Jefferson, Jackson, Pulaski, Garibaldi, Sun Yat-sen, Danny O'Connell,
Abe Lincoln (307)
unconscious racial chauvinism (312)
pigeon drop (330)
ideology (359)
Garvey (367)
the Woman Question (406)
Homework Questions: (See Q's for Novel Parts One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
and Seven)
Prologue: 3:
Explain: "I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to
see me" (3).
4:
What does it mean to be a "phantom in other people's minds" (4)?
4-5:
Are the narrator's actions with the blond man justifiable? Explain.
5:
Explain the significance of the newspaper caption.
6:
Where exactly does the narrator live?
Explain: "Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form" (6).
8:
Explain: Invisibility "gives one a slightly different sense of
time, you're never quite on the beat" (8).
13:
What, according to the narrator, is hibernation?
14:
To whom is the narrator speaking in the last full paragraph on this
page?
Part One: 15:
Explain the hand-fingers analogy.
16:
Explain the grandfather's dying words.
17:
What is a battle royal? Why are the narrator's schoolmates taking part?
19:
Why do the white men bring the black boys up to watch the blonde dancer?
23:
Explain the significance of the statement: "No group fought together
for long"(23).
Part Two 36:
Inscription:
Booker T. Washington 1856 1915 He lifted the veil of ignorance from his people and pointed the way to progress through education and industry
Explain the significance of the statue of the founder.
39:
Explain: "I don't know whether it was his vision or mine" (39).
41:
How is Emerson connected to African Americans?
42:
Explain: "You are my fate"(42).
How does Norton's daughter fit in?
47:
Why are the students embarrassed by the spirituals sung by the country
quartet?
49:
Why does the narrator tell Norton about Trueblood? Should he have
done so? Explain.
50:
Why is Norton so interested in Trueblood's story?
53:
Why do the white folks take up for Trueblood?
57-59:
Explain Trueblood's dream.
62:
Is there a difference between "dream-sin" and "blood-sin"? Explain.
69:
Why does Norton give Trueblood $100?
93:
Explain the vet's words: "To some you are the great white father,
to others the lyncher of souls, but for all, you are confusion come even
in the Golden Day"(93).
94:
According to the vet, why is the narrator "the most perfect achievement
of [Norton's] dream" (94)?
Part Three 99:
Why does the narrator say that he is losing his identity?
102:
Explain: "We take these white folks where we want them to go,
we show them what we want them to see" (102).
111:
Why do "the defeated come to love the symbols of their conquerors" (111)?
Why are the students ashamed of "crude preachers" (111)?
112:
Explain: "Their most innocent words were acts of violence" (112).
121:
Explain: "I'm sure you've each of you lived with him through his
escape"(121).
133:
Why is it significant that the Rev. Homer Barbee is blind?
139:
Explain: "You're black and living in the South--did you forget
how to lie?" (139).
142:
Explain: "Power doesn't have to show off" (142).
143:
Would Bledsoe really kill all the "Negroes"? Explain.
148:
What two things, according to Bledsoe, must black people do? Why?
Part Four 153:
Why is a woman "any man's most easily accessible symbol of freedom"
(153)?
155:
Explain: "There's always an element of crime in freedom" (155).
158:
Why is the Narrator so troubled about being pressed against a white
woman in the subway?
164:
Why does the narrator want to change his Southern way of speaking?
184:
How can ambition be "blinding"(184)?
190-91:
Explain Bledsoe's letter.
201:
What is significant about the name of the paint the narrator mixes?
(see also 217)
217:
Explain: "We the machines inside the machine" (217).
228:
What problem does Brockway have with unions?
236:
What are the doctors talking about? What is a lobotomy? Does the
narrator need one? Explain.
239:
Why can't the narrator remember his name?
245:
Of what has the narrator been cured?
249:
Why is the narrator no longer afraid of important men?
Part Five 252:
Why does Mary Rambo help the narrator?
255:
Explain: "I'm in New York, but New York ain't in me" (255).
