Invisible Man AP Lit Character List

Jack the Bear

P.6 "I am neither dead nor in a state of suspended animation. Call me Jack-the-Bear, for I am in a state of hibernation."; Character in the Tar Baby animation with Briar Rabbit; Uncle Remus Tales

Thinker-tinker

prologue: P.7 "Though invisible, I am in the great American tradition of tinkers. That makes me kin to Ford, Edison, and Franklin. Call me, since I have a theory and a concept, a 'thinker-tinker.'";-referring to himself, many lightbulbs 1, 369 in his den

singer of spirituals

P.10 "And I tore myself away, hearing the old singer of spirituals moaning, 'Go curse your God, boy, and die.'"

In prologue: woman who is emblematic of the confusing legacy of race in America. Her master is her oppressor, but he is the father of her children. She is forced to kill her master to free her children, but at great pain to herself

Louis Armstrong

P.8 "I'd like to hear five recordings of Louis Armstrong playing and singing 'What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue'-all at the same time."

Famous Jazz and Blues musician- "What did I do to be so Black and Blue" Stereotypical Black Performer. Epilogue: Improvisation, bending the bad notes into good notes. Alludes to his style of giving speeches, very jazzy and improvised

Tatlock

leader at the Battle Royale; IM tries to give Tatlock his earnings in exchange for Tatlock fake punching IM, but Tatlock wants to win for himself

Greenwood

IM's hometown. green=inexperience

Grandfather

P.16 "'Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.'"

"Haunts" IM

P.33 "'To Whom It May Concern,' I intoned. 'Keep This ******-Boy Running.'" at circus scene

Booker T. Washington

Leader, the Atlanta Compromise "cast down your bucket where you are"

Established Tuskegee University (like the college that IM goes to)

Favored gradualism (work w/in the current system, non-violent)

W.E.B. Dubois

Opposed to Booker T. Washington- If you weren't against it, you were supporting it'

Wrote "Soul of Black Folk"

Early works on sociology, essays on race

Talented 10th: if we can get 10% of our educated populace into professions (doctors, lawyers, etc.) it would become self-sustaining & African Americans would be viewed as equal

veil: worn by all African Americans that gives them a different perspective, Double vision: always looking at yourself through the eyes of others

Mr. Norton

Trustee of college

White Rabbit and St.Nick

Oedipus

Mark of Cain—>Gets injured in the head

Connection to Trueblood (both rape daughter)

Gives Trueblood Money to get children toys

"You people are my destiny"-Cog in a machine—> Automaton Motif

The Founder

Never named

Referenced as statue on campus and Booker T. Washington

Barbee speech tried to transfer mythical worship of founder to Bledsoe

Dr. A. Herbert Bledose

Goes against his own race

IM strived to be like him

Is set up as a god-like figure

Alludes to Booker T. Washington

Woodridge

IM's literature teacher at college- portrait of the artist as a young man (create himself- vet), teaches greek plays (fate)

Jim Trueblood

Insestious- Slept with and impregnated his daughter

Mark of Cain- Wife hit him with Axe

Oedipus Rex

Odyssey= Unreliable Character

Freudian Dream

Trueblood- Since his blood now flows through both his children and grandchild they are all truly of his blood

Mr. Broadnax

Appears in Trueblood's dream

Overseer of plantation house- dirty work

White authority figure, wife slashes trueblood w ax when waking up

Kate

Wife of Trueblood

Tries to kill Trueblood for sleeping with daughter, ends up just scaring him

Gives him "mark of cain"; Gets new glasses after they get 'helped'

Can see better- Seeing better doesn't mean you want to

has to live with the fact that her daughter is giving birth to her husband's child

Matty Lou

Trueblood's daughter

Raped by her father

Golden Day

Bar that IM and Norton went into

Where all of the psych patients go

Used to be a church, school house, bank and a jail

Filled with the "dead" veterans- mentally dead

Alludes to the underworld in the Odyssey (need blood to speak—> Beat up supercargo)

Circle of Hell: Lust

Mad Teaparty

Halley

Proprietor/ bartender of the Golden Day

The Vet

Talks about invisibility

"Dance with white women"

Prophet- Allusion to Tiresias

Predicts a lot of the events that will occur in New York

Supercargo

Wears white apron (power)→Wears an all white uniform, stripped of power when he's not wearing it

