Rinehart Says: Stop Reading!

Ellison's creation, Rinehart, appears in the latter chapters of Invisible Man as a symbolic ghost of duality. We don't ever "see" Rinehart, only our nameless narrator assuming his persona  and the many titles that come with this persona.

Gambler.
Runner.
Lover.
Pimp.
Reverend.
Cool guy with the cool hat and the cool shades.

Our narrator dons the sunglasses, slightly dimming his view of the world, only to have his eyes opened to the very real notion of being many things to many people, all at once.

Is Ellison suggesting that Rinehart is a contradiction? A paradox? Or just some guy who, like ourselves, is many things to many people, all at once?

Well, gentle reader, I say: who cares? Make no mistake, it's a great topic for discussion---the notion of duality while maintaining personal integrity---but let us jump right over that quagmire into a second, more pressing issue. Because our narrator does a fine job "being" Rinehart, of "being" many things to many people. A talent, to be sure, to assume not just one identity, but several. He can play Rinehart all day long. But at the end of that fun day, he's still merely playing.

When he stops playing Rinehart, what then?

The entire Rinehart sequence happens at the end of the novel, so our narrator has had plenty of time to move his identity token away from innocence/naivety and squarely into experience. But has he come far enough? Does he have his own titles that naturally come with his own persona? Does his persona exist yet?

Which brings us to another critical juncture: what does Rinehart suggest about our very conduct in the English classroom? About reading in general? After all, don't we read to assume a different identity, to poke around in different worlds, to try on someone else's perspective, to labor around in somebody else's issues? And don't the really good books challenge us and placate us and entertain us and secure us in our own understanding of the world?

And doesn't there come the moment when we put the book down? When we stop playing the title character? Well, what then?

The ultimate goal of any quality fiction is to enlighten us. Somehow. Through conflict, through philosophy, through humor, danger, fear, fun. But the "lightening" part cannot occur until (unless?) we put the book down and return to living. Forward momentum. Doing stuff. Whether it's fantastic stuff not, it is our stuff.  Like our narrator and Rinehart's hat. It's fun to play, but then---

So we beat on...

Just kidding.