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Satire
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Chapter 24
Explanation and Analysis:
Invisible Man is set in various locations, particularly New York City, in early to mid-20th-century America. The novel begins in a small, unspecified town in the Southern United States, where the unnamed protagonist grows up in a highly segregated community. There, he receives a college scholarship from wealthy white men in the community after being subjected to humiliating physical abuse. This setting, then, establishes the inequalities that shape the protagonist's early experiences and worldview. The college that he attends, based loosely on the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, is another important setting in the early chapters of the novel.
Most of the novel is set in New York City, and more specifically, in the primarily African American neighborhood of Harlem in Upper Manhattan. At first, the narrator is astonished to see casual interactions between white and Black residents of the city. However, as he learns more about New York, he comes to better understand its complex social problems and inequalities. The New York City of Invisible Man is a battleground in which various parties compete for power while long-simmering tensions break out into open conflict. After returning to his post in Harlem on behalf of The Brotherhood, the narrator describes the state of the neighborhood:
The community was still going apart at the seams. Crowds formed at the slightest incidents. Store windows were smashed and several clashes erupted during the morning between bus drivers and their passengers. The papers listed similar incidents that had exploded during the night. The mirrored façade of one store on 125th Street was smashed and I passed to see a group of boys watching their distorted images as they danced before the jagged glass. A group of adults looked on, refusing to move at the policemen’s command, and muttering about Clifton.
The narrator has been lying to the Brotherhood about conditions in Harlem in order to sabotage their operations, but here he acknowledges his own unease about the extent to which civic order has deteriorated in the neighborhood. The people of Harlem are frustrated by various serious issues including police brutality, but due to a lack of viable outlets for this frustration, they turn against each other. Ultimately, this chaotic state is taken advantage of by groups such as the Brotherhood and the followers of Ras the Exhorter/Destroyer.
Related Themes:
