When the narrator spots three young men on the subway in zoot suits, I had several questions. First of all, why is the narrator so enthralled by these boys? Hasn't he seen kids wearing wacky things before? Why does he decide to follow them? And most importantly, what is a zoot suit? Here's what I found
about the flamboyant zoot suit.
The zoot suit was never exactly invented by any one person, and it isn't connected to any brands or designers. Oversize suits became popular among young, working-class men, most of whom were African-American or Latino, around the late 1930's and early 1940's. These young men, often called "zoot suiters", would buy larger suits and adjust them to make dancing easier. That's why zoot suits have wide pants that taper at the ankles -- you don't want to trip over floppy pant legs while dancing. Zoot suits were usually colorful and were paired with fun hats for extra snazziness.
The zoot suit grew in popularity during the early 1940's, especially in Mexican-American immigrant communities. However, wartime rationing restricted zoot suiters from acquiring enough fabric to make their favorite clothes. The rationing resulted in a week of violent attacks across Los Angeles where U.S. soldiers targeted Mexican-American zoot suiters for their "unpatriotic" outfits. Because of these attacks, the zoot suit took on important political significance. Ralph Ellison later wrote that zoot suits had a "profound political meaning".
So how does the zoot suit's historical context connect to the subway scene in Invisible Man? The narrator describes the three young men as "outside the groove of history", though his view of history is rather narrow. The brotherhood's scientific approach to political action fails to account for cultural change, as exemplified by the three zoot suiters on the subway. While the Brotherhood sees young people as foolish and inconsequential, historians today are still compelled by the political significance of cultural movements such as zoot-suiting. The narrator is so enthralled by the young men because he can finally see the importance of their lives as both individuals and as part of humanity's history.
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| Cab Calloway, a 1940's jazz musician, showing off his fun zoot suit |
I absolutely agree. Ellison uses the young men in zoot suits to show the narrator some of the flaws in the Brotherhood's view of history. As you said they show the narrator how the Brotherhood has essentially been ignoring all these cultural movements that we find so fascinating decades later, but it also forces the narrator to reconsider the Brotherhood's habit of treating people only as members of groups. The zoot suiters mean so much more than that. Their suit can be unique, almost an expression of personality. While they might be black the first thing you'll notice is the flashy colors that show off who they are as an individual, contrasting the view of the world that's been forced upon the narrator by the brotherhood.
ReplyDeleteThis deeper meaning of the zoot suiters is incredibly interesting, as it is such a small scene, but holds such powerful meaning. As you said, the zoot suiters show the brotherhoods dismissal of cultural movements that fascinate people, and also forces the narrator to think about this in relation to the brotherhood as a whole. Do they view people as more than members of a group, or do they simple mesh people together and dismiss the unique parts that make them individuals. Though, as Aryan mentioned, the zoot suiters are all black, their clear uniqueness and expression so vividly portrayed through their clothing cannot simply be ignored, as the small minded brotherhood members wish to do. This clashes with the narrow mindset the narrator has been taught to view the world through, and forces him to think.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think the men in the zoot suits represent a change in cultural history that the narrator at the time with his Brotherhood views cannot see as anything but insignificant. Maybe another thing that the narrator thinking the zoot suiters are ridiculous shows is the things that seem outlandish to one generation can seem perfectly natural to the next one. Take radical ideology: what people at Ellison's time thought were radical social movements seem like givens today. The narrator sees a new trend among a demographic of young people and thinks it's absurd but it is the future of fashion for this young generation.
ReplyDeleteThe Zoot-Suited men also help to prompt the narrator's realization that the Brotherhood is ultimately wrong, and drive him to later become one of them for a night, when he buys his dark sunglasses and is repeatedly misidentified as Rinehart. Ellison's use of the zoot suit is especially interesting in comparison with the narrator's earlier comments about the "pretenders", whose style he also describes in detail, but is even more condescending towards.
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