The Sign of Three

Well, well, well - I haven’t done this in a while. The blog, yes, but also numerical analysis. While reading Invisible Man, a quarter of the way through I noticed how many uses there are of the number three. Well, well, well indeed. This is a peculiar number, and shouldn’t go unnoticed, so I immediately began my lookout for the number three. Before I continue with my analysis, I should regurgitate a few accepted interpretations for the meaning of the number three in literature. The most glaring symbolic weight the number three holds is its reference to the holy trinity. It’s considered a type of unity of religion, self, or time. Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Body, Mind, Spirit. Past, Present, Future. The first time this number is used is in the prologue when the narrator speaks of his light display that holds “exactly 1,369 lights”. The first striking thing is that this amount is a perfect root for 37. The odd numbering creates an imbalance, possibly mirroring the narrator’s own instability. The next occurrence of three that I noticed was when the narrator is sitting in Emerson’s office. He sees “three portraits of dignified old gentlemen in winged collars who look down from their frames with an assurance of arrogance”. In this instance, three is used to manifest the past. The old men who represent the past are judging the narrator who represents the present. The next time three shows up is when the narrator speaks with Brockway, whose workshop is three floors underground. This can be read as an allusion to hell in Dante’s Inferno, as the location is underground. In Dante’s Inferno the third circle of hell belongs to Gluttony. This was particularly hard to find significance. I argue that Brockway’s obsession with his craft is related to gluttony. When the narrator brings news that he’s there to help, Lucius responds “I don’t need no damn assistant”. While he’s perfected his craft on his own, Lucius doesn’t want to shared the pride of crafting the most popular brand of white paint. This same gluttony and excess is seen in the narrator’s need for all of the lights. Both are obsessed in indulging these objects with light connotations. The electricity and white paint lead to both characters’ fall into isolation. After the explosion in the paint factory, the narrator beings to experience this connection of three and the color white more frequently. His doctor has “three” eyes. Three white nurses assist the doctor in the hospital. When eating the yams, the narrator takes three spoonfuls of sugar. The narrator’s brotherhood apartment is up three flights of stairs. After the narrator’s rebirth in the machine the white staff creates, his relationship with the brotherhood truly begins, and the narrator gravitates towards the color white. To conclude, one last example on the number three is seen when the narrator goes to his first rally. He sees, “Three white men and three black horses”. This image of three white men sitting on top of three black horses represent the brotherhood’s manipulation of the narrator.