Invisible Man Part 2

On Friday, my seminar group had the Eviction-Woman section. To start, I want to talk about John Brown because I didn't get to in the seminar and that's one of the things I researched. John Brown comes into play when the narrator and Brother Jack are about to make one of their first big speeches in front of a crowd together. The crowd is singing, "John Brown's body lies a-mold'ring in the grave" and they repeat it and repeat it. John Brown wanted to abolish slavery and in the process of doing so, he raided a federal arsenal with 21 men in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. After he was convicted and hanged, Henry David Thoreau said, "He did not recognize unjust human laws, but resisted them" and "No man...has ever stood up so persistently and effectively for the dignity of human nature." Those two quotes really caught my attention because the crowd seems to be singing this song as a praise song which is interesting because I'm not really sure what they are trying to get at. I mean, John Brown is one of the reasons things are the way they are. I mean yes the raid was in the late 1800s but he still got his foot in the door and did something. Either they are mocking him for what he did (which I highly highly doubt) or they are singing a song of happy remembrance (which seems much more like it). I also think John Brown could be a parallel to the narrator in some ways because the narrator is trying to make a dent in society just like John Brown.

On a different note, let's talk about women. To start, Mary and Mother Mary. I see them as complete parallels. Mother Mary was at Jesus's side while he was hung on the cross and while he redeemed others. After he was hung, she almost died in mourning and she surrendered her maternal rights. The Pope said that she was the "foundation of confidence." Now don't you see it??? When the narrator was lost and didn't know what path to take, Mary guided him there. She "raised" him as he grew into the new man. Like we talked about in the seminar, the hospital scene was a rebirth, just like God in a way rebirthed himself, and then he had Mary to raise him to be who he was supposed to be! She is where it all started again for him. Lastly, I want to make a stretch between Emma and Ema (ee-mah). At church, I learned that Ema means mother, therefore, Emma could also be a motherly figure to the narrator....but it's more of a stretch. Basically, both can be motherly figures to him, but Mary does most of the work.