Viewing Howe's Critiques from a Different Lens

 Irving Howe claims that Invisible Man fails as a protest novel, and a lot of his complaints stem from the narrator’s political disengagement and the lack of a clear resolution to the problems depicted throughout the novel. Initially I adamantly disagreed with this notion, and thought that Invisible Man has no obligation to provide solutions. The book on its own can help to educate and influence it’s readers on the black experience without directly outlining the exact issues. Throughout the novel the narrator feels like he hasn’t found where he truly belongs and struggles with his conflicting Southern and Northern identities. This is a feeling that was shared between a lot of African American people likely at the time, and even now. The book illustrates society against the narrator, with people constantly telling him what he can and cannot do (linking back to themes of Native Son), and all the examples of black power (Bledsoe, Brockway) existing within the rules of white people, it’s easy to see why the narrator struggles so much to feel seen. All of us in this class likely read these scenes and immediately saw the messages Ellison was sending, but if you think back to what it was like in the 50’s, it’s easier to understand the basis of Howe’s argument. 

Nowadays, we read about these race issues in Invisible Man and can extrapolate for ourselves what the true problems are and how we might be able to fix them, but in the 50’s many readers were likely far less educated on the subjects unless they were part of the social justice movements. These issues weren’t discussed nearly as much, and many white people didn’t even view them as issues, and even if they did, they would have no clue how to do better. We see this in the book as well, when members of the Brotherhood try to assure they are not racist after a member asks the narrator to sing a black spiritual song, but only make the narrator feel worse. When you take into account the time period, it’s much easier to see why Howe had some issues with how white people might take away unintended lessons, and how black people might think the answer is political disengagement. In my opinion, Invisible Man is an extremely well written book that cleverly depicts the experiences of an extremely dynamic and creative main character, and extremely interesting and provocative to read in a more progressive modern setting, but I understand where Howe’s critiques were coming from in the 50’s, even if I disagree.

Comments

  1. CadiOctober 21, 2021 at 8:51 PM

    I also felt that Invisible Man did a pretty good job of addressing issues of race, and it's interesting to view its impact from the perspective of a different setting. For a 1950s audience, Ellison's protests seem too subtle—they exist, but need to be emphasized more. The book still brought to attention the differences, inconveniences, and disrespect endured as part of the black experience that non-blacks likely don't encounter much, such as the coin bank, but could discuss them more explicitly.

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  2. erin's blogOctober 22, 2021 at 7:46 PM

    I think the main problem with Howe's critique was that he decided Ellison's novel had to serve a certain purpose in a specific way because it was about race, and because Ellison was black. Howe might have some useful pointers on how to best make a book to educate White America on race, but he both assumes that that was Ellison's goal, and implies that if that isn't his goal, he's doing something wrong. That also bases the validity of Ellison's work around the receptive by white people? Overall Howe had a lot of issues, though I get your point from a marketing stance.

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  3. EliasOctober 26, 2021 at 6:35 PM

    You make an interesting point, I hadn't thought about the amount of difference the factor of time could make in Howe's argument. That being said, Howe is speaking from a place of lacking education. The difference that you pointed out between us as readers and Howe is about our general awareness. This is something that Howe could have remedied, if he had just given more thought to Ellison's work, or taken more time to learn about the issues that African American's are faced with.

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