Invisible Man - Black & White

Player Piano focuses on the prejudice towards African Americans during this time period. To emphasize on this discrimination, Ellison uses the colors black and white on nearly every page. This creates a world of two dimensions based on color.
One reference to black versus white is repeated several times as the white dividing line. This line represents how Whites prevent Blacks from crossing over to success; it is an endless boundary that cannot be broken. This line may also symbolize the narrator’s dilemma of indecision and blindness. Because it is a white dividing line on a road that means that it is bordered by two black sides. This could symbolize the different personalities within the Invisible Man and how white society is the dividing factor between the two. On the one side is the Invisible Man’s desire to become successful and his willingness to be treated as a servant. On the other side represents the Invisible Man’s rebirth and acceptance to his invisibility.
Ellison’s use of repetition engraves in the audience’s mind how there is a definite distinction between black and white. He wants us to see the world the way it was seen then, in only two colors.