In this paper the reader will be able to read some information about how
Zarathustra's experiences are like the protagonist and how Ellison is
performing variations on these ideas.
First of all, it seems like both of them Zarathustra and the protagonist
of the Invisible Man left their family at some point to experience life
by them. In addition to these similarities, they prefer some solitude stage in
their lives. Zarathustra goes to the cave to live as a hermit, the protagonist
goes underground. "I could only more ahead or stay here or
underground" (Invisible Man, 571). The protagonist experience these a
little differently especially because of their ages. The Invisible Man’s
solitude restarts and really starts when he realizes his invisibility. We may
say that, Zarathustra's solitude is voluntary, but the protagonist’s is a
result. We are able to be witness of the protagonist’s journey that makes him
decided to go underground. On the other hand, we are mostly able to observe
Zarathustra's after the solitude stage.
When Zarathustra mentions going down, he means leaving the solitude and
going back to the crowd. When the protagonist was going underground, to
solitude, Zarathustra was going back from there. He speaks with sun and says
that “like you, I must go under-go down, as is said by man, to whom I want to
descend” (Zarathustra, 10). In addition, I think music for the protagonist
seems that has similar function with Zarathustra’s connection with sun.
"The song that the protagonist had heard on the street "They had
touched upon something deeper than protest, or religion, though now images of
all the church meetings of my life welled up within me with much suppressed and
forgotten anger" (IM, 453).
In addition, it seems like at the end of the Invisible Man, when Ellison
wrote that he needed to share these ideas and feelings, he needed to write his
anger and other parts of his inner world. This can be seen similar with
Zarathustra's statement like “Behold, I am weary of my wisdom, like a bee that
gathered too much honey; I need hands out to stretched to receive it”
(Zarathustra, 10). On the other hand, Ellison wrote that "The fact is that
you carry part of your sickness within you, at least I do as an invisible man.
I carried my sickness and though for a long time I tried to place it in the
outside world, the attempt to write it down shows me that at least half of it
lay with me" (IM, 575). This statement
seems to have similarities.
Moreover, I think when Zarathustra went to the solitude, the cave and
went back to the society he had some hope to change some people by talking and
sharing his wisdom with them same as the protagonist’s hope of change by
joining to Brotherhood. However, we are able to read the protagonist sentences
such as: "He had struggled for Brotherhood on a hundred street corners and
he thought it would make him more human, but he died like any dog in a
road" (IM, 457). Addition to this, in Zarathustra, we are able to read
saint advices and statements. He says that, going to society and try to change
them is dangerous and problematic, too. “Love of man would kill me… Give them
nothing, rather, take part of their load and help them to bear it that will be
the best for them, if only it does you good!” (Z, 11).
In addition, we may say that the saint of Zarathustra and Ellison’s
Clifton character might have some similar function in both texts. For the
protagonist "Clifton and he was full of illusions" (IM, 457). He left the Brotherhood and started to sell
dolls. And, for Zarathustra, saint was similarly a person who gives up about
the goal of changing the society. He says that “Do not go to man. Stay in the
forest. Go rather to the animals!” (Z, 11).
We may link between the ideal missions of the Brotherhood and
Zarathustra’s overman. “I teach you the overman. Man is something that shall be
overcome. What have you done to overcome him” (Z, 12). For the brotherhood,
public, the societies are the same way. They need to be domesticated. Normally,
Nietzsche is against domestication of human, but getting overcome the human
kind is a different type of domestication even though it is a kind of
evolution. The protagonist was trying to do similar things for different goals
when he was with the Brotherhood. "Can't you see I am trying to tell them
what is real, I thought. Does my membership stop me from feeling
Harlem?"(IM, 471).
Moreover, Zarathustra was saying that “Despisers of life are they,
decaying and poisoned themselves, of whom the earth is weary; so let them go”
(Z, 13). Similar to this, in the Invisible Man, "They were all up there
somewhere, making a mass of the world. Well, let them" (IM, 571). In
addition, Zarathustra was trying to connect with the society after his
solitude, but he was changed and gained an intellectual distance that separated
him from the crowd. Same as him, the protagonist says in the Invisible that
"I had to keep contact in order to fight But I would never be the
same" (IM, 478). And, "Because at a price I now see that which I
could not see, I said… I am not afraid now, but if you will look, you will
see…" (IM, 570).
Zarathustra was saying that “man is a rope, tied between beast and
overman- a rope over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on the way, a
dangerous looking back, a dangerous stopping” (Z, 14). It seems like Ellison
have similar ideas for different concepts. He uses similar perspective for
time, society and different identities.
"Outside the Brotherhood we were outside history; but inside of it
they, did not see us. It was a hell of state of affairs, we were nowhere."
(IM, 499). Addition to this the protagonist says "I could only more ahead
or stay here or underground" (IM, 571). Thankfully, Zarathustra says that
“what is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end” (Z, 15). So, when
the protagonist realized that he cannot eliminate his invisibility, he became a
bridge for himself and he transfer himself to the underground.
Zarathustra says that “the time of the most despicable man is coming, he
that is no longer able to despise himself. Behold, I show you the last man” (Z,
17). At the end, Ellison reach to similar conclusion by the help of the protagonist:
And for the first
time, leaning against that stone wall in the sweltering right, I began to
accept my past and, as I accepted it, I felt memories welling up within me I
was though I would learned suddenly to look around corners; images of past
humiliations flickered through my head and I saw that they were more than
separate experiences. They were me; they defined me. I was my experiences and
my experiences were me… (Invisible Man, 508)
Similar to the Invisible man, Zarathustra also argues that “in the end,
one experiences only oneself” (Z, 152). He continues and says “You are going
your own way to greatness: now this must give you the greatest courage that
there is no longer any path behind you” (Z, 153). Same as Zarathustra, Ellison
also says that "How does it feel to be free of one's illusion?.. Painful
and empty" (IM, 569).
Ultimately, both of the texts end by
mentioning something about love which is very interesting. Zarathustra says
that “love is the danger of the loneliest; love of everything if only it is
alive. Laughable, verily, are my folly and my modesty in love” (Z, 155).
Addition to this, the protagonist was saying that I could only accept
responsibility for the living, nor for the dead" (Invisible Man, 447). And
about love; "I denounce because though implicated and partially
responsible I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of
invisibility. Ann I defend because in spite of all I find l that Love. In order
to get some of it down I have to love" (IM, 580).
Meryem R. Tasbilek
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