Feminist?
After our recent
class discussion, I wanted to highlight some of the women we have seen in the
book and share my thoughts on Ellison’s potential feelings on feminism.
The first named woman
we see in the novel is Mary. Her name first appears on page 252, yes Ellison
writes a little less than half the novel before formally introducing a female
character. Mary’s role is to care for the narrator in a motherly sort of way.
She is constantly trying to lift his spirits and encourages him to get a good
job. She wants him to make something of himself, not to have him move out and
free up a room but just out of the sheer kindness in her heart. Sadly, our
narrator responds with rejection. He is annoyed with her pushiness and complains
about the cabbage she serves him. Toward the end of his time with her, he
starts to feel bad and indebted to her. When reflecting on her contributions to
the book and her role as a whole, she plays the stereotypical motherly role.
Granted she runs her own business of sorts and is responsible for the people
living in the building, but still fulfills the typical mother role. Is her
being a widow an excuse for why she supports herself?
The next woman
we meet (on page 300) is Emma. I found Emma’s role to be a little unclear. She
seemed to be a part of the Brotherhood belief system yet was a waitress at the
party. She is known for commenting on our narrators “blackness,” which fueled
the belief that the Brotherhood was looking for a specific character and our
narrator fit those guidelines. Yet Emma is skeptical about what the narrator
will bring to the Brotherhood. After making this comment, Brother Jack is quick
to dismiss her saying, “Shhh, don’t be a damn fool.” Emma’s role is basically
to serve drinks and say this line, making the reader and the narrator skeptical
about the Brotherhood. In terms of stereotypes, Emma is acting as the waitress
who serves the men. Given the role of female characters in the book thus far,
this is almost typical.
Lastly, we meet
the women at the Women’s Question. The woman who occupies most of Chapter 19
seduces our narrator. This kind of seduction is yet another stereotypical idea
of women. The fact that she uses her femininity to get men. As for the rest of
the women, they aren’t mentioned but the narrator briefly (like in one
paragraph) describes his experience and their reactions to him. In his description,
he portrays them as naïve after saying, “I could simply stand before them with
a sign across my chest, stating I KNOW ALL ABOUT THEM, and they’d be as awed as
though I were the original boogey man.” This representation of women as naïve is
yet again another stereotype.
When reflecting
as a whole on the role of women played in this novel, we see that they all fulfil
a certain stereotype. Ellison presents these stereotypes but never interjects
approvingly nor disapprovingly. There is also the excuse that during this time
period, women were viewed differently than today. What do you think?
I'm also frustrated that this novel isn't doing a good job of addressing intersectionality. I feel badly for the female characters who have been reduced to sexual objects and plot "progressors." I agree that the narrator being sent to answer The Woman Question is also ironic. It doesn't seem like the narrator has any strong female role models in his life, so he has to rely solely on the pamphlets Brother Jack gives him. I would love to know what the pamphlets say...
ReplyDeleteCool post! I agree that Ellison doe not do a good job of representing women in the novel. His representation of the Brotherhood (an organization that he repeatedly critiques) as male dominated could be a saving grace, but given the way that he represents the other women in the novel, it seems unlikely that he was critiquing that aspect of the group.
ReplyDeleteI feel really frustrated about this too. On one hand, I agree that this novel fails to include women as complex characters. But is this a symptom of the time or Ellison's personal views? It would seem this way since the female characters are reduced to stereotypes. But also, Ellison's division of Harlem as relating to "race issues" and downtown relating to "women's issues" seems wayyy too intentional. I could see this as Ellison being very conscious of the "race question" being separated from the "woman question", and perhaps he is critical of it. Although there isn't really evidence to support this, but obviously it might be hard because it's a very introspective book from a very isolated male character.
ReplyDeleteNice post! Invisible Man doesn't pass the Bechdel Test which I think is revealing. I dont think that Invisible Man would have been released in 2018 without some edits to the novel. At the same time I think Ellison is explicitly saying that he is not focusing on feminism or even trying to in this book since he sends the Narrator to talk about the "Woman Question" sort of sarcastically.
ReplyDeleteGood post! I totally agree that the novel does a horrible job of representing women. It seemed to me, in many cases, that Ellison stereotyped women as a was to point out the stereotypes about African-Americans, but it just seemed unnecessary. As for Emma, I think her role in The Brotherhood is basically just being Jack's mistress.
ReplyDeleteWe never really did hear much about women in this book and what we did wasn't very satisfying. I personally don't think that Ellison had anything against them, but perhaps the book wasn't written in a way to particularly glorify them. The entire time I was reading this book, I was trying to figure out what it meant to be invisible and in a sense maybe women are too? I'm not sure, but you're right, women are not represented well in this novel.
ReplyDelete