Invisible

Sometimes invisibility does not have to be caused by something or someone being unable to be seen, but rather by the refusal of others to see. Everyone is invisible to the majority of the world, since any given person isn't likely to be known by even their entire city, excluding small towns. Even people with significant fame, people that are known by others all around the world, are invisible because few know them personally. All of this assumes that we could ever really truly know another person's innermost self. In class, Bill Gates was given as an example of a visible person because "if he wants something he could get it" or some other silly reasoning, but that assumption itself makes Bill Gates invisible. We assume we understand Bill Gates because he we see his desires or actions, all while never bothering to question whether those are really his true desires. Maybe Bill Gates is a completely different person than the majority of those that know of him perceive him to be; we would never really know. Everyone is invisible, so it's a somewhat fruitless topic for conversation. Also, it seems really melodramatic to think that everyone should or even could focus on knowing an invisible person. It's really ironic how, in a book pointing out that we don't bother to understand others, the characterization is so poor. Maybe it was intentional.