Becoming "More Human"

           Now, this wasn't my original intention, but this next post relates somewhat back to my last post on this blog. While reading Chapter 16 for class on Monday, I stopped and thought. You see, the past week I have been thinking about ideas from Invisible Man that have stuck in my head. One of the main ideas that I keep thinking about was the development we see in the narrator. When the narrator is giving his speech, he says, "I feel, I feel suddenly that I have become more human. Do you understand? More human. Not that I have become a man, for I was born a man. But that I am more human. I feel strong. I feel able to get things done!" (Ellison 346). Now reading this part of the narrator's speech brought me back to thinking about the whole topic of dehumanization I thought about when reading Native Son and how Mary's death freed Bigger in a way that made him feel more human.
           Don't get me wrong, Bigger and this narrator have many things not in common. To the extent of our knowledge, the narrator growing up tried to follow whatever rules the white people had and accepted whatever identity they gave him. However, Bigger responded to the rules of the "white world" in a much more rebellious fashion. Sure, he acted docile around white people, but as readers, we could see his mind was much more conscious. Bigger seemed to understand the concept Bledsoe wanted the narrator to understand: give them want they want, but don't actually believe all their rules and what they tell you.
           However, this scene where the narrator announces his newfound discovery of feeling human, it felt quite reminiscent of  Native Son. Bigger felt humanized by being able to make his own choices without the constriction of the expectations of the white people. In Invisible Man, we have seen identity after identity be imposed on him, with the narrator trying to fulfill that role. Gradually, as the book has continued, we have seen the narrator start to wonder whether or not these identities are really good for him. It's easy to understand why the narrator didn't feel quite so human earlier in his life because, much like Bigger, he didn't have really have much of a choice of what to do. At this point in the novel, the narrator has freed himself from many of these restrictions and was giving a speech he believed in, not one to make some white people happy enough to give him a scholarship. Now only that, but the narrator is giving his speech through a job he chose to accept. As we discussed in class, there are some definite sketchy things about this job that does seem restrictive, but in that moment, giving that speech, we can see how the narrator can feel changed into a person that has this control over life. 
           Though something to keep in mind, at the end of the chapter, the narrator is informed he "is to undergo a period of intense study and indoctrination" (Ellison 351). Just as the narrator has this feeling of being a human, it seems like he is going to be restrained once more until the organization he is working with thinks he is properly educated. Will this education diminish this sense of humanness? Will it restrict his choices once more? At this point, I'm not sure, but it is certainly something to look out for.