Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" Chapters 1-5

Nor is my invisibility exactly a matter of a bio-chemical accident to my epidermis.

I closed my ears and swallowed blood until I was nauseated.

Her catharsis is absolutely tremendous--ha, ha!"

He was a large man who wore diamond studs in a shirtfront which swelled with the ample paunch underneath, and each time the blonde swayed her undulating hips he ran his hand through the thin hair of his bald head and, with his arms upheld, his post

You would be canceled, perforated, voided, become the recognized magnet attracting loose screws.

The men continued to ignore him, walking along in a mass, some talking in groups and others talking and gesticulating to themselves.

And in the chapel on Sunday evenings upon the platform, hadn't he always taught us to live content in our place in a thousand unambiguous words?

But now I felt that I was sharing in a great work and, with the car leaping leisurely beneath the pressure of my foot, I identified myself with the rich man reminiscing on the rear seat .

And I move more rigid than all the others with a sense of judgment; the vibrations of the chapel bells stirring the depths of my turmoil, moving toward its nexus with a sense of doom.

Ha! Miss Susie, Miss Susie Gresham, back there looking at that co-ed smiling at that he-ed--listen to me, the bungling bugler of words, imitating the trumpet and the trombone's timbre, playing thematic variations like a baritone horn.

If real, why is it that I can recall in all that island of greenness no fountain but one that was broken, corroded and dry?

In those pre-invisible days I visualized myself as a potential Booker T. Washington.

I saw the rug covered with coins of all dimensions and a few crumpled bills.

"I too have become acquainted with ambivalence," I said.

Ha! Miss Susie, Miss Susie Gresham, back there looking at that co-ed smiling at that he-ed--listen to me, the bungling bugler of words, imitating the trumpet and the trombone's timbre, playing thematic variations like a baritone horn.

I followed his eyes and was amazed to see the varied expressions on the patients' faces as they silently returned his gaze.

Someone up there, above the alternating moss-dry and grease-slick heads of the students rowed before me, was making announcements from a lectern on which a dim light shone.

I saw the guests on the platform turn to look behind them, to see the thin brown girl in white choir robe standing high against the organ pipes, herself become before our eyes a pipe of contained, controlled and sublimated anguish, a thin plain fac

And at that point a voice of trombone timbre screamed at me, "Git out of, here, you fool!

Once I saw a prizefighter boxing a yokel.

The flesh above his right eye jumped out as though it had been inflated.

To you he is a mark on the score-card of your achievement, a thing and not a man; a child, or even less--a black amorphous thing.

He held me in a grip like cold stone, his fingers fastening upon my windpipe until I thought I would suffocate before he finally allowed me to go.

He believes in that great false wisdom taught slaves and pragmatists alike, that white is right.

All had to be said, each memorized nuance considered, rendered.

Trueblood's mouth fell agape, his eyes widened and filled with moisture as he took the bill between trembling fingers.

When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me.

Some were hostile, some cringing, some horrified; some, who when among themselves were most violent, now appeared as submissive as children.

And I remember too, how we confronted those others, those who had set me here in this Eden, whom we knew though we didn't know, who were unfamiliar in their familiarity, who trailed their words to us through blood and violence and ridicule and condescensi

We were led out of the elevator through a rococo hall into an anteroom and told to get into our fighting togs.

And like him I say, and in his words, 'To those of my race who depend upon bettering their condition in a foreign land, or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is his next-door neighbor

I remembered the legend of how he had come to the college, a barefoot boy who in his fervor for education had trudged with his bundle of ragged clothing across two states.

Above the decorous walking around me, sounds of footsteps leaving the verandas of far-flung buildings and moving toward the walks and over the walks to the asphalt drives lined with whitewashed stones, those cryptic messages for men and women, boys

Two men stood directly in front of me, one speaking with intense earnestness. ". . . and Johnson hit Jeffries at an angle of 45 degrees from his lower left lateral incisor, producing an instantaneous blocking of his entire thalamic rine, frosting it over

Seeing their fingers coming toward me I rolled away as a fumbled football rolls off the receiver's fingertips, back into the coals.

