Invisible Man Narrator Quotes

Narrator

Quote 31

But now I felt that I was sharing in a great work and, with a car leaping leisurely beneath the pressure of my foot, I identified myself with the rich man reminiscing on the rear seat…(2.30)

The narrator delights in associating with the founders of the college, wanting to be part of its prestige.

Narrator

Quote 32

I didn't understand in those pre-invisible days that their hate, and mine too, was charged with fear. How all of us at the college hated the black-belt people, the "peasants," during those days! We were trying to lift them up and they, like Trueblood, did everything it seemed to pull us down. (2.98)

The narrator suggests that the school's black population resent people like Jim Trueblood because their lifestyle supports the black stereotypes the students were trying to abolish.

Narrator

Quote 33

How can he tell this to white men, I thought, when he knows they'll say that all Negroes do such things? I looked at the floor, a red mist of anguish before my eyes. (2.192)

The narrator is upset with Trueblood for not recognizing his responsibility as a black man to defend the black reputation. Really, really upset. He thinks in very collectivist terms, when in reality Trueblood's behavior should have no bearing on how the narrator is perceived. The narrator does not reach this individualist conclusion until much later.