Synthesis

    From the very beginning of Invisible man, a naked woman is commonly displayed as a symbol of sex. In the prologue, the Invisible Man has a hallucination, of a beautiful girl who stood before slave owners who "who bid for her naked body" (p. 9). From this point of the book on, sex is a motif commonly tied in with Power. The women Ellison writes about lack the power in almost every situation, when sex is discussed, it is forced upon the girl. This idea continues through chapter three, when Mr Trueblood uses a sick story about overpowering his daughters to gain control over the white community. Ellison makes the reader view sex as something extremely negative, showing how it can be manipulated and destroyed by men in order to gain power and control.
    Women are also commonly displayed by Ellison as nothing more than sexual objects for men's pleasure- even as tools for therapy (chapter.3). The men watch women parade themselves around for their entertainment. This portrayal of women by Ellison was done in order to show the way that women are treated in society. While it may be a little less dramatic in real life, women are still often a sex symbol. This was represented with the naked woman walking around with an American flag on her stomach (Chapter 1). A great example of this in real life is strip clubs- men literally paying money to watch women parade themselves around, similar to the Battle Royale scene in IM.
       White woman in Invisible man represent even more. These women, while often over-sexualized and walking around naked in front of men, are forbidden. Even just sitting too close to a white woman has the Invisible Man shaking and scared for his life. This fear of women, a group with almost no power, shows just how little respect African Americans received, and how hard it was for them to find power. If an extremely oppressed group, good for nothing more than the entertainment of men has the power to kill a black man just by screaming- it shows how little power they had in society. Ellison does a great job of showing this fear of white women on multiple occasions.
      Throughout the later chapters of Invisible Man, sex comes up much less often. Perhaps this signifies the Invisible Mans growth, as he moves out of one stage of his life.

Chapter Fourteen

Although sex was not explicitly mentioned in this chapter, at the beginning of the chapter, the Invisible Man was pushed into a woman named Emma "press[ed] tensely against her perfumed softness, seeing her smile as though there was only she and I"(pg. 300). This section alluded to sex, as Emma is sexualized throughout the chapter, and even dances with the Invisible Man, reminding him of the "vet's prediction" (p. 315), which was an earlier allusion to sex. In this, we see the narrator's continued association of force with sex, as he tried to avoid Emma, but was pushed into her anyway. This contrasts to the main society's vision of sex and shows how the Invisible Man's perception is often different from society.

Chapter Twelve

There is no sex in chapter twelve.

Chapter 11

While the Invisible Man is being unveiled, he is in a sate of confusion. While attempting to remember his past in this state the motif of sex appears only as a suggestion in his past. A sexually suggestive memory of a woman comes through lyrics of, "You can't see her pot for the steam..." While this is not explicit, the pot is a symbol for her vagina, and while keeping sex non-explicit Ellison shows that  sex was and is not a major identifier for the Invisible Man.

Chapter Nine

Our motif of sex was not present in this chapter.

Chapter 10

Our motif of sex was not present in Chapter 10.

Chapter Eight

The motif sex was not mentioned or alluded to in Chapter Eight.