Before a great window stood a large aquarium containing colored stones and a small replica of a feudal castle surrounded by goldfish that seemed to remain motionless despite the fluttering of their lacy fins, a momentary motionful suspension of tim

I didn't like it, for when he was upstairs they had absolutely no inhibitions.

And I stand in the circle where three roads converge near the statue, where we drilled four-abreast down the smooth asphalt and pivoted and entered the chapel on Sundays, our uniforms pressed, shoes shined, minds laced up, eyes blind like those of

A beautiful girl once told me of a recurring nightmare in which she lay in the center of a large dark room and felt her face expand until it filled the whole room, becoming a formless mass while her eyes ran in bilious jelly up the chimney.

I was just like a jaybird that the yellow jackets done stung 'til he's paralyzed--but still alive in his eyes and he's watchin' 'em sting his body to death.

And you hurried with him full of doubt to the cabin designated by the stranger, where he met that seemingly demented black man .

You are important because if you fail I have failed by one individual, one defective cog; it didn't matter so much before, but now I'm growing old and it has become very important .

I'm convinced it was the product of a subtle magic, the alchemy of moonlight; the school a flower-studded wasteland, the rocks sunken, the dry winds hidden, the lost crickets chirping to yellow butterflies.

And there on the platform I too had stridden and debated, a student leader directing my voice at the highest beams and farthest rafters, ringing them, the accents staccato upon the ridgepole and echoing back with a tinkling, like words hurled to th

All had to be said, each memorized nuance considered, rendered.

Laughing in fear and embarrassment, some were holding back and scooping up the coins knocked off by the painful contortions of the others.

I gave up all that, along with my apartment, and my old way of life: That way based upon the fallacious assumption that I, like other men, was visible.

Sometimes it appeared as though they played some vast and complicated game with me and the rest of the school folk, a game whose goal was laughter and whose rules and subtleties I could never grasp.

My muscles jumped, my nerves jangled, writhed.

Five pale red lines bloomed on the white cheek, glowing like fire beneath translucent stone.

And the boy, this automaton, he was made of the very mud of the region and he sees far less than you.

It was a face that fascinated me.

I'm sure you have heard of his precarious infancy, his precious life almost destroyed by an insane cousin who splashed the babe with lye and shriveled his seed and how, a mere babe, he lay nine days in a deathlike coma and then suddenly and miracul

I wondered to which of them I might go to intercede for me with Dr. Bledsoe, but within myself I knew that there was no one.

I played one group against the other, slipping in and throwing a punch then stepping out of range while pushing the others into the melee to take the blows blindly aimed at me.

Before a great window stood a large aquarium containing colored stones and a small replica of a feudal castle surrounded by goldfish that seemed to remain motionless despite the fluttering of their lacy fins, a momentary motionful suspension of tim

I feared the rug more than I did the drunk, so I held on, surprising myself for a moment by trying to topple him upon the rug.

Two men stood directly in front of me, one speaking with intense earnestness. ". . . and Johnson hit Jeffries at an angle of 45 degrees from his lower left lateral incisor, producing an instantaneous blocking of his entire thalamic rine, frosting it over

KATE--Lawd, Kate, NAW!!!' "
Suddenly his voice was so strident that I looked up startled.

And I remember too, how we confronted those others, those who had set me here in this Eden, whom we knew though we didn't know, who were unfamiliar in their familiarity, who trailed their words to us through blood and violence and ridicule and condescensi

Why do I recall, instead of the odor of seed bursting in springtime, only the yellow contents of the cistern spread over the lawn's dead grass?

But to hear around them is too much; it inhibits action.

But not yet, the men on the other side were waiting, red faces swollen as though from apoplexy as they bent forward in their chairs.

So under the spell of the reefer I discovered a new analytical way of listening to music.

Those two spots are among the darkest of our whole civilization--pardon me, our whole culture (an important distinction, I've heard)--which might sound like a hoax, or a contradiction, but that (by contradiction, I mean) is how the world moves: Not

And recall how during his journey he was stopped by the strange figure of a man whose pitted features revealed no inkling of whether he was black or white .