The one who rangles the Vets

Hester

Prostitute at Golden Day- Lusts over Norton

Scarlet Letter

Lust

"Donkey glands" reference

Old Bucket-head

Dr. Bledsoe's nickname by students at the college from Booker T. Washington "cast down your buckets"

Both didn't want to push for social equality, relished the power, burned down apartment w buckets of kerosine in end

Homer A. Barbee

Blind Preacher

Reference to Homer- Blind Prophet

Black Aristotle

Makes Bledsoe seem god-like

Paints Bledsoe as an apostle

Horatio Alger

Wrote about "mysterious benefactors"

"Rags to riches" stories

Miss Suzy Gresham

chapel scene- IM's speech teacher

taught style over substance

Crenshaw

Vet's escort on the bus to St. Elizabeth

Name is reference to a prison used to hold political prisoners

St. Elizabeth

A psychiatric facility in D.C where the Vet was being taken to

The vet wanted to go there and only after incident w IM did he get granted permission- shows Bledsoe's interference

Not the true north- according to Crenshaw

Men's House

Like a YMCA

The boarding house where IM first stayed at when he arrived to Harlem

Peter Wheatstraw

suggest to IM the special at the diner (a typical southern meal)

An allusion to a jazz singer from that time

describes Harlem as bear's den- reminding of jack the bear and jack the rabbit

Biblical allusion (Special powers given to the seventh son of the seventh son)

Emerson, Jr.

Tells IM the truth about Bledsoe's letters

Gay-Tries to seduce IM

Wants him to go to the Calamus Club with him and his friends

Tries to make IM his valet- Undress him

Sends him to get a job at Liberty Paints

Another one of the people who tell IM to choose a different path (blueprints guy)

Totem & Taboo

Sigmund Freud

"All modern forms of socialization are shaped by the primitive culture of origin"

Book open in Emerson Jr.'s office when IM walks in

Marcus Garvy

Equivalent to Ras in the book

charismatic racial separatist—>advocated black pride and argued against integration with whites

Lucius Brockway

"Necessary evil"

Works in boiler room of Liberty Paint

Reference to Lucifer

Came up with the "White is Right"

Gets into fight IM

Blew up the factory

Liberty Paints

The paint factory where IM gets a job at after the letter incident

Famous for their optic white paint used in a lot of government structures

"Keep America Pure with ____ ____"

Mr. Sparland

Owner of Liberty Paint company

Is supposed to symbolize God

God figure of Liberty Paints

Mr. Kimbro

Factory manager of Liberty Paint

Gets rid of IM with the paint incident (dropped black in white)

Slave Driver

Rudyard Kipling- Kimball -White Man's Burden- extremely racist, enterprise of empire yet gives somber warning about the costs involved; justify imperialism as a noble enterprise of civilization (like Manifest Destiny)

Mr. MacDuffy

Hired IM at Liberty Paints

Assigns IM to Kimbro and then Lucius Brockway (sentencing him to depths of hell)

Factory Hospital

IM wakes up here after the explosion at the paint company

Similar to concentration camp

Subjected to electrocution

Threats of castration

Tuskeegee Placebo Doctors—>Used black patients as lab rats for experimental medical treatments

Unorthodox

Mary Rambo

Urges IM to be a 'credit to the race"- reference to 1st black woman to win an oscar (Hattie McDaniel)

Reference to Black Mumbo/Mammy from Black Sambo

Archetypal Mother (Mothers IM)

Cthonian

Emma is a bartender there

The Brotherhood HQ

Reference to the Underworld- Literally means underworld

Brother Jack

Alludes to Menelaus (Red Hair and Temper) and Odin (Glass Eye, sacrificed it for knowledge)

Leader of Brotherhood

Discovers IM

Led IM-(Anonymous letter and other stuff)

Communism

Single handedly created IM's new persona and life

Emma

Gives IM fake name from breast- rebirth motif

His new mother

Dances with her fulfilling the vets prophecy

Brother Jack's mistress

Initial source IM thought of when infiltrating the brotherhood

A short, broad dunken man

White man at Cthonian

Asks IM to sing- Brotherhood gets offended

Allusion to black people being used for entertainment

"Feed Me Bank"

Black Sambo piggy bank

IM is angered by it and breaks on pipe→Feels guilty about it afterwards→Puts in briefcase= emotional 'baggage'

