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5. Throughout the novel the narrator gives speeches, or tries to give them, to audiences both black and white, at venues that range from a whites-only "smoker" to the funeral of a black street vendor murdered by the police. What role does oratory—and, more broadly, the spoken word—play in Invisible Man?

Oratory does activate the man in the street either to feel understood or to fear of the speaker.

Oratory is used to inspire and motivate people it gives them a common understanding and can move them to action.

Agreed about the oratory.

It's also interesting that the words spoken (and written) by the narrator are in an educated manner (from the education he sometimes feels is worthless) which reaches both races, while also making him feel cut off from his own race.

When he made (and just before he made) his graduation speech to the community leaders, he felt so strongly that he was going to make his mark and be heard. In that case, his message was outweighed by the Battle Royal, but he still saw it as the best way to be heard.

The words are a means to connect and share experience. And yet they fail the goal of visibility. They fall short of the ambition.

Oratory is important as a means to move people, but with unforeseen and maybe unforeseeable effects. His graduation speech leads to his humiliation in the battle royal. His funeral speech leads to the riot. Oratory is powerful, but perhaps takes on a course of its own?

Yes...it's almost like his oratory (sometimes) directly connected to violence, although unintentional.

Words matter and speech play a big part of this story. I agree with what others have said.