For one thing, the trumpet was blaring and the rhythm was too hectic.

A woman tittered.

Please, a definition: A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.

A large flag hung lank above the floor.

I watched the fat man bend over him very professionally and feel for his pulse.

His manner was aristocratic, his movements dapper and suave.

"You see," he said turning to Mr. Norton, "he has eyes and ears and a good distended African nose, but he fails to understand the simple facts of life.

And I heard the bell clang and the sound of the feet scuffling forward.

I remember the yellowed globes of frosted glass making lacy silhouettes on the gravel and the walk of the leaves and branches above us as we moved slow through the dusk so restless with scents of lilac, honeysuckle and verbena, and the feel of spring gree

An act of sabotage, you know.

In the mirror I saw him dabbing gingerly at his forehead with a crinkled handkerchief.

"Nostalgia," the vet said.

He was the largest of the group, wearing dark red fighting trunks much too small to conceal the erection which projected from him as though in answer to the insinuating low-registered moaning of the clarinet.

And beneath the swiftness of the hot tempo there was a slower tempo and a cave and I entered it and looked around and heard an old woman singing a spiritual as full of Weltschmerz as flamenco, and beneath that lay a still lower level on which I saw

And besides, I suspected that fighting a battle royal might detract from the dignity of my speech.

And as I gaze, there is a rustle of wings and I see a flock of starlings flighting before me and, when I look again, the bronze face, whose empty eyes look upon a world I have never seen, runs with liquid chalk--creating another ambiguity to puzzle

The rug was electrified.

I'm lookin' up at her from where I'm layin' on the pallet with Matty Lou, and I'm too weak to move.

We were embarrassed by the earthy harmonies they sang, but since the visitors were awed we dared not laugh at the crude, high, plaintively animal sounds Jim Trueblood made as he led the quartet.

She looked surprised, then thoughtful, then baffled.

I've illuminated the blackness of my invisibility--and vice versa.

She got on a nightgown of soft white silky stuff and nothin' else, and she looks straight at me.

But the blindfold was as tight as a thick skin-puckering scab and when I raised my gloved hands to push the layers of white aside a voice yelled, "Oh, no you don't, black bastard!

When I returned, Mr. Norton was sitting up unaided, carrying on a conversation with the vet.

Someone up there, above the alternating moss-dry and grease-slick heads of the students rowed before me, was making announcements from a lectern on which a dim light shone.

Most of the time (although I do not choose as I once did to deny the violence of my days by ignoring it) I am not so overtly violent.

The honored guests moved silently upon the platform, herded toward their high, carved chairs by Dr. Bledsoe with the decorum of a portly head waiter.

For a moment the world wavered, unraveled, flowed, then my head cleared and Tatlock bounced before me.

His manner was aristocratic, his movements dapper and suave.

Mr. Norton's head lolled upon his chest as though he were drunk or dead.

And what puzzled me was that the old man had defined it as treachery.

I know now that it was the flowing costume of soft, flimsy material that made for the effect; today, dressed in one of the smart, well-tailored, angular, sterile, streamlined, engine-turned, air-conditioned modern outfits you see in the women's mag

Instead of the swift and imperceptible flowing of time, you are aware of its nodes, those points where time stands still or from which it leaps ahead.

And you recall how you plunged with the Founder, the Leader, deep into the black art of escape, guided at first, indeed, initiated, by the seemingly demented one who had learned his craft in slavery.

I kicked him repeatedly, in a frenzy because he still uttered insults though his lips were frothy with blood.

It was my affirmation of life and they couldn't send me away for something I didn't do.

Up ahead I saw the one who thought he was a drum major strutting in front, giving orders as he moved energetically in long, hip-swinging strides, a cane held above his head, rising and falling as though in time to music.

"The clocks are all set back and the forces of destruction are rampant down below.

He sniffed it, closed his eyes as in puzzlement, then drank; his cheeks filled out like small bellows; he was rinsing his mouth.

