soon I'm going to grab that bear and turn him every way but loose."// (Ellison, 174)

This may remind the audience of a passage that begins the Epilogue of the Invisible Man:

//"So there you have all of it that's important. Or at least you almost have it. I'm an invisible man and it placed me in a hole-or showed me the hole I was in, if you will-and I reluctantly accepted the fact. What else could I have done? Once you get used to it, reality is as irresistible as a club, and I was clubbed into the cellar before I caught the hint. Perhaps thats the way it had to be; I don't know. "// (Ellison, 572)

Here, the narrator seems to accept the conditions with which he's in. He said his invisibility placed him in a hole and thats where he is meant to stay. In fact, he ran away from a riot in the end and that's how he ended up in the manhole. According to Wheatstraw, times weren't getting better and its the best place in the world for him to stay. Furthermore, in the Prologue the narrator states //"My hole is warm and full of light. Yes, full of light. I doubt if there is a brighter spot in all of New York than this hole of mine, and I do not exclude Broadway"// (Ellison, 6). Then he mentions, "The truth is the light and the light is the truth" (Ellison, 7) which may be his reference to his reality. He alludes his perception of light to the truth, and for him this 'bear den' is his truth.


 * 3.** To confirm the fact that the narrator is 'turned every way but loose,' the audience is reminded that the narrator beings his work just as confused as when he ends it. However, he matters to achieve a sense of personal identity. He realizes that he doesn't want others to influence his beliefs and that it's time to come out of the hole. Therefore, the narrator physically loosens himself but is still emotionally tied up.

//"I'm shaking off the old skin and I'll leave it here in the hole. I'm coming out, no less invisible without it, but coming out nevertheless. And I suppose it's damn well time. Even hibernations can be overdone, come to think of it. Perhaps that's my greatest social crime, I've overstayed my hibernation, since there's a possibility that even an invisible man has a socially responsible role to play."// (Ellison, 581)

He decides that his identity is now his own, hence the shedding of the skin. He realizes he is still invisible but decides that he needs to play his part in society and adjust to a new niche by his own standards. He also refers to the hibernation he stated in the beginning and claims he has overstayed his welcome in the hole.


 * __Works Cited:__**
 * 1.** Ellison, Ralph, __Invisible Man__, New York: Random House Inc., 1952


 * 2.** KD Zuk, Literary Allusions, March 3/08, http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/westspringfieldhs//projects/im98/im981/all.htm


 * 3.** __Invisible Man__: Major Themes, Wikipedia, March 3/08, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Man


 * 4.** Siren, Wikipedia, March 3/08, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siren


 * 5**//**.** Totem and Taboo/// Sigmund Freud, Wikipedia, March 3/08, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totem_and_taboo


 * 6**. Sigmund Freud Photo, Aeiou Encyclopedia, March 3/08, http://aeiou.iicm.tugraz.at/aeiou.encyclop.f/f782426.htm;internal&action=_setlanguage.action?LANGUAGE=en


 * 7.** Analysis of Chapters 6-8: __Invisible Man__, Gradesaver, March 3/08, http://www.gradesaver.com/classicnotes/titles/invisibleman/section5.html


 * 8.** Prologue: __Invisible Man__, Cliffnotes, March 3/08, http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/Invisible-Man-Summaries-and-Commentaries-Prologue.id-28,pageNum-11.html


 * 9.** Trickster, Wikipedia, March 3/08, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickster


 * 10.** Br'er Rabbit, Wikipedia, March 3/08, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br'er_Rabbit