The prologue is told in first person. It describes the invisible man who asserts his existence but maintains that society perceives him as invisible. He explains that it is the preconceptions of society which give him his invisibility and that this invisibility is advantageous as it allows him opportunities that otherwise would not exist.

Conversely, he often questions whether he does, in fact, exist. His desire to be seen causes him to lash out at society, in an effort which is largely unsuccessful, to affirm his reality. He relates the story of bumping accidentally into a tall blond man, a symbol of the whitest of white Americans and representative of their power, who then calls him an insulting name. The invisible man fights and almost kills him in an effort to make him apologize but allows him to live without apologizing because the blonde man had not seen him and therefore could not apologize. This scene symbolizes society's refusal to give equal rights and recognition to African Americans, something that would force them and the society they dominate to see African Americans. Thus the man would have been "killed by a phantom" (5). This quotation reveals the irony of his invisible existence and his bitterness against a society that will not see him. The invisible man is amused by the thought that the man would have been killed by a phantom from his mind.

The invisible man then recalls his youth when he practiced non-violence by denying the existence of violence and how he even now is not usually overtly violent. He does this because he does not want to disturb those in society who are asleep to the conflicts and tensions surrounding them because caution must be taken not to awaken them quickly. The reason being that "few things in the world are as dangerous as sleepwalkers" (5). The invisible man has learned how to fight them without "awakening" them. He discusses how he is stealing electricity from the Monopolated Light and Power Company, a symbol of large corporate monopoly against one man, and how he used to pay their exorbitant rates when he had an apartment and assumed he was visible. With this example, we learn that he is intelligent and technologically skilled and that he lives outside of the black enclave of Harlem which casts him apart from his fellow blacks and from whites. In fact, he lives surrounded by whites in a segregated building, rent-free, because he is invisible.

The invisible man then foreshadows his flight in the night from Ras the Destroyer. Thus the story is a flashback and the beginning is the end. This is a circular motif representing life.

The invisible man then explains how his home is a hole, which is flooded by the light of 1,369 lights, where he can hibernate like a bear and so names himself Jack the Bear after a Duke Ellington album. In lighting his hole, he claims to be following in the traditions of "Ford, Edison, and Franklin" (6). As a result he provides an alternative name for himself, the "thinker-tinker" (6). That his hole is lighted, because traditionally light illuminates and represents goodness, as a result it gives a reality to objects that allows them to be seen. The light in his hole therefore reaffirms his life and reality. He explains that "light is truth and truth is light" (6) in a way paraphrasing and redefining Keats' beauty is truth and truth is beauty. We then learn that he is about twenty when he becomes invisible and that his invisibility gives him life.

Before this he paints a surrealist picture with words of the beautiful girl's nightmare.

In his hole, IM wants to feel the jazz he plays and hear it. He particularly admires Armstrong who transforms the trumpet from a military instrument into something lyrical, in particular "What Did I Do to be so Black and Blue." He feels that he can relate to Armstrong because he too is invisible; however he does not realize it. This emphasizes that at this time all blacks are invisible, even those who are famous.

He talks about how he heard in the music, under the influence of pot, how time flows and ebbs around different people which allows an underdog to win if he can enter his opponent's frame of time. Under the influence of pot, he descends through the pot into the depths of the music. He sees an old woman singing a spiritual, the songs slaves used to travel to escape North; a naked girl with white skin and a voice like his mother's being sold into slavery, although she is probably her master's daughter; and then he hears the call and response used in southern churches, relating the story of the black genesis. Finally, he sees again the singing woman who tells her tale of loving and hating her master who gave her sons but not their freedom. She tells him freedom lies in love not hate. Yet she cannot remember what is freedom. The woman begins to cry and her sons expel IM. As he is returning to reality, hoping for tranquility, he hears footsteps and thinks it is Ras the Destroyer, who had previously chased him into the darkness that was originally his hole.

The refrain he hears as he emerges from his stupor is "What did I do to be so black and blue?" The images he sees are representative of the history of blacks in a white society and the song poses the symbolic question of what did African Americans do to be back and thus abused, bruised and blue. He is terrified but exhilarated by what he sees and hears.

This stupor prompts IM to contemplate action, and he reveals that hibernation is preparation for some later course of action.

The entrance of three significant characters and several events are foreshadowed: Brother Jack; Ras; Rinehart; IM's roles as orator and rabble rouser.

IM also expresses his irresponsibility which he claims is essential to being invisible. However, he explains that since society is not responsible to him, why should he be responsible to society. Why should unfair laws be followed? As a result, IM predicts tragedy for society.

He talks about his cowardice as a youth and ends the chapter with a promise to tell us of the reasons and consequences for his cowardice. This then pulls the reader into a flashback of his life.

The major themes of this chapter are remembrance of his lost youth and innocence and bitterness at society's perception of him.

by Megan McSeveney