Invisible Man: Allusions 10 key examples

First, he personifies the sounds made by Armstrong. Each “melodic line,” he claims, “existed of itself [...] said its piece, and waited patiently for the other voices to speak.” Under the influence of drugs, he perceives the musical notes of Armstrong’s trumpet as if in isolation, attributing distinctly human qualities and actions to these notes.

Further, he writes that he feels that he is “like Dante” after having “descended” into the “depths” of the music. Here, he alludes to Dante, poet of The Divine Comedy, the most celebrated work of Italian literature. In the “Inferno” section of the poem, Dante descends into hell in the company of the ancient Roman poet Virgil. Just as Dante, in the poem, enters another world, so too does the narrator feel transported while listening to Armstrong’s music, ultimately having various dark and confusing visions while in this state. 

Louis Armstrong, a trumpeter and vocalist, is generally regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of jazz, rising to prominence in the early to mid-20th century. In alluding to Armstrong here, the narrator expresses his affinity for a historically Black musical style. Further, he alludes to the song “What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue,” a jazz standard and protest song written in 1929 and often performed by Armstrong. While listening to the song, the speaker imagines various scenes of slavery in the United States. He likes Armstrong, he claims, because he too is “invisible” and, being unaware of his own state of invisibility, has made “poetry out of being invisible.” 

The narrator thinks about all the things he might do to improve his burrow during what he considers to be his temporary “hibernation” from society. He imagines himself inventing a “gadget” that would place his coffee pot on the stove while he lies in bed, and also another gadget to “warm” the bed. Here, he places himself in the “great American tradition of tinkers.” He alludes, in quick succession, to Henry Ford, who founded the Ford Motor Company; to Thomas Edison, who invented the phonograph and an early version of the lightbulb; and to Benjamin Franklin, who invented the lightning rod and bifocal lenses, among other inventions. At this point in the novel, it is unclear whether or not the narrator’s sense of himself as a great inventor is justified or delusional. 

The narrator is hesitant to join the fight for a number of reasons. The other young men, whom he feels dislike him, are clearly tough and capable fighters. Further, he feels that the fight would “detract from the dignity” of the speech he intends to present. The narrator then explains that, at that point in his life, before he understood his “invisibility,” he imagined himself “as a potential Booker T. Washington.”

Washington, who was born into slavery, emphasized the importance of education in improving socioeconomic conditions for African Americans. For a later generation of Black writers and political thinkers, Washington was the object of occasional criticism for his emphasis on social respectability as an avenue for upward mobility. Here, the speaker alludes to Washington to explain his earlier understanding of American race relations, which he later regards as naive. 

Mr. Norton expects that the narrator has studied the works of Emerson, and the narrator feels “embarrassed” to admit that he is not familiar with the author. Emerson was a prominent abolitionist around the time of the American Civil War, advocating passionately for an end to the practice of slavery while, nevertheless, like Mr. Norton, holding paternalistic beliefs towards African Americans. Mr. Norton, a satirical representation of a white Northern “progressive,” is surprised to learn that Emerson’s works are not being prioritized at the unnamed Black college of which he is a trustee.

Though Barbee describes a figure from the recent past, the Founder of the unnamed historically Black college that the narrator attends, he uses distinctly biblical language. As if describing a scene from the Bible, Barbee turns to the “beginning,” when “clouds of darkness” coerced the land and both Black and white people were “full of fear and hate [...] fearful of the other.” Amid this “terrible tension,” the Founder “came and showed them the way,” leading them all to a brighter and more peaceful future. Barbee, then, compares the Founder to the biblical figure of Moses, who, in the Bible, parted the Red Sea and led his people out of captivity in Egypt. This allusion, then, is ironic in the context of the story. Barbee’s praise is ultimately exaggerated, as the Founder is no biblical prophet, and America, as presented in the novel, is still afflicted with racial inequality, tension, and violence. 

Fearing that he will be expelled after he is admonished by the college president, Dr. Bledsoe, the narrator attends the sermon with a great feeling of anxiety. As he watches the musical performances arranged by the college and observes the behavior of the rich trustees, he begins to feel that he is observing a play in which the millionaires “come down to portray themselves.” Through this theatrical metaphor, the narrator implies that this sermon is an artificial ritual designed to flatter the donors. Additionally, he alludes to Horatio Alger, a popular 19th-century author whose works often featured “rags to riches” stories of young boys and men who work hard and gain prosperity. He also alludes to the Roman Catholic concept of transubstantiation, in which bread and wine is understood to be literally transformed into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. His allusion to transubstantiation is ironic, as these wealthy donors are by no means capable of performing otherworldly miracles. 

Having been raised in the rural South, the narrator has never experienced a large, industrialized city before. Exiting a train that is densely packed with both white and Black passengers, the narrator states that he feels “like something regurgitated from the belly of a frantic whale.” This simile suggests that he feels overwhelmed in the crowded urban environment. Additionally, he here alludes to an event described in the Bible, in which the prophet Jonah is swallowed by a large fish or whale for three days before being miraculously regurgitated onto dry land. The narrator’s first impression of the city, then, is of a gigantic and terrifying beast. 

Among the various expensive imported goods that decorate Mr. Emerson’s office, the narrator spots “an open book, something called Totem and Taboo.” He assumes that the secretary had been reading the book when interrupted in the office. Written in 1913, Totem and Taboo is a major work by Freud, who sought to apply his psychological ideas and theories to other disciplines such as anthropology and archaeology. Ellison’s allusion to Freud here is ambiguous. On one hand, it suggests that Young Emerson is an educated and modern young man who reads complex scholarly works with which the narrator is not yet familiar. On the other hand, the book might be implicated in the sympathetic yet condescending attitude that Young Emerson expresses towards Black Americans such as the narrator. 

His fear that he might in fact deserve to be treated poorly, a fear which he attributes to many Black men, is “the real soul-sickness,” a pain even worse, in some ways, than external violence. He then alludes, in quick succession, to various instances of persecution, starting with "the spear in the side" of Christ, lynch mobs such as those that executed many Black men and women across the United States, then the “Grand Inquisition” initiated by the Catholic monarchs of Spain, then the use of the “iron maiden” a (possibly apocryphal) European torture device, and ultimately, the Holocaust orchestrated by Nazi Germany. These allusions place racist oppression of African Americans alongside notable historical instances of mob and state violence.