Invisible Man Chapter 3 & 4 Reading Questions

Chapter 3

1. Look carefully at the description of the Golden Day. What is it? What has it been in the past? Is there any symbolism in the description?

Golden Day is a bar and insane asylum. It's been a church, bank, restaurant, gambling house, and possibly a jailhouse too. Yes, it's referred to as Golden Day. The color gold usually symbolizes wealth, which in this case is ironic. Instead of the wartime veterans going into trier golden years of retirement, their only escape from the mental institution is on golden day.

2. Describe the veterans at the Golden Day.

The veteran's profession's range from jobs of lesser merit to higher ones. The narrator once again takes notes of occupation as he did at the Battle Royal. The veterans are rowdy and drunk. They are easily tricked, which is evident when the narrator makes up a simple lie to get passed them. They are aggressive and violent. They jump Supercargo.

3. Read p. 81 carefully and comment on the way that the normal rules of society are reversed at the Golden Day.

At Golden Day, the vet's there speak freely to Mr. Norton without caring that he is a White man. This shocks the narrator especially when one of the vets begins to critique Mr. Norton for his idea that the student's at the college are his destiny.

4. The vet who had been a doctor gives the narrator a warning. What is it?

The warning is about oppression. No matter how high the narrator may rise, his skin tone will always be a barrier.

5. The vet is the first to introduce the narrator to the concept of invisibility and blindness. How do his comments tie into the statements the narrator makes in the Prologue?

In the prologue, the narrator is able to acknowledge this invisibility and blindness that the vet was speaking about. He is even able to recognize this invisibility and blindness in others now.

Chapter 4

1. Look at the description of the campus. How does it contrast with the Golden Day?

The campus is still described as beautiful and calm. It is a drastic contrast from Golden Day, which was chaotic and crowded. The narrator feels fear as he sees the approach of the college because of how Mr. Norton may react.

2. Why does the narrator call the campus "a flower-studded wasteland?"

He is referring to the transformation the campus witnessed. The land was once cultivated by the African Americans into plantations. Then, again, transformed into a beautiful campus for the wealthy White Northerners.

3. List as many images (w/pg. #) as you can find in this chapter of black against white.

"...while black and bald and everything white folks poled fun at.." pg. 101
"He grabbed his black homburg, starting for the door." pg. 101
"...her how the moon rises over all that green grass on the Founder's grave..." pg. 107

4. List all the images you can find (w/pg. #) of masks and veils in this chapter.

"...and composed his angry face like a sculptor, making it a bland mask..." pg. 102
"Then a veil seemed to fall." pg. 103

5. How does the scene in Bledsoe's office parallel the Battle Royal scene?

Bledsoe states that they must only show Whites what they want them to see, which was the same concept when the narrator was giving his speech at the Battle Royal scene. He was only supposed to say what they wanted to hear, which he noticed when he used the word "social equality" and the White's reacted in a negative way.