Education in Invisible Man: Enlightenment or an Illusion?

Throughout everything we've read in Invisible Man, one question that has stuck with me is the idea we discussed with the statue in Chapter 2: in the statue of the Founder of the university, is a veil being lifted off the slave by the Founder, or is it being lowered into place? And what does Ellison think of the Founder's (presumably Booker T. Washington) vision of education?

The answer to this question changes throughout the novel. In Chapter 1, the narrator seems absolutely enthralled by the idea that every person has a 'social responsibility' and he envisions himself being a successful man like those at the banquet. For him, education represents this mode that will take him up to the upper reaches of society (obviously with limits, due to his race, his being in the Deep South, and the time period this is set in). This is shown through his eagerness when he receives the scholarship, despite the humiliating and bloody ordeal he has to go through in order to get to that point. Later, in the dream with his grandfather, one can again see the narrator's single minded goal of going to college, despite his grandfather almost mocking him by saying 'Keep this ******-Boy Running'. Right after that, the narrator says 'But first, I had to go to college.' 

Throughout Chapter 2 (and until he meets Mr. Emerson) as well, we see the narrator trying to pursue his success by defining himself by those around him, especially men of power. For him, Dr. Bledsoe is everything he aspires to be - he has a big house, multiple cars, a beautiful wife, and society respects him. However, there are points where the narrator does seem to question the ideas that the institution is built on - we're told that one road leads to the college and another to an asylum, the college is built on a hill while being surrounded by the huts of sharecroppers, that the Preacher Barbee is blind (this seems to be a recurring metaphor), and that there's this statue of the founder and the narrator can't really tell whether or not the veil is being lifted or put into place. Doing some further research, I found out that the name of this statue is Lifting the Veil of Ignorance. On the surface level, the college does seem to be doing this job - the narrator learns about different thinkers and the college provides a good education. However, especially under Dr. Bledsoe, the college seems to reinforce the idea of chasing success without dismantling the systems of white supremacy that are around. 

The narrator's life seems to reflect that of Ellison's and so does his development. I think Ellison is portraying his ideological development through the narrator, as both their life paths are quite similar. Ellison was born in Oklahoma and attended the Tuskegee Institution (the inspiration for the university in Invisible Man). He too, grew disillusion with the ideals of the university and moved up to New York, specifically Harlem. The narrator's development and life reflects that of Ellison's and his ideas on education as well. 

The Broken Justice System in Native Son

Richard Wright's Native Son fulfills its classification as a 'protest novel' - although some may be critical of Bigger Thomas as a character with no conscience, it goes a long way to protest and point out many injustices of American society and the circumstances that created Bigger Thomas. One aspect of broken American society in this book that really stood out to me was how rigged and racist the justice system is. The term 'justice' means fairness or equity, but the courts and police system in Native Son seem to be everything but fair. 

The most blatant example of this can be seen in Book Three of Native Son, from pgs. 317-324. In this scene, the jury is questioning Jan about his role in the death of Mary and Bigger's crime, and there is clearly no respect or humanity in the way Bigger is referred to or the the way Jan is questioned about his interactions with Bigger. They constantly refer to Bigger simply as 'that Negro' or 'the Negro' or 'that drunken Negro'. Some quotes that particularly stand out are: " 'Did you, in your agitation of that drunken Negro, tell him that it was all right for him to have sexual relations with him?' ... 'Did you shake hands with that Negro?' ... '... Tell me, did you eat with that Negro?' ... 'How many times have you eaten with Negroes before?' ... 'You like Negros?' ... 'Didn't you tell that drunken Negro to call you Jan instead of Mr. Erlone?' " From this interaction, one can see that there is absolutely no respect for Bigger as a human being - the idea of a white man and a black man doing basic things like shaking hands or getting in a car together or eating dinner together seems absolutely absurd to the coroner, who in the legal system is meant to be an official who can investigate the crime without any bias. However, that does not seem to be the case in this interaction whatsoever. He almost refers to Bigger and African Americans as animals, being shocked that one would eat with them. 

Another example of this is Buckley's conversation with Bigger. We talked about this a bit in class, about how Bigger has absolutely no sort of individual identity and all the crimes committed recently by 'black Negro boys' are pinned to his back. This builds on the idea I talked about in the last paragraph, that Bigger is not referred to or talked about as an individual human being who has his own feelings and experiences, but simply as a black boy who they try to fit into the trope about African Americans. Buckley simply pins everything on Bigger, declares victory, and leaves Bigger to sob on his cell floor, with no one in the world there to understand him or understand his story. 

One thing that we didn't talk about as much is the hate that the justice system has towards those who help African Americans like Bigger - in Native Son, it's mainly the Communists. Even Bigger mentions in the scene described in paragraph 2 about how the coroner seemed to be brimming with hate and prejudice for Jan, mostly because he had been nice to Bigger and seemed to be on his side. The justice system seems so stacked against Bigger that it is willing to propel hate and prejudice towards anyone who even defends Bigger or seems to side with him.