Comparing Invisible Man And Dennis Lehan's Gone Baby, Gone
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On The Prowl
The city is a jungle; its sidewalks are dirt paths, stained with the paw prints of predators, preys, and survivors, who roam within the alleys between the sky scrapers that conceal the truths of the streets. The native animals of this jungle are rarely trained, yet know every poisonous fruit, every untouchable territory and every rock filled stream. Most importantly, no matter what species, or which jungle, every inhabitant must, at one point, explore his territory in search of conclusion. In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Dennis Lehan’s Gone Baby, Gone , contrary protagonists, The Invisible Man, civil rights activist and brother of Harlem, and Patrick Kenzie, detective and once troubled child of Boston , must exercise their knowledge of the jungle in order to find a creature lost. The Invisible Man joins the brotherhood and participates in less than respectable activities to become visible, so that he may find himself, while Detective Kenzie prowls his native neighborhood…show more content… Kenzie must associate with mobsters like Cheese Olamon, Jack Rouse, the Rogowski brothers and most notoriously, Fat Freddy Constantine, “…head of the Italian Mafia here, and those of us who walked back out knew that no one would find the corpses he hid and no one would ever be dumb enough to go looking” in order to learn their science behind the case. Instead of posing as an antagonist, IM became one. When he joins the Brotherhood he actually becomes a Brother, it is no act to gain information to use against them, but to increase awareness in his search. According to Literature and Its Times he happens to gain more than just knowledge: “…money, political instruction, new accommodations, and even a new name by [the Brotherhood]”. In Gone Baby Gone, Patrick imitates the Italian and Irish Mafia in order to attain clues and leads, while IM decides to legitimately become part of the Brotherhood, to achieve