Invisible Man Narrator Quotes

Narrator

Quote 4

And I love light. Perhaps you'll think it strange that an invisible man should need light, desire light, love light. But maybe it is exactly because I am invisible. Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form. (Prologue.6)

The narrator loves light because it allows him to see himself. This is part of the light/dark imagery that Ellison utilizes throughout the novel.

Narrator

Quote 5

Without light I am not only invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one's form is to live a death. I myself, after existing some twenty years, did not become alive until I discovered my invisibility. (Prologue.6)

The narrator suggests that invisibility is part of his identity.

Narrator

Quote 6

Invisibility, let me explain, gives one a slightly different sense of time, you're never quite on the beat. Sometimes you're ahead and sometimes behind. Instead of the swift and imperceptible flowing of time, you are aware of its nodes, those points where time stands still or from which it leaps ahead. And you slip into the breaks and look around. That's what you hear vaguely in Louis' music. (Prologue.8)

Here, the connection between jazz and invisibility is more directly laid out.