Light

In the prologue of Invisible Man, the protagonist describes how he lives in a hole underground and has covered it with 1,369 lights. He says that his hole is “full of light” (6) and that his hole is the brightest spot in all of New York (6). In the same paragraph, the Invisible Man states that “the world does not move like an arrow, but a boomerang” (6). After this explanation, he makes the first reference to darkness and lightness: “I know; I have been boomeranged across my head so much that I now can see the darkness of lightness. And I love light. Perhaps you’ll think it strange that an invisible man should need light, desire light, love light. But maybe it is exactly because I am invisible. Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form.” (6) Through this quote, the narrator implies that light helps him to see himself, which confirms his reality. Light helps him identify his existence in the world (truth) so that he is not lost in darkness (society, loneliness). Light helps him to realize how things truly work in a white-dominant society and he can see the things that society is trying to cover up: “The truth is the light and the light is the truth” (7). For example, one of the things that society is trying to cover up is his true identity, and the light helps him to find who he really is and “gives birth to his form” (6). The light shows the narrator’s full form that the blind society cannot see.