Invisible Man 3

In Chapter Six, Ellison uses an effective simile or figure of speech involving a comparison between unlike things to highlight an important realization for the narrator. After attending the chapel service as directed, the narrator meets with Dr. Bledsoe who was very upset that he took Mr. Norton to an old slave quarters on his tour. Although Dr. Bledsoe promised Mr. Norton that he would not punish the narrator, Dr. Bledsoe goes back on his word and tells the narrator “You’ve got to be disciplined, boy” (p. 141). The narrator screamed at Dr. Bledsoe vowing to fight him. Dr. Bledsoe berates the narrator and tells him that “you’re nobody, son. You don’t exist – can’t you see that?” (p. 143). The narrator states “for three years I had thought of myself as a man and here with a few words he’d made me as helpless as an infant” (p. 144). This simile has the effect of highlighting the narrator’s dependence on the white man just as a baby is dependent on his mother, but it also signals a realization or rebirth of his outlook that his grandfather maintained that the black man could get his way by placating the white man.