Marqus Nguyen

Period 1
Invisible Man Rhetorical Analysis
Final Draft for 1
st
Passage
Author, Ralph llison, in his novel, !Invisible Man", illu#inates the reali$ation of
his narrator%s sense of being unseen by the hu#an perception& llison%s purpose is to
#a'e people recogni$e each other as individuals rather than optical illusions that e(ist&
)e adopts a sy#pathetic tone in order to #a'e his readers understand everyone is an
individual, not a co#ponent to the scenery of the *orld& llison portrays the underlying
euphe#is# of being invisible in a *orld *ith people that have the ability to perceive a
person as an individual& Ralph llison #a'es his readers focus on the narrator%s
loneliness and those *ho are also treated as strangers&
llison%s portion fro# the first passage uses a sy#pathetic tone to #a'e his
readers e#otionally vent *ith his narrator& )e successfully #a'es his readers feel pity by
co#paring and contrasting the narrator%s e(istence *ith #isfortunate feelings and
e#barrassing #etaphors& At one point, the narrator co#pares hi#self to a !bodiless head
that is so#eti#es seen in circus sidesho*s and that he has been surrounded by #irrors of
hard, distorting glass" +llison,& -eing a bodiless head *ould put an audience in a*e, but
having to live as an entertain#ent booth and not being able to be appreciated for your
personality is definitely #iserable& .he i#age of surrounding #irrors #ade of hard and
distorting glass supports the feeling of only being seen as a face, or a color& It see#s that
the narrator feels that people around hi# focus on his face, and possibly his colored
pig#ent, then choose not to see hi# as any different as anyone of his race& .he
sy#pathetic tone digs deep in the reader%s e#otions for pity to feel the need to see
everyone as different since the heart is al#ost al*ays #ore #anipulative than the #ind&
.he portion of llison%s novel also uses the co##on logic of perceiving one
another first hand& llison%s narrator states that !I a# invisible, understand, si#ply
because people refuse to see #e&" It is obvious that a person cannot define a person%s
individuality /ust by *al'ing past the#& specially during the ti#e *hen public racis#
still e(isted, one *ould be grouped as a part of their colored races& It feels the narrator
has no effort on sho*ing his personality and chooses to stay invisible instead of ta'ing
the opportunity to e(posing his individuality& .he logic llison tries to use for persuasion
is ineffective because the state#ent and logic he uses is based on assu#ptions& .he
narrator%s assu#ptions #a'e the narrator sound ignorant because people #ay be too busy
for their lives and it see#s the narrator doesn%t do anything to sho* is indeed an
individual& 0sing personal logic based on assu#ptions is ineffective to persuade the
readers to feel #ore concerned about everybody%s individuality&
Ralph llison uses the technique of a sy#pathetic tone and so#e personal
'no*ledge to persuade his readers to identify people #ore different than each other& -oth
techniques try to persuade the readers, but one *as really effective and the other1 a fiasco&
.he tone llison used *as an advantage for his *riting since feelings are hu#an%s first
reactions than thoughts& 2n the other hand, the narrator%s personal pre/udice is ineffective
because the narrator doesn%t 'no* e(actly *hy people don%t choose to see hi# and that
he chooses to stay ignorant by not trying to vent on the personality he possess&