The flesh above his right eye jumped out as though it had been inflated.

I saw the man's face relax as he gave me a wry smile.

"You have survived," he blurted.

For one thing, the trumpet was blaring and the rhythm was too hectic.

But I shirked that responsibility; I became too snarled in the incompatible notions that buzzed within my brain.

I would do his bidding and teach others to rise up as he wished them to, teach them to be thrifty, decent, upright citizens, contributing to the welfare of all, shunning all but the straight and narrow path that he and the Founder had stretched bef

The hair bristled up on my head as I shook myself free.

And I stand as for an answer and see in my mind's eye the cabins surrounded by empty fields beyond red clay roads, and beyond a certain road a river, sluggish and covered with algae more yellow than green in its stagnant stillness; past more empty

I could not understand the words, but only the mood, sorrowful, vague and ethereal, of the singing.

I know now that it was the flowing costume of soft, flimsy material that made for the effect; today, dressed in one of the smart, well-tailored, angular, sterile, streamlined, engine-turned, air-conditioned modern outfits you see in the women's mag

He held his ground, his legs braced, hands on hips, and to keep from hitting him I slammed on the brakes.

The next day I saw his picture in the Daily News, beneath a caption stating that he had been "mugged."

I pivoted, striking out stiffly as someone went past, and felt the jar ripple along the length of my arm to my shoulder.

And then it is suddenly winter, with the moon high above and the chimes in the steeple ringing and a sonorous choir of trombones rendering a Christmas carol; and over all is a quietness and an ache as though all the world were loneliness.

"A mistake was made somewhere," I said, "I'm confused."

"Whew!" he said, releasing the white man and shaking his huge head.

An ultimatum accepted and ritualized, an allegiance recited for the peace it imparted, and for that perhaps loved.

"The Golden Day," said several patients in unison.

Two men stood directly in front of me, one speaking with intense earnestness. ". . . and Johnson hit Jeffries at an angle of 45 degrees from his lower left lateral incisor, producing an instantaneous blocking of his entire thalamic rine, frosting i

I stood beneath his photograph with my brief case in hand and smiled triumphantly into his stolid black peasant's face.

I remember the yellowed globes of frosted glass making lacy silhouettes on the gravel and the walk of the leaves and branches above us as we moved slow through the dusk so restless with scents of lilac, honeysuckle and verbena, and the feel of spring gree

This was our world, they said as they described it to us, this our horizon and its earth, its seasons and its climate, its spring and its summer, and its fall and harvest some unknown millennium ahead; and these its floods and cyclones and they the

And I remember too, how we confronted those others, those who had set me here in this Eden, whom we knew though we didn't know, who were unfamiliar in their familiarity, who trailed their words to us through blood and violence and ridicule and condescensi

And my mind rushing for relief away from the spring dusk and flower scents, away from the time-scene of the crucifixion to the time-mood of the birth; from spring-dusk and vespers to the high, clear, lucid moon of winter and snow glinting upon the

The honored guests moved silently upon the platform, herded toward their high, carved chairs by Dr. Bledsoe with the decorum of a portly head waiter.

I felt a wave of irrational guilt and fear.

Hester is a great humanitarian, a therapist of generous nature and great skill, and the possessor of a healing touch.

Suddenly I saw a boy lifted into the air, glistening with sweat like a circus seal, and dropped, his wet back landing flush upon the charged rug, heard him yell and saw him literally dance upon his back, elbows beating a frenzied tattoo upon the fl

Some were hostile, some cringing, some horrified; some, who when among themselves were most violent, now appeared as submissive as children.

I left somewhat reassured, but not completely.

In the mirror I could see Mr. Norton staring out vacantly upon the empty fields, his mouth stern, his white forehead livid where it had scraped the screen.

A Bostonian, smoker of cigars, teller of polite Negro stories, shrewd banker, skilled scientist, director, philanthropist, forty years a bearer of the white man's burden, and for sixty a symbol of the Great Traditions.

Above a spacious fireplace an oil portrait of the Founder looked down at me remotely, benign, sad, and in that hot instant, profoundly disillusioned.

Hey! old connoisseur of voice sounds, of voices without messages, of newsless winds, listen to the vowel sounds and the crackling dentals, to the low harsh gutturals of empty anguish, now riding the curve of a preacher's rhythm I heard long ago in

Then all at once I was right up with it and it burst like a great big electric light in my eyes and scalded me all over.

For a moment the world wavered, unraveled, flowed, then my head cleared and Tatlock bounced before me.

Hey! old connoisseur of voice sounds, of voices without messages, of newsless winds, listen to the vowel sounds and the crackling dentals, to the low harsh gutturals of empty anguish, now riding the curve of a preacher's rhythm I heard long ago in a Bapti

I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open."

"It is an issue which I can confront only by evading it.

It was a dream fall, my body languid and fastidious as to where to land, until the floor became impatient and smashed up to meet me.

My predicament struck me like a stab.

The other boys ignored me as they congratulated Tatlock and speculated as to how much they would be paid.

Two men stood directly in front of me, one speaking with intense earnestness. ". . . and Johnson hit Jeffries at an angle of 45 degrees from his lower left lateral incisor, producing an instantaneous blocking of his entire thalamic rine, frosting it over

I stumbled about dazed, the music beating hysterically in my ears.

Heat rays from the late afternoon sun arose from the gray concrete, shimmering like the weary tones of a distant bugle blown upon still midnight air.

And then she began to dance, a slow sensuous movement; the smoke of a hundred cigars clinging to her like the thinnest of veils.

But I shirked that responsibility; I became too snarled in the incompatible notions that buzzed within my brain.

A high cascade of sound bubbled from the organ, spreading, thick and clinging, over the chapel, slowly surging.

And here, sitting rigid, I remember the evenings spent before the sweeping platform in awe and in pleasure, and in the pleasure of awe; remember the short formal sermons intoned from the pulpit there, rendered in smooth articulate tones, with calm assuran

"We of the younger generation extol the wisdom of that great leader and educator," I shouted, "who first spoke these flaming words of wisdom: 'A ship lost at sea for many days suddenly sighted a friendly vessel.

I had begun to worry about him, whether he was drunk like the rest, when I saw three of the girls who had been leaning over the balustrade watching the brawl come down to help us carry Mr. Norton up.

And as I gaze, there is a rustle of wings and I see a flock of starlings flighting before me and, when I look again, the bronze face, whose empty eyes look upon a world I have never seen, runs with liquid chalk--creating another ambiguity to puzzle

Up ahead I saw the one who thought he was a drum major strutting in front, giving orders as he moved energetically in long, hip-swinging strides, a cane held above his head, rising and falling as though in time to music.

Others a mulatto--and others still, a simple white man of God. Whoever, and whatsoever, and we must not rule out the possibility of an emissary direct from above--oh, yes!--and remember how he appeared suddenly, startling both Founder and horse as

The smoke was agonizing and there were no rounds, no bells at three minute intervals to relieve our exhaustion.

I felt the cloth pressed into place, and frowned so that it would be loosened when I relaxed.

Many times, here at night, I've closed my eyes and walked along the forbidden road that winds past the girls' dormitories, past the hall with the clock in the tower, its windows warmly aglow, on down past the small white Home Economics practice cottage, w

The room filled with the uproar of laughter until, no doubt, distracted by having to gulp down my blood, I made a mistake and yelled a phrase I had often seen denounced in newspaper editorials, heard debated in private.

"
I spoke automatically and with such fervor that I did not realize that the men were still talking and laughing until my dry mouth, filling up with blood from the cut, almost strangled me.

Then coming to mine, the moist eyes focused with recognition.

Flocks of quail sailed up and over a field, brown, brown, sailing down, blending.

Then coming to mine, the moist eyes focused with recognition.

The captain of the distressed vessel, at last heeding the injunction, cast down his bucket, and it came up full of fresh sparkling water from the mouth of the Amazon River.'

Without light I am not only invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one's form is to live a death.

