Trueblood in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the character of Trueblood is unique and well developed. Trueblood is a man who impregnates his wife, and at the same period of time commits incest and impregnates his daughter. This character’s reasoning for having sexual relations with his daughter is that he was dreaming when this happened; a feat that while fantastical, could also be plausible due to Trueblood’s nature. Trueblood, while a moral character aside from his transgression, is also oblivious. A good example of this happens on page 48 when Dr. Norton asks "You feel no inner turmoil, no need to cast out the offending eye?” to which Trueblood replies "I'm all right, suh. My eyes is all right too". Regardless of his ignorance, Trueblood shows remorse for his actions, and believes that a "man don't leave his family", which attests to the morality of the character. Much like the Invisible man, Trueblood found his own morality which did not exactly follow society’s guidelines. When explaining his situation, Trueblood brings up the issue regarding awareness of reality, since according to him he has sex with his daughter during a dream state. As he describes it on page 59, the dream seems to be a metaphor for what actually happened: "I runs and runs till I should be tired but ain't tired but feelin' more rested as I runs... Only I'm still in the tunnel. Then way up ahead I sees a bright light like a jack-o-lantern over a graveyard. It gits brighter and brighter...it burst like a great big electric light in my eyes". Trueblood comforts himself by saying "You ain't guilty"; he does not admit his guilt since he does not see fault in what he did since he was not in control of himself. This is his perception of reality. Again, this unawareness of reality is parallel to the Invisible Man's life, who cannot see anything as real until understanding he is invisible. The way Trueblood has been treated by the white community, however,
Ralph Ellison
In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the character of Trueblood is unique and well developed. Trueblood is a man who impregnates his wife, and at the same period of time commits incest and impregnates his daughter. This character’s reasoning for having sexual relations with his daughter is that he was dreaming when this happened; a feat that while fantastical, could also be plausible due to Trueblood’s nature. Trueblood, while a moral character aside from his transgression, is also oblivious. A good example of this happens on page 48 when Dr. Norton asks "You feel no inner turmoil, no need to cast out the offending eye?” to which Trueblood replies "I'm all right, suh. My eyes is all right too". Regardless of his ignorance, Trueblood shows remorse for his actions, and believes that a "man don't leave his family", which attests to the morality of the character. Much like the Invisible man, Trueblood found his own morality which did not exactly follow society’s guidelines. When explaining his situation, Trueblood brings up the issue regarding awareness of reality, since according to him he has sex with his daughter during a dream state. As he describes it on page 59, the dream seems to be a metaphor for what actually happened: "I runs and runs till I should be tired but ain't tired but feelin' more rested as I runs... Only I'm still in the tunnel. Then way up ahead I sees a bright light like a jack-o-lantern over a graveyard. It gits brighter and brighter...it burst like a great big electric light in my eyes". Trueblood comforts himself by saying "You ain't guilty"; he does not admit his guilt since he does not see fault in what he did since he was not in control of himself. This is his perception of reality. Again, this unawareness of reality is parallel to the Invisible Man's life, who cannot see anything as real until understanding he is invisible. The way Trueblood has been treated by the white community, however,