http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/360862786_d5a139cfc0.jpg
Ralph Ellison's writing in The Invisible Man reminds me in a way of Oscar Wilde's writing. He writes some very philosophically packed passages as well as pithy statements about life. In the beginning of the novel the narrator speaks in somewhat abstract stream of consciousness style about light and power.
"That is why I fight my battle with Monopolated Light & Power. The deeper reason, I mean: It allows me to feel my vital aliveness. I also fight them for taking so much of my money...In my hole in the basement there are exactly 1,369 lights...Nothing, storm or flood, must get in the way of our need for light and ever more and brighter light. The truth is the light and light is the truth."
Ellison uses the symbolism of light to take the manic man's literal need for light to show a deeper search for truth. The double entendre of the "storm or flood" sentence shows that he is not only showing how desperately he and the "junk man" want to create a most lit space, but that one should not let anything stand in the way of you and the truth. The narrator experiences this lesson later as his becomes a story of overcoming the half-truths that he has been told all his life. It also shows existential ideas that occur in this novel. Light is action and light is the truth; thus light is the truth. The narrator's action is putting the light space together, his existence is literally that action. If he is the summation of his actions then he is truly a "light seeker".
No comments:
Post a Comment