ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Themes Videos 151 videos
Yes, there are kites. Yes, there are runners. No, despite how much we love running and flying kites, this isn't a happy story by any stretch of the...
Gee whiz! Running after kites sounds like so much fun! That's totally what this book is about, right? Nope. Hosseini's novel actually touches on su...
Historical fiction novels like The Help can whisk you back to a place and time that you may have only read about in history books. Or... a place an...
Invisible Man 41453 Views
Share It!
Description:
You’re one in a million, buddy. Er...actually, more like one meaningless speck in a sea of billions. Makes you feel kind of insignificant, right? Nobody knows how that feels better than Ralph Emerson’s invisible man, as he loses his identity and picks up a few fun new ones, such as “liar”, “trouble maker”, and “most likely to sneak into a movie theatre without paying.”
Transcript
- 00:06
Invisible Man, a la Shmoop. Do we all feel invisible at times... without
- 00:14
the advantage of being able to sneak into locker rooms?
- 00:18
As the wisest person on the planet once said . . .
- 00:20
. . . everyone wants to be validated. We all have a need to be heard . . .
- 00:24
. . . and accepted for who we really are . . . But with 7 billion of us taking up breathing
Full Transcript
- 00:29
space . . . . . . it can get a little tricky.
- 00:31
In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, our unnamed protagonist feels unseen by others in society
- 00:36
. . . . . . because, as he says, they refuse to
- 00:39
see him. They slap on plenty of labels . . .
- 00:41
. . . like 'liar' . . . . . . or 'trouble-maker' . . .
- 00:43
. . . but never get beyond assumptions to understand who he really is.
- 00:47
Kind of makes us wonder . . . . . . if we all aren't feeling a little bit
- 00:50
invisible. You would think that with all the opportunities
- 00:54
to get to know one another . . . . . . feeling "seen" would be less of a problem
- 00:58
than it used to be. But it seems like just the opposite.
- 01:02
People have simply invented new ways of ignoring each other . . .
- 01:04
. . . while continuing to wrap each other up in convenient packages.
- 01:08
Our protagonist in Invisible Man, for example, gets more labels slapped on him than a package
- 01:12
headed for Timbuktu. Strangers see him, and instantly make judgments.
- 01:17
And usually they're not very accurate ones. Being reduced to a bunch of adjectives can
- 01:21
make anyone feel invisible . . . . . . and certainly doesn't make our Oprah
- 01:25
happy. But maybe it's not just society's fault.
- 01:30
After all, we're not always honest about how we represent ourselves.
- 01:34
Our boy in the book takes on a couple of different identities.
- 01:36
A total waste, in our opinion, because if you're going to have multiple identities,
- 01:40
it would be nice if at least one of them was a superhero.
- 01:43
Who knows - maybe we're afraid we won't be liked if people know who we truly are . . .
- 01:50
. . . so we invent someone who will get us what we want . . .
- 01:52
. . . even if we know we'll have to face the music someday.
- 01:55
So, why can't we feel comfortable showing people who we really are?
- 01:59
And why do we care so much about what other people think?
- 02:02
Does it have anything to do with the labels we're so quick to slap on each other?
- 02:08
And would we all feel less invisible if we stopped doing it?
- 02:12
Shmoop amongst yourselves.
Related Videos
This video defines utopias and dystopias, and investigates how a utopia might become a dystopia. Can a seemingly perfect world actually be a dystop...
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...