262:
Why would whiter skin cause greater happiness?
264:
Why do black people feel "the greatest humiliation" simply by being
confronted with things they like?
266:
Explain: "They are my birthmark. . . . I yam what I am!" (266).
275-80:
What is the purpose of the narrator's speech at the eviction?
What is he trying to accomplish? Does his speech serve his purpose?
Explain.
291:
Explain: "They're dead, you see, because they're incapable of
rising to the necessity of the historical situation" (291).
309:
Why must the narrator put aside his past? Why is he given a new
name?
316:
Explain: "History makes harsh demands of us all" (316).
331:
What is significant about the narrator's inability to get rid of the
broken bank?
336:
Why can he no longer acknowledge Mary?
343:
Explain the one-eyed mice image.
345:
Explain Brother Jack's admonition.
349:
How is the narrator's speech "incorrect" (349)?
354:
Explain: "We create the race by creating ourselves" (354).
Other Discussion Questions: 256:
Why can't the narrator stay at Men's House any longer?
305:
How does Booker T. Washington compare to the Founder?
306:
Exactly how powerless are the dead? Explain.
335:
Explain the narrator's discussion of "remote eyes" (335).
352:
Explain: "Science isn't a game of chess" (352).
Part Six 369:
Why is the narrator called an "Uncle Tom" (369)?
370:
Why doesn't Ras stab Tod Clifton?
372:
Explain the reference to the battle royal.
377:
Explain: "Sometimes a man has to plunge outside history"
(377).
379:
Explain: "I am what they think I am" (379). (compare with 266)
383:
Explain the anonymous note.
390:
Explain: "There was no time for memory" (390).
405:
Explain: "The Brotherhood is bigger than all of us" (405).
413:
Explain: "At times you have tom-toms beating in your voice" (413).
416:
Explain the significance of the mirror imagery.
434:
Why is Clifton selling Sambo dolls?
436:
Why does the cop shoot Clifton?
443:
Explain: "They'd been there all along, but somehow I'd missed them"
(443).
454-55:
Explain the beginning of his eulogy for Clifton. Does he really want
everyone to go home? Explain.
458:
Explain: "He's in the box and we're in there with him" (458).
Other Discussion Questions 360:
Explain: "Your health belongs to the organization" (360).
389:
How appropriate is Tarp's gift to the narrator?
392:
Why does the Brotherhood seek to downplay differences?
418:
Explain: "Why did they have to mix their women into everything?"
(418).
426:
Why has the Brotherhood stopped fighting in/for Harlem? (see also 428)
457:
What word(s) rhyme with trigger?
459:
Explain: "As I took one last look I saw not a crowd but the set
faces of individual men and women" (459).
Part Seven 473:
Explain: "Our job is not to ask them what they think but
to tell them!" (473).
474:
Why is it significant that Jack has a glass eye?
485:
Why does Ras become the Destroyer?
483-98:
Explain the significance of Rinehart.
508:
Explain: "I'd agree them to death and destruction" (508).
522:
Explain what the narrator writes on Sybil's stomach.
553:
Has the narrator really been the tool for murder? Explain.
558:
Explain: "They want you guilty of your own murder, your own sacrifice!"
(558).
559:
Why does the narrator no longer need to run?
564:
Is the narrator's grandfather right? Explain.
569:
What are the "bloody blobs" of the dream (569)? Why are they cut
off?
575:
Explain: "The principle was greater than the men" (575).
578:
Explain the narrator's "reunion" with Mr. Norton.
579:
Why has the narrator written his story?
580:
Why is the hibernation over?
Other Discussion Questions 504:
Explain: "The trick is to take advantage of them in their own
best interest" (504).
526:
Do the narrator and Sybil actually have sex? Does it matter?
548:
Why does the narrator participate in burning the tenement?
560:
Why is the narrator going to Mary's?
568:
Why is it important that Jack wrote the note? (see 383)
576:
Explain the questions the narrator asks in the beginning of the first
full paragraph.
Explain: "Only in division is there true health" (576).
Two