Light Week 5

Towards the end of Chapter 24 in Invisible Man, the narrator is going to Harlem after he got a call from the Brotherhood implying that there was an emergency in Harlem. He calls a cab for Sybil, then starts running there. On the way, he describes the setting as if he were going into the depths of hell (Dante’s Inferno) and while he is running, he gets covered in bird droppings. One of the descriptions in particular that he uses to describe the setting kind of foreshadows what is going to happen in the next chapters: “Far ahead in the dark I saw the monumental bridge, ropes of lights across the dark river; and closer, high above the shoreline, the Palisades, their revolutionary agony lost in the riotous lights of roller coasters. “The Time is Now …” the sign across the river began…” (533). The dark river symbolizes that he is close to hell (Harlem/race riot) and bridge shows the connection between hell and the place that he is staying at. The ropes of light may mean that he is about to find out that the Brotherhood started the race riot on purpose and also discover the true meaning behind humanity, his life, and the grandfather’s curse (epilogue). The fact that Ellison uses “ropes of light” instead of any other description of light shows the connection that the Invisible Man has to his past and him discovering the truth, with the race riot/ dark river being the journey/ transition in between the two. “Ropes of light” also shows the continuum of knowledge that the Invisible Man is gaining/ has gained, and how the events in his past/ throughout his life changed the way he thinks and how these events help him find the truth. The sign that says “The Time is Now” also implies the idea that now is the time that the Invisible Man truly finds the truth and finally discovers the meaning behind the grandfather’s curse (partially) and humanity.