An_Awakening_Through_a_Eulogy

An Awakening Through a Eulogy In Todd Clifton’s funeral speech, IM attempts to liberate himself through the use of rhetorical language. He breaks free of the Brotherhood’s “blueprints” by speaking with no set framework, going against the brotherhoods belief in social vs. racial equality by implying Todd was a hero in a world of white supremacy. He uses repetitiveness when calling out Todd’s name, attempting to give Todd some sort of identity. By calling out to Todd’s identity, IM slowly acknowledges the truth of his own invisibility, and in fact, the truth and reality of the black man’s existence. IM also uses the reverse psychology of irony and dry humor to accent the double sidedness of Todd Clifton’s death; on one side Todd was just another dead black man, and on the other Todd was a human being, an individual. Subconsciously, the Invisible Man observes that all blacks are “Invisible” to others. First, IM says to the crowd that they must “go take a drink and forget [the funeral],” since this sort of tragedy happens on a regular basis; it is “an old story.” The crowd will forget about Todd’s funeral for one reason: no one knew him, there wasn’t “even a young wife up [there] todd, im, man, todd’s, own, white, through, reality, death, clifton’s, truth, speech, out, crowd, blood, invisible, black, sun, one, name, himself, brotherhood, box, true, towards, racial, never, life, forget, fact, equality, cop, clifton, action, yet, veins, truly, sort, society, situation, people, living, judgment, identity, good, free, forth, emotional, dried, dead, calling