Invisible Man Themes

One major theme of Invisible Man is dishonor. Dishonor is a major theme in the book because during the course of the book, the main character is often dishonoring himself and his community. In the beginning of the book, he dishonors himself by being the white men’s source of entertainment. He is forced to fight someone until he is in immense amounts of pain, and then after that he is picking up gold off the floor like a mad man while being continuously shocked. The white men are basically rolling on the floor of laughter at his point. During this whole part, he is definitely dishonoring himself. He also dishonors his people. After Mr. Norton dies, he is ashamed to be black. He wanted to be like Mr. Norton, and the only way he feels that he can accomplish that is by leaving his people. He doesn’t want to stay in his all black college anymore, but he knows that if he leaves, he will not be getting the education that his father wanted and that he wanted too.
Another major theme of Invisible Man is racism and stereotypes. Racism is a ongoing issue throughout the entire book. The protagonist has to deal with it on a day to day basis. The white men that gave him his scholarship were completely racist. When he was fighting, the white men were constantly yelling racial slurs. They continue yelling those words when the black kids are scrambling on the ground trying to pick up gold. Mr. Norton, the head of the school, is definitely very stereotypical. When he is explaining to the invisible man why he founded the school, it seemed like he was trying to say that he wanted to help black people because all of them are struggling and none of them have an education.