El Toro Bar

Bullfighting Themed Bar (matador)

Bull and matador represent exploitation of black people

foreshadows fight w Ras- bull wins, could have killed clifton

Meets there with Brother Jack and is told he is the Brotherhood's spokesman

Brother Wrestrum

Wrestrum= Restroom

Full of Shit, Plays dirty

Accuses IM of being a traitor/ individualist - trying to wrest power from him

Interview- Trial- as filed charges against him, accusing him of being an opportunist, revokes the narrator's leadership role

Tells IM his disdain for Tarps shackle, denies any racial tensions in the Brotherhood

Brother Hambro

white, Mentors IM in the ways of the Brotherhood for a couple months

Brother Chairman

Member of committee that's trying to prove IM guilty of being an individualist

Teams up w MacAfree to do it, wants to kick IM out

Brother MacAfree,

Take accusations seriously- protect brotherhood

Member of committee that's trying to prove IM guilty of being an individualist

allusion to McCarthy

Brother Tarp

Former slave- An elderly black man who spent nineteen years in prison for saying "No" to a white man

Gave portrait of frederick douglas

Gives IM the shackle as a good luck charm- mirrors Bledsoe's leg shackle- Walks with limp

Vaguely reminds IM of grandfather→Old but young hearted

Brother Tod Clifton

Christ Figure- Death caused the apocalypse of Harlem

Leader of the Youth Division of the Brotherhood

Shot down in the street

Tod= German for death

IM's best friend—>His death makes IM feel guilty

Traitor- Sold black sambo dolls

Seen as Black and Beautiful by Ras

Brother Tobitt

Tries to get IM kicked out

Thinks he knows what it is like to be black because he is married to "a fine African American girl"

Tobitt= Two bit

Brother Maceo

the missing brother whom the narrator eventually meets at the Jolly Dollar, a Harlem bar and grill

Salt shaker/beer bottle altercation

Jolly Dollar

Bar owned by barrelhouse

IM initially looks for Maceo there

Returns dressed as Rinehart

Barrelhouse

Bartender at Jolly Dollar- reflects halley (owner golden day)

Ras, the Exhorter, the Extorter, the Destroyer

Alludes to Hindu God of Destruction and Rebirth Shiva

Black Extremist

"Black and Beautiful"

Exhorter- uses inspiring words to instigate action

Extorter- actually uses violence to reach goals, holds clifton at knife point

Destroyer- Shiva allusion, giving a speech. Ras denounces the Brotherhood for not following through with the momentum that the funeral sparked

MacAdams

man who gets mad at IM for calling him his brother at the Jolly Dollar

Sambo

Dolls sold by Clifton

Bank at Mary's house

Reference to little Black Sambo children’s book

Ugly black stereotype

She, Hubert's wife

IM meets her at a women's rally

He has sex with her

Husband is "off chasing his lost youth"

Moment of invisibility for IM when husband comes home and they both act like he's not there

Clothesline peddler

P.447 "I sat rigid, as though waiting to hear the explosions again, fighting against the weight that seemed to pull me down. I heard the clothesline peddler's bell...What would I tell the committee when the newspaper accounts were out? To hell with them. How would I explain the dolls? But why should I say anything? What could we do to fight back. That was my worry. The bell tolled again in the yard below."

1st person that IM hears the bell from while planning the funeral for Clifton; Funeral bells symbolize death- Clotheslines link clothes together

Reference to springtime

Clothesline pedlar serves as IM's link back to life

Stephen Daedalus

Portrait of the Artist main character

Stephen's Problem- chp.14-16

Daedalus- built the labyrinth, Icarus' father

B.P. Rinehart

IM confused for and then disguises himself as

Takes on many forms in the community

individualist

Pastor, Lover, Gambler/Numbers Runner, Pimp, Briber

Mask- if you wear it long enough you'll become it

IM tries to imitate him

Rinehartism- Deception

Sybil

george's wife

IM tries to seduce her- ends up taking pity on her

Rape fantasy- sees IM as a sex toy rather than an actual person, Repression/ Nymphomaniac

IM sees her as a person and cares for her

Afraid when he thinks the mannequins are her

One of the first people he truly cares about and sees as a person even though she doesn't see him in the same way

George

Member of brotherhood

Sybil's husband, not interested in brotherhood represent rich men who are not doing anything

Dupree & Scofield

Looters who help IM in the race riot

Shoot back at police

Dupree- Reference to the mad hatter- 3 hats. Leads the burning of the apartment complex.

