Just Some Things I Thought About "The Invisible Man"

First of all, even since I watched, "They Shoot Horses Don't They?" last semester I have been obsessed with the idea of writing a paper about dance marathons. It is crazy to think about the things desperate people will do in desperate times for money. What is even crazier to think about is the people who will pay to see desperate people do desperate things. The boys in the Ellison's "The Invisible Man" were forced to put themselves in bodily harm when it comes to the Battle Royal. At what was all the battling for? The chance to grab money off of an electrified rug. It emends me of the scene in TSHDT when they have to run really fast around the dance floor after dancing for days on end and all the rich spectators will throw money or bet on who they think is going to win.

So, I am going to try to make this a point eventually in this blog, so bear with me. The men who have arranged for this evening of entertainment are powerful obviously. We are given little insight into the life of these men aside from their constant yelling and the fact that they are "the town's leading white citizens." So, who exactly are the town's leading white citizens? And what do they like to do? Eat cucumber sandwiches?

NO! They like to watch little boys fight and women dance. How powerful these men are, seeing as they are not women and they are not black.

It seems as though it is a common theme in life to define your power by amusing yourself with the less fortunate. Everything from the red light district in Bangkok to dog fights. Defining your power by capitalizing on the lack of power others posses is common not only in life but in literature as well. Remember "A Worn Path"? And how we talked about the white characters in the story were only defined when put up against a black character. A character who they considered at a disadvantage. The hunter in that story with the dog, totally got off on being all creepy and mean to that old lady. Without even knowing her, he tried to define himself by taking her power away.

A bigger question I have after reading this story is what kind of people do this and why is it socially acceptable?

I guess this is where my psychology class this semester is coming into play. First of all the powerful men in this story are indulging two of the four f's found in the hypothalamus, which is the pleasure center of the brain. No doubt, fighting and fornicating are very prevalent in this story and although the men are just watching from a distance, I'm sure they are pretty much turned on the whole time, which is super gross considering they are like all sweaty and packed really close to each other trying to feel like men. Ugh.

I also can't help but wonder how it came to be like a cool thing to do. Was it a collective consciousness one day between a bunch of humans when we figured out how much better we felt when we were taking advantage of the people were perceived as disadvantaged. I mean in a much more constructive sense, this is not really that much different from like missionary work. This may seem like a stretch but, it is just going around to people who we view as animalistic and help them so you can fee better about yourself.

So going back to why people oppress others...

I just watched a video on the Stanford Prison Experiment and I feel like maybe one of the "town leading white citizens" like thought it was a good idea to have that kind of fun and everyone else just sort of followed lead. Like Nazi Germany!

I guess the main question I still have is who are these sadistic creeps who throughout history and literature strive to define themselves through other people's disadvantages?