I was fighting automatically when suddenly I noticed that one after another of the boys was leaving the ring.

You feel no inner turmoil, no need to cast out the offending eye?"

I would never have believed that they were so enduring.

Suddenly I saw a boy lifted into the air, glistening with sweat like a circus seal, and dropped, his wet back landing flush upon the charged rug, heard him yell and saw him literally dance upon his back, elbows beating a frenzied tattoo upon the floor, hi

And I was forced to the utmost degradation because I possessed skilled hands and the belief that my knowledge could bring me dignity--not wealth, only dignity--and other men health!"

They became silent, their faces clouding over, their features becoming soft and negative, their eyes bland and deceptive.

The smoke had become thicker and with each new blow it seemed to sear and further restrict my lungs.

And here, sitting rigid, I remember the evenings spent before the sweeping platform in awe and in pleasure, and in the pleasure of awe; remember the short formal sermons intoned from the pulpit there, rendered in smooth articulate tones, with calm assuran

The other boys ignored me as they congratulated Tatlock and speculated as to how much they would be paid.

I was warned emphatically to forget what he had said and, indeed, this is the first time it has been mentioned outside the family circle.

The fourth side was clear, revealing a gleaming space of polished floor.

One night I accidentally bumped into a man, and perhaps because of the near darkness he saw me and called me an insulting name.

As we approached a mirror Dr. Bledsoe stopped and composed his angry face like a sculptor, making it a bland mask, leaving only the sparkle of his eyes to betray the emotion that I had seen only a moment before.

Supercargo let out a groan like an injured horse.

I could not tell if the moisture I felt upon my body was sweat or blood.

"Here, some of y'all tilt his head back."

He was a large man who wore diamond studs in a shirtfront which swelled with the ample paunch underneath, and each time the blonde swayed her undulating hips he ran his hand through the thin hair of his bald head and, with his arms upheld, his posture<

I would never have believed that they were so enduring.

I pour the red liquid over the white mound, watching it glisten and the vapor rising as Louis bends that military instrument into a beam of lyrical sound.

I looked upon the tinted miniature framed in engraved platinum.

"And did anyone from the school investigate this matter?" he asked at last.

And Dr. Bledsoe sat with a benign smile of inward concentration.

"The old one is, sir," I said reluctantly.

The fourth side was clear, revealing a gleaming space of polished floor.

I felt the cloth pressed into place, and frowned so that it would be loosened when I relaxed.

While we were attending an embassy party she collapsed.

For one thing, the trumpet was blaring and the rhythm was too hectic.

I recognized the place as soon as I saw the group of children in stiff new overalls who played near a rickety fence.

"I mean that upon you depends the outcome of the years I have spent in helping your school.

On my graduation day I delivered an oration in which I showed that humility was the secret, indeed, the very essence of progress.

Those two spots are among the darkest of our whole civilization--pardon me, our whole culture (an important distinction, I've heard)--which might sound like a hoax, or a contradiction, but that (by contradiction, I mean) is how the world moves: Not

He was a large man who wore diamond studs in a shirtfront which swelled with the ample paunch underneath, and each time the blonde swayed her undulating hips he ran his hand through the thin hair of his bald head and, with his arms upheld, his post

The room spun round me, a swirl of lights, smoke, sweating bodies surrounded by tense white faces.

I thought of the glee certain folks at home would feel if I were expelled.

I can see the fruits produced by the land that your great Founder has transformed from barren clay to fertile soil."

Up close I saw what I had not seen from the car: The man had a scar on his right cheek, as though he had been hit in the face with a sledge.

But the words of the others were stronger than the strength of philanthropic dollars, deeper than shafts sunk in the earth for oil and gold, more awe-inspiring than the miracles fabricated in scientific laboratories.

The other boys ignored me as they congratulated Tatlock and speculated as to how much they would be paid.

Oh, long green stretch of campus, Oh, quiet songs at dusk, Oh, moon that kissed the steeple and flooded the perfumed nights, Oh, bugle that called in the morning, Oh, drum that marched us militarily at noon--what was real, what solid, what more tha

Came smiling, inspecting, encouraging, conversing in whispers, speechmaking into the wide-open ears of our black and yellow faces--and each leaving a sizeable check as he departed.

