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The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison by far was a great novel to show the impact that white America had on black America. Ralph Ellison explored the depths of racism and discrimination experienced by a black person from the 1920 s through the 1940 s. Before the novel begins you notice the character as he is at the end of it all. For it seems the character gives up because he realizes hes invisible in the eyes of others. Many of the ideas in the novel that were express give hint that the story is about the author... Beginning with the prologue you notice that the opening sentence states I am an invisible man (3; pro. 1) which is referring the reader to the title.
It becomes clear that the title refers to the narrator, and the narrator has no misinterpretations about his status. When he states... there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers (5; pro. ). The sleepwalkers that the author refers to are society's people who ignore blacks and make invisible man invisible. By waking them is to be noticed, and which he insinuates is to be punished.
Chapter One begins when he was a child standing at his grandfathers deathbed. Only moments before he passes away, the grandfather tells Invisible Mans father after Im gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction, Live with your head in the lions mouth. I want you to overcome with yeses, undermined with grins, agree to death and destruction, level seller you till they vomit or bust wide open...
Learn it to the young uns (16; ch. 1). These final words by Invisible Mans grandfather bother Invisible Man throughout his life. As a young boy, he is told to forget the words and they are regarded by his family as insane, but the words continue to haunt him, and he is always searching for the meaning of those last words. The Invisible Man then skips to when he graduated from high school he is chosen to recite a speech for his class. He is highly praised for this speech and is asked to speak again to some of the important white citizens of the town.
Unknowingly, before he is permitted to make this speech he must participate in a battle royal. After the battle royal he does his speech which he is being shouted and ignored while doing so. When he finishes the speech the superintendent of the schools says take this prize and keep it well... some day it will be filled with important papers that will help shape the destiny of your people (32; ch. 1). The prize he receives is a briefcase, the briefcase is important in the novel, because he will place numerous things inside it, and its contents become significant. Invisible Man enters college which is a state college for the blacks.
Invisible Man seems to feel while at the college the only reason he is there is to benefit the whites. This is evident when he has to chauffeur Mr. Norton a rich white man who claims that Invisible Man is his fate. Norton seems to feel that blacks are his fate but he doesnt bother to even no the people that he associates with.
During this era blacks were judged as a whole group and not as individuals, because of this blacks grew to resent whites. In chapter 5 the author talks about how the Reverend Homer A. Barbee is speaking on the founder of the college. He talks about how well things have progress in terms of the school and the black community.
This is the first sign of rebellion in the author. When the Reverend Barbee is headed toward his seat it is ironic that his glasses fall off, showing that hes being blinded metaphorically and physically. Barbee cannot see that the blacks are still oppressed and have not made the gains that he thinks they have. Such as the scene of the eternally Kneeling slave (134; ch. 5) this reinforces the theme of blacks not being truly free. While in New York he ate with the white people, but he felt at the same time, that he was unseen among them.
As the novel goes further on the narrator show how white society differs in the North than in the South. Chapter 9 is important due to the fact that narrator explores life on his own by taking a bus ride to Harlem. He has a sense of self worth and feels that he will be successful in the city. When at an interview with a man by the name of Mr. Emerson he finds out that the seven letters that he receive from Dr. Bledsoe were letters to push him aside.
It seems that the seven letters represent the seven deadly sins that will haunt him and make him realize what his grandfather meant by keep this nigger-boy running (33; ch. 1). This scene is the changing point from when he was a person to when he started metamorphosing into the Invisible Man. He then moves on to work at a paint company, and while working their hes helping mix paint. While mixing the paint its insinuated that white is the purest form, Ellison is trying to point out the pure white facade that we put on our entire society.
In the quotes White! Its the purest white that can be found. Nobody makes a paint any whiter. This batch right here is heading for a national monument! (202; ch. 10).
This seems to symbolize how America searched to cover its true self with the purest white it could find, and ignore the black that was so much part of America as well. Doing this time was when a lot of blacks felt that If youre white, youre right (218; ch. 10) this belief still persists in American society today. It was a belief that in the black culture that you were black get back, you were brown you would stick around, and yellow (refers to fair skin blacks) you could advance. The Invisible Man seems to face these things when he sees a billboard advertising how to lighten your skin.
He seems to recognize at that point in time Dr. Bledsoes disingenuousness and rejection of his past, and while eating yams he confirms his own identity and heritage. The narrator seems to try and stress the point how some blacks try to distance themselves from their culture to assimilate into the majority. This was true in the 1940 s when blacks conked the hair in hopes of making it straight as whites. We are soon introduce to the Brotherhood, that apparently works for the rights of minorities and other repressed people. The Brotherhoods philosophy...
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Research essay sample on Ralph Ellison Invisible Man
