One of the most significant transitions undergone by the narrator in Invisible Man is his move from the South to New York. In New York, he tries to rid himself of his southern identity, and recreate himself as a sophisticated northerner. However, despite his greatest efforts, the narrator cannot manage to redefine himself because of one thing: nostalgia. Though he isn't fully aware of it, the narrator is extremely emotionally attached to the South, and this prevents him from developing into the man he wants to be.
The narrator's nostalgia pops up a few times while he's in New York. He dearly wants to eat the southern-style breakfast at the diner, even though he declines. He reminisces on his times in college, and then we get the yam scene, the most symbolic of all. It's snowing when he's eating the yams, which is an exclusively northern form of precipitation. Yams are primarily a southern food, and the flavor and scent of the yams brings back forgotten memories of his youth and family back home. These nostalgic memories mesh with the narrator's current reality, creating a jumble of images that clash - the cold air, his childhood, yams, yams, and more yams.
The narrator has tried so hard to separate his love of the South from his ambitions in the North, but the yams overwhelm him. As he bites into his last yam, he realizes it is frostbitten. The North and South cannot coexist: the yams don't belong in the snow. As long as the narrator tries to be both northern and southern, he cannot succeed. The frostbitten yam helps him recognize this, and shocks him into reality. The past is the past: it is time for him to move on. By spitting out the frostbitten yam, he is ridding himself of his nostalgia and severing his ties to his home. He then walks around the corner and finally has his first success as a northerner. Would he have been able to move past his identity crisis without the aid of the yams? Or would he have grown old wallowing in his failure?
The narrator's nostalgia pops up a few times while he's in New York. He dearly wants to eat the southern-style breakfast at the diner, even though he declines. He reminisces on his times in college, and then we get the yam scene, the most symbolic of all. It's snowing when he's eating the yams, which is an exclusively northern form of precipitation. Yams are primarily a southern food, and the flavor and scent of the yams brings back forgotten memories of his youth and family back home. These nostalgic memories mesh with the narrator's current reality, creating a jumble of images that clash - the cold air, his childhood, yams, yams, and more yams.
The narrator has tried so hard to separate his love of the South from his ambitions in the North, but the yams overwhelm him. As he bites into his last yam, he realizes it is frostbitten. The North and South cannot coexist: the yams don't belong in the snow. As long as the narrator tries to be both northern and southern, he cannot succeed. The frostbitten yam helps him recognize this, and shocks him into reality. The past is the past: it is time for him to move on. By spitting out the frostbitten yam, he is ridding himself of his nostalgia and severing his ties to his home. He then walks around the corner and finally has his first success as a northerner. Would he have been able to move past his identity crisis without the aid of the yams? Or would he have grown old wallowing in his failure?
And yet, his "first success as a northerner" entails a deep identification with the elderly couple *as* southerners who remind him of his grandparents. This irony is redoubled when Jack, upon "hiring" him, declares that to work for the Brotherhood he'll have to sever ties with his family. The narrator's complicated relationship with his southern roots (ha ha) does not completely disappear when he assumes this literally new northern identity (including a new name, new wardrobe, no family, etc.).
ReplyDeleteI found the yam scene to be quite interesting to reflect on because I do think that we see a shift in his view of the north and south. As he has been in the north, he has overall struggled to understand who he is. He came as a college student looking for a job, but so much has happened to change who he is and his outlook. As you pointed out, the narrator has struggled with his southern identity in the north. In this scene, he seems to finally be able to clear his mind of the north vs. south turmoil going on in his head. I find it somewhat disappointing that just as the narrator's identity had another shift and he began to discover who he is, the brotherhood comes and basically starts to erase it all. At the same time, I am interested in how his time at the brotherhood goes, and whether he will allow his identity to be changed or if he will start to rebel against the brotherhood leaders.
ReplyDeleteI like this interpretation of the end of the yams scene as severing ties with his southern past (or at least an attempt to) because it segues into the next phase of the narrator's life very interestingly with the emergence of Brother Jack and the new job opportunity he has that comes with a whole new identity. This really is the ultimate severing of the narrator from the past, but as he continues on his journey there are brief glimpses of sadness and loneliness that the narrator lets us in on, making me wonder if he really can sever himself from the past.
ReplyDeleteIn Invisible Man, identity is a central concept that serves to ground someone and connect them to the world around them. Does the narrator's rejecting of the old parts of his identity to take on a fake new one signify his transition into an invisible man who exists only as others see him?
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