Chapter Nineteen

The motif of sex was present in Chapter Nineteen when the Invisible Man had sex with a white woman. The Invisible Man was very conflicted about this, torn "between the ideological and the biological, duty and desire" (p. 416). Once again we see how the Invisible Man views sex differently from the rest of society, and how it is portrayed in the book. This chapter continues the theme of sex being associated with something wrong, as the Invisible Man feels guilty for weeks and weeks after this. Furthermore, we see the "wrongness" of sex portrayed in this book, as the woman is married, and she is white, which was then a social taboo. Violence is also once again associated with sex, as the Invisible Man both wanted "to smash her and to stay with her" (p. 415). In this we further see the "wrongness" of sex.