Then I was aware of fresh air and saw that I was near the door and pushed my way free and stood panting and preparing to plunge back for Mr. Norton--when I heard Halley calling, "Make way y'all!" and saw him piloting Mr. Norton to the door.

Suddenly the wild look changed in his eyes and he stepped back and saluted with stiff precision.

I said, trying hard to conceal my tension and fear.

There were no trees, no flowers, no fertile farmland.

I followed his eyes and was amazed to see the varied expressions on the patients' faces as they silently returned his gaze.

But I am an orator, a rabble rouser--Am? I was, and perhaps shall be again.

I wanted at one and the same time to run from the room, to sink through the floor, or go to her and cover her from my eyes and the eyes of the others with my body; to feel the soft thighs, to caress her and destroy her, to love her and murder her,

Pushed this way and that by the legs milling around me, I finally pulled erect and discovered that I could see the black, sweat-washed forms weaving in the smoky-blue atmosphere like drunken dancers weaving to the rapid drum-like thuds of blows.

And in my outrage I got out my knife and prepared to slit his throat, right there beneath the lamplight in the deserted street, holding him by the collar with one hand, and opening the knife with my teeth--when it occurred to me that the man had no

Somethin' hits the wall--boom-a-loom-a-loom!--like a cannon ball, and I tries to cover up my head.

We were embarrassed by the earthy harmonies they sang, but since the visitors were awed we dared not laugh at the crude, high, plaintively animal sounds Jim Trueblood made as he led the quartet.

"You awakened when he awakened, rejoiced when he rejoiced at their leaving without further harm; arising when he arose; seeing with his eyes the prints of their milling footsteps and the cartridges dropped in the dust about the imprint of his falle

He was the largest of the group, wearing dark red fighting trunks much too small to conceal the erection which projected from him as though in answer to the insinuating low-registered moaning of the clarinet.

Many times, here at night, I've closed my eyes and walked along the forbidden road that winds past the girls' dormitories, past the hall with the clock in the tower, its windows warmly aglow, on down past the small white Home Economics practice cottage, w

I was sore, and into my being had come a profound craving for tranquillity, for peace and quiet, a state I felt I could never achieve.

Flocks of quail sailed up and over a field, brown, brown, sailing down, blending.

Then I saw him waver, rigid from his ankles upward.

A Bostonian, smoker of cigars, teller of polite Negro stories, shrewd banker, skilled scientist, director, philanthropist, forty years a bearer of the white man's burden, and for sixty a symbol of the Great Traditions.

I loved him and give him the poison and he withered away like a frost-bit apple.

You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you're a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you.

Chairs were arranged in neat rows around three sides of a portable boxing ring.

We were embarrassed by the earthy harmonies they sang, but since the visitors were awed we dared not laugh at the crude, high, plaintively animal sounds Jim Trueblood made as he led the quartet.

And wait until I reveal how truly irresponsible I am.

He held his ground, his legs braced, hands on hips, and to keep from hitting him I slammed on the brakes.

And what puzzled me was that the old man had defined it as treachery.

They became silent, their faces clouding over, their features becoming soft and negative, their eyes bland and deceptive.

It's when you feel like this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump people back.

It almost took my breath away and I leaned over and switched on the fan, hearing its sudden whirr.

I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids--and I might even be said to possess a mind.

"Yes," he said, "I know that many of the old families still survive.

Much applause and laughter.

That fluttering shadow before my eyes was his jabbing left hand.

You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you're a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you.

I was careful not to come too close to the rug now, and when I felt the hot whiskey breath descend upon me like a cloud of foul air I reached out and grabbed the leg of a chair.

I listened with fascination, my eyes glued to the white line dividing the highway as my thoughts attempted to sweep back to the times of which he spoke.

With Supercargo lying helpless upon the bar, the men whirled about like maniacs.

I am an invisible man.