In Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison often includes laughter to show strong emotion, especially to when a character feels powerful or panicked. Those two emotions seem totally unrelated and you might notice that humor is not included. It is interesting that characters in the book rarely laugh because they find something funny. It is more often because they are relishing in power or panicking about a crisis they are in.
One example of laughter is during the meeting when Bledsoe is effectively expelling the narrator from the college. "For a moment he looked me up and down and I saw his head go back in the shadow, hearing a high, thin sound like a cry of rage; then his face came forward and I saw his laughter" (141). Bledsoe laughs very hard because he is excited at the power he has to punish someone who dares to threaten him. When the narrator or another important character recognizes newfound power, they will often laugh heartily.
The other important time a character will laugh in the novel is when they realize the impossibility of their situation (often the narrator is the one laughing in this case). This impossibility can be in the form of panic because it is impossible to escape, or hysteria because the situation is impossible to be true. One example of the first of those is when the narrator sees what Bledsoe has done in sending him north. "I laughed and felt numb and weak, knowing that soon the pain would come and no matter what happened to me I'd never be the same. I felt numb and I was laughing" (194). He is laughing not because he finds it funny, but because he is terrified and surprised and his reaction is to laugh. At the end of chapter 24, he is running through the pooping pigeons laughing. "I ran blindly, boiling with outrage and despair and harsh laughter. Running from all the birds to what, I didn't know. I ran" (534). In this passage, the narrator is laughing at the hilarity and absurdity of the situation more than anything else. He is laughing because the situation is crazy but it is somehow happening to him. It is absurd, but real, so he laughs.
It is interesting how Ellison employs laughter throughout the book to express different things. There are many, many times when important characters laugh and it can all be tied to the strongest emotions.
The laughter Ellison depicts in Invisible Man also caught my eye and goes to show how much time and detail he puts into his stories. The fact that a single emotion can have such a profound effect is remarkable. When you gave the examples of laughter in the story, it made me think of someone who is actually crazy, laughing when it is out of place and somewhat disturbing to the reader. This portrayal made me think of the character we see in the prologue, and every instance of hysterical laughter we see, shows his progress towards that version of him.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really insightful post. It seems like throughout the book, Ellison repeats certain elements but in different contexts, and each time it reveals something new about the narrator's development. In the case of laughter, like you say, it starts out with Bledsoe laughing as an expression of power, and the narrator is just terrified. But as the story goes on, the narrator himself starts laughing more and more often. Just like Bledsoe, the narrator comes to realize the absurdity and futility of his situation, and starts to use laughter as a way to exert some small control over his own life.
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ReplyDeleteI would argue that Bledsoe laughs at the narrator because he finds the narrator's blindness to the game absurd and ironic, and therefore hilariously funny. Similarly, the narrator, running through bird shit, finds his situation ridiculous, and funny because of that preposterousness.
ReplyDeleteIn essence, one may feel that a situation is funny and yet feel other things at the same time.
I think the laughter is really interesting. I feel like a lot of the laughter boils down to power. The narrator's laughter often reflects the power or lack of power he feels. His laughing when he realizes what he is really supposed to do in New York seems to reflect the fact that he feels powerless. When he is running through the birds, I think he's not just laughing about the birds, but about the past situations that made him feel powerless. Laughing is maybe his way to feel more powerful.
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ReplyDeleteThis laughter, as we talked about in class, is almost a recognition of the "joke" that is being played on him from the beginning of the novel. As he begins to understand the joke, he laughs and laughs as he alienates himself from society. This laughter seems crazy from almost all perspectives: laughter does not seem the like the sanest response to finding out that your entire life has been a cruel joke. But, what is left to do but laugh and laugh? The narrator can only play along with society (and be the butt of the joke) or exit society (and laugh at the joke) while being outcast and labeled as crazy by society.
ReplyDeleteI think it's interesting to see what laughter does objectively too. It is in direct contrast to seriousness, and so perhaps even if you are in dire circumstances, laughing at your situation does kind of remove you from it by your ability to make commentary on it, implying a sense of distance from your reality. It is a kind of backwards power, but it is a bit self-affirming by ridding itself of the need of conventional assets or agency.
ReplyDeleteI think your point about laughter as a sign of newfound power is very significant. In a way, the narrator starts to find his own power throughout the book. During the prologue we see that he responds to serious or horrific events with laughter, but we see a sharp contrast in the first few chapters in which he is all but devoid of cynicism and sarcasm. As he grows as a character and discovers who he really is and how, for lack of a better phrase, messed up society is, he starts finding more humor and making more jokes out of clearly non-humorous situations.
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