Chapter Seven

Though sex itself is not portrayed in this chapter, there is a scene where the Invisible Man kisses a white woman. He is first crammed into a crowded train, and there he is smushed next to a white woman. He describes her skin as having a "rubbery softness" (p. 158). Rubber, an artificial material is the opposite of something comforting and thinking of it on a human body is repulsive. The Invisible Man nodded his head and accidentally brushed his lips against the white woman. His immediate reaction was to tell her it was an accident, but can't seem to use his words. He thought she would definitely cry out for help, but is surprised when she does not. Then, as the train continues he's pushed up against her, he thought surely other's were staring accusingly, but no one batted an eye. The Invisible Man sees sex as something that could get him into trouble, especially with a white woman. He finds even brushing lips with a woman disgusting, and is fearful of persecution for it.

Chapter 6

Our motif of sex did not appear in this chapter.

Chapter Five

The sex motif was only in Chapter Five for a couple lines. The Invisible Man is giving some type of speech, and in the speech he talks about Susie Gresham, the "guardian of the hot young women" (pg. 114). He says that Susie will "never be fooled with the mere content of words, not my words, not these pinfeathered flighters that stroke your lids till they flutter with ecstasy"(pg. 114). With this reference to sex, we see the continuation of the Invisible Man's association of forbidden with sex. Both Susie Gresham and the "hot young women" are presumably off limits; the women because they are guarded by Susie Gresham and Susie because she is a member of the faculty and "gray haired" (pg. 113) so it would not be socially acceptable. However, the Invisible Man still finds himself attracted to both of them.

Chapter Three

While sex was not a huge motif in chapter three, it was indirectly mentioned in a few place. When the Invisible Man heads to the bar, Golden Day, there are many mentally ill veterans who are there for a form of treatment. While some part of their therapy is drinking, it appears prostitution is another way to help the vets "heal". The Invisible man just refers to the women on the top floor as "the girls" but he wants to do everything he can to keep Mr. Norton from seeing them. Although not obvious these girls are prostitutes at first, when we learn each girl has her own bedroom upstairs, it becomes pretty clear. At one point they even call out the unfair treatment, yelling at the vets to kill their boss (pimp) because he does not pay them.
When Mr. Norton is being tended to upstairs in a girls bed after passing out, one girl begins to show intrest in him. She says "he could put his hoes under my bed any night" alluding to the fact that she wants to sleep with him. Similarly to chapters one and two, women in chapter three are not given much of a role other than sexual objects, used to entertain, taunt and even "heal" men.

Chapter Four

Our motif of sex appears only once in this chapter. The Invisible Man is heading back to his dormitory to wait for his fate with Dr. Bledsoe after bringing Mr. Norton back to campus. The girl who walked the Invisible Man and Dr. Bledsoe to Mr. Norton's room caught the Invisible Man on his way out and asked him to deliver a message to her boyfriend. The message was "green grass", a secret code used by the girl and her boyfriend. The Invisible Man was livid when he thought about how serious his situation was while she asks him to deliver a message. On his way back to his dormitory, the Invisible Man says "The grass was green and they'd meet and she'd be sent home pregnant..." (pg 105). One could connect the secret code to sex by the Invisible Man saying that the girl will end up pregnant.

Chapter Two

In the second chapter, Invisible man drives one of the founding father's, Mr. Norton, of the college he is attending around. While killing time, they see Jim Trueblood. His wife and his daughter are currently pregnant, he is the father of both children. Norton approaches Trueblood and verifies if what he has heard is true. Trueblood goes on to explain that it started because it was so cold during the night, they all "sleep together" (p. 53). In an odd sleeping arrangement, the daughter slept in between her parents. With Ellison, we are really seeing the concept of innocence be questioned and tattered by sex. "sometimes a man can look at a little ole pigtail gal and see him a whore" (p. 59) Once Trueblood has raped his daughter, he views her as worthless and calls his own child a derogatory term for an act he violently forced on her while she was asleep. Ellison is using sex to create a visceral feeling in his reader, ruining it's romanticism and making it about negative transformation.

Chapter 1
In chapter 1 the motif of sex is portrayed with a naked woman. A crowd of men are gathered around the woman as they push the invisible man into an open space with her for their entertainment. Here the ideas of sex and lust become entangled with issues of race and power. The white men who are spectating in the room both demand the invisible man, who is black, to look at her, and threaten him if he obliges. The invisible man's reactions to the women range from wanting “to love her and to murder her,” as lust confronts the complexities of white and black sexual relations (page 19). This is further complicated because he is a black man and she is a white women, making the potential repercussions of attraction dangerous.

Prologue
The sex motif made one small appearance in the prologue. The Invisible Man was having a hallucination, and at the beginning of his vision, he "saw a beautiful girl the color of ivory pleading in a voice like [his] mother's as she stood before a group of slave owners who bid for her naked body" (p. 9). In this section we see the start of how the invisible man portrays sex. It is significant that when he discusses sex, it is forced upon the girl, usually involving a transaction of money. Additionally, slave owners bidding for her body acknowledges the "slavery" that might result from sex and expectations of sex.

Group Members
Amanda Lee
Marie Cox-McMahon
Madeleine Yancy
Holly Lockhead
Alexis Birl
Our Motif: Sex

This blog is dedicated to analyzing the motif of sex within the book Invisible Man. Our goal is to grasp a better understanding of the book through this motif, and uncover deeper meanings than first appeared to us. Starting with Madeleine for the prologue, and continuing with Holly, Marie, Amanda and ending with Alexis, we will rotate through the chapters, taking turns analyzing how sex is addressed or alluded to.