Symbolism Week 5

The invisible man’s briefcase is an object the narrator has with him in the beginning, throughout, and even at the end of the novel. He receives the “gleaming calfskin briefcase” (32), after making a speech at the Battle Royal and is told to “keep developing as you are and someday it will be filled with important papers that will help shape the destiny of your people” (32). So, this is exactly what the invisible man intends to do, following the instruction of others. The narrator has been going on a constant journey that has shaped him into the person he is, and pieces of his journey have in fact been placed in the briefcase. The invisible man’s high school diploma, the anonymous letters, the piece of paper with his “new” name, and even the coin bank pieces are thrown into it. When the riot breaks out and the fire scene starts to ignite towards the end, it is clear that the invisible man accidently left the briefcase in the building, but turns around to retrieve it seeing “he almost lost something that had been precious to him” (537). It is not until the end do we see the true significance the briefcase brings to the invisible man. As he is running and falls into the underground hole, he becomes trapped in the dark and realizes he needs a source of light. His conclusion to resolve this problem involves matches he already has, along with pieces of paper. He then continues to open his briefcase since “it was the only papers he had” (567). The invisible man has now “burned every paper in the briefcase” (568), and every item he had been carrying with him all along. The items he had in there had represented him being blind and completely manipulated by others. All of those significant items represented what others wanted him to be, and tried to change his identity. Now that they have completely vanished, he can be done with the past and move on with his new lifestyle by having awareness of who he truly is.