-Scofield: Helps IM when he's injured, Follower of Dupree

Lottie

Pregnant women in the complex that begs Dupree not to burn down

About to give birth= Anti Christ

Dehart - the heart of the matter

1st to mention term "race riot" which shocks IM- makes him realize

ambivalence

a contradictory emotional or psychological attitude; simultaneous attraction toward and repulsion from an object person or action.

IM EXAMPLE: IM's attitude towards women (i.e. the stripper in the Battle Royale)

ambiguity

actual or potential uncertainty of meaning, esp if a word, phrase, or sentence can be understood in 2 ways (ex. They can fish.)

IM EXAMPLE:

literary ambiguity

7 types identified by critic William Empson:

Reference- metaphoric manipulation

Referent-grammatical running of alternative meanings into one

Intent-author's purpose unclear

Sense-puns, allusions, allegories

Transition-change in perspective of author or character

Contradiction-author confuses as image

Meaning (words like let [allow or hinder] and cleave [split asunder or embrace])

expressionistic

uses emotions rather than realism to express an artistic idea

impressionistic

depiction of scene, emotion, or character by use of detail sometimes brief and essential but often to great intricacy and elaborateness that is intended to achieve a vivid, sensory impression (of mood/atmosphere) rather than by recreating or representing an objective reality

naturalistic

based on natural desires and instincts, often dealing with lower classes

surrealistic

producing fantastic or incongruous imagery in art and literature using unnatural combinations and juxtapositions

picaresque

novel style

1st person narrative

adventures of a rogue or low-born adventurer- drifts from place to place, from one social milieu to another in an effort to survive

foil

serves by contrast, color, or quality to set off another to advantage or disadvantage

satire

human vices, folly, abuses or shortcoming by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, often with intent for improvement

speech #1

Prologue p.9- metaphorically linked in everyones mind color black is seen as sign of sorrow and doom

Call and response

"'Brothers and sisters, my text this morning if the 'Blackness of Blackness''" p.9

speech #2

Graduation/Battle Royale speech p.29

Similar to Booker T. Washington

Work within the current system

Non-violent

P.31 accidently says social equality instead of responsibility

speech #3

Barbee speech p.118-133

powerful sermon about the Founder, IM emotional, Bledsoe, entrusted with carrying on the Founder's legacy, is nothing like the man Rev. Barbee built him up to be

Lack of call & response w students shows disconnect to black heritage

Resigns IM to accept his punishment and agree that Bledsoe was right

speech #4

Start: P.275 chp.13

Woman is about to be evicted from her home

"'Take it all, hide that junk! Put it back where it came from. It's blocking the street and the sidewalk, and that's against the law. We're law-abiding, so clear the street of the debris. Put it out of sight! Hide it, hide their shame! Hide our shame!'" p.281

Attracts the attention of the Brother Jack and the brotherhood

speech #5

Start: P.341 chp. 16

Baseball call & response- arena, faces a mob

"'Dispossession! Dis-possession is the word!' I went on. 'They've tried to dispossess us of our manhood and womanhood! Of our childhood and adolescence-'" p.342

"'May I confess?...Silence is consent so I'll have it out...I feel your eyes upon me. I hear the pulse of your breathing. And now, at this moment, with you black and white eyes upon me, I feel...I feel , I feel suddenly that I have become more human. Do you understand? More uman. Not that I have become a man, for I was born a man. But that I am more human. I feel strong, I feel able to get things done!'" p.345-346

asking the people to unite to end dispossession, crying

speech #6

Chp. 21 P.454-459

Clifton’s funeral

Uses Clifton's death to fuel the people

sees individuals in the audience while giving it

Says Clifton's name 22 times despite him wanting it to be political and telling the crowd to forget Clifton's name

Marc Antony references in speech (similar to how he made a speech about Julius Caesar and the great power of one ruler/man)

Brotherhood is angry at him for making this speech because he did it on his own without their consent and overview

difference prologue and epilogue

prologue- still bitter and disillusioned, about impossibilities

epilogue- come to understand things and himself better, more maturely optimistic

Brother Garnett

Tries to fight against the other brothers during the trial to defend IM