I was told to trace the metaphors of blindness in the novel Invisible Man by explaining the plot and thematic significance. There are many metaphors of blindness in this book starting from the Prologue to the Epilogue. I believe that Ralph Ellison was using these metaphors of blindness to show us how puzzled this young man was and how it affected him throughout his life.
             In the Prologue, the narrator starts off by telling us that he is physically visible but he is invisible to his peers or society because he is black. He also tells us that his invisibility can be an advantage or disadvantage. Being invisible to society sometimes makes him think that he really is invisible. An advantage of being invisible is that he can use things and do things without people knowing the source. The narrator also shows us some invisibility by not telling us his name, I think this was very clever of the author to not revealing the name of the narrator; it kept the readers unsure of what it was. Many people have just given the narrator a name such as TIM (The Invisible Man) or I-Man just to give the narrator some type of identity. By being invisible, the narrator can also steal electricity from a power company, this allows him to have a presence but not be identified by the company.
             In the Prologue, the narrator listens especially to Louis Armstrong's "What Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue." This song relates directly to Invisible Man on a thematic level, as it shows one of jazz's earliest ways to make an open view on the issue of racism.
             In chapter 1, the narrator is also blinded when he has to fight in the battle royal just to read his speech to white lawyers. The boys in the ring are all blindfolded to where they can't see. They are instructed to fight each other and whoever wins will get extra money. The blindfolds also represent the boys' own metaphorical blindness, they could not see that they were not just fighting for ...