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Invisible Man: Ralph Ellison Ralph Waldo Ellison was born in Oklahoma on March 1, 1914. From 1933 to 1936, Ellison attended Tuskegee Institute, intent upon pursuing a career in music. Like the protagonist in the novel, Ellison grew up in the south, then later moved to New York City. In New York he met the leading black figures of that day, such as Richard Wright and Langston Hughes, who he said encouraged his own writing ambitions. Ellison became associated with the Federal Writers Project, where he published short stories and articles in such magazines as New Challenge and New Masses. Since 1970, Ralph Ellison has been professor of the humanities at New York University and has lectured extensively on black folk culture.
The influences of his early interests in music helped to create a richly symbolic, metaphorical language of his novels, which he is most known for. In his works, Ellison well-spoken describes the problems of American racism that continue to plaque the country in all areas today. In 1952, Ralph Ellison's novel The Invisible Man gave voice to the feelings of many black Americans who felt that they were not seen by American society. The novel won the National Book Award in 1953 and was also published two years before the Supreme Court ruled the Brown vs. Board of Education to outlaw separate but equal education in America.
While the Civil War freed the slaves, it did not integrate blacks into the American mainstream. As did so many from this generation, the nameless protagonist of Invisible Man leaves the South for New York City. Here he becomes a pawn for a political group, and he discovers he is not seen as an individual human being. After becoming involved in a Harlem riot, he realizes that he must deal with people of both races.
He also realizes that many people see him as a Black Man, and therefore his real nature is unseen by them this makes him invisible. Many times, people, often introverted and alienated from the rest of society, have found themselves in situations in which they are on the outside looking in. These people often have a feeling of being invisible and unidentified to the rest of society and therefore undergo a need to search for their identity in order to be recognised and have a place at the social table. In this particular novel, our character which calls himself the invisible man, is faced with the challenges of being a young African American male from the south, living in the north, who encounters a number of baffling experiences while on the road to self-discovery. The invisible man reveals profound insight into every mans struggle to find his true self. As the story unfolds, the invisible man gradually reaches the destination of his soul-searching journey, in which his progress is marked by four significant stages: self-ignorance, exposition, false freedom, and self-discovery.
The first stage of development in our nameless character is just like any other self-ignorance. Before an individual can pursue any type of development, one first has to go through this period of unawareness. The invisible man has lived with a guilty conscience ever since his grandfather left him this word of advice: undermine the white man by simply agreeing and causing no trouble, so in that way, they will have nothing to hold against you and therefore, it will lead them to destruction (Ellison 20). The advice haunted the invisible man like a curse and caused him to be insecure, uncomfortable, indecisive, and remorseful about simple everyday living. This advice seemed to be the root of his self-ignorance. He was now unable to think thoughts of his own without a feeling of betrayal toward his grandfather or unsureness of whether he was pleasing or disgusting the white man.
The invisible man proclaimed his self- obliviousness when confronted with Mr. Norton and asked about his fate and also how he feels about his race. The invisible man could not respond to the question of his fate whereas his self-ignorance disables him to conjure his thoughts on this matter. One critic states: .
if an individual is unsure about his / her self-identity, one cannot possibly have an existing destiny, considering one has no idea what he / she can sustain or produce (Tallot 97). This helps to justify the difficulty that the invisible man had in replying to Mr. Norton's question about his fate. And when Ellison's hero finally answers what he feels about his race, he gives a response much similar to what many of the white spokesmen that he has listened to (In speeches and sermons) that talk of the subject. He says to Mr. Norton that he feels that the black race is not making much progress at the moment because they choose not to learn.
The invisible man only responds in this way to avoid any confrontation with Mr. Norton or any white person for that matter, because he feels that if he makes trouble, it will ruin his chances of attending college. Therefore, he appears meek and obedient. The invisible man will loose this veil of quietude due to his next stage of growth. Exposition is our characters second tier of development.
His talent of rhetorical speaking grants him this exposition to the public (It also paved the way for him to attend college, but at that time his talent was not appreciated and therefore he took no heed of it). He makes a speech on the streets of Harlem during a riot. Afterwards a very suspicious looking man pulls him aside to congratulate him on his speech and invites him to have a cup of coffee with him at the nearest diner. The man is Brother Jack. Brother Jack tells him about an organization (the Brotherhood) that he is a part of and also how he thinks the invisible mans talent could take him places if he was to join the organization. Brother Jack offers him a business card and invites him to attend a Brotherhood party.
The invisible man is skeptical, but ends up attending the party anyway. At the party Brother Jack introduces him to the rest of the organization and is offered a position as the official spokesman for the Brotherhood. Ellison's hero is given a new name and a plentiful amount of money (to him it was plentiful, since he has not had money in a long time). He has a substantial position and his words make a difference and has influence on peoples views and actions. From this moment on, the invisible man, for the first time in his life, is actually a part of something. As one critic states: .
it takes the feeling of significance and importance of a man to bring forth his true talent and fuel his creativity (Tallot 110). The invisible man has been exposed to the public and becomes a prominent figure of Harlem. This exposure brought him confidence and lead him to his next level of growth. His next stage of development was not necessarily auspicious. During his success fulness as an substantial motif for the Brotherhood Organization and popularity with the public, he splurged for a while off of his own attainment. This stage of false freedom occurred as his walked down the streets of Harlem and stopped by a food stand to eat a yam.
As he ate the yam, he was no longer ashamed of the things he loved and began to feel homesick. While walking and eating he was suddenly overcome with an intense feeling of freedom-simply because he was eating while walking along the street. It was exhilarating for him since he no longer had to worry about anyone who saw him to scold him and tell him what was not was not proper. The nameless character started to reflect back to the question of the African American race and thought bitterly to himself, Why you could cause the greatest humiliation simply by confronting us [black people] with something we liked (Ellison 229). The invisible man began to think of how people who had known him at school would think if they saw him now and how shocked they would be. He had a sense of lightness and a care-free attitude, as if he had it all.
After this momentary sense of freedom and inevitability, he unearthed his identity and arrived to an actualization of himself. This lead him to his final stage of self-discovery. The invisible man finds his true self after the second riot and confrontation with Ras the Exhorter, he takes a step back and looks at everything around him. He realizes that he does not have to be in such situations because he is useless and has no impact on society after all. He finally does away with the Brotherhood organization because he understands that when he is honest, he is hated.
The invisible man now realizes that his grandfather was wrong about yessing them to destruction (Ellison 488). He comes to a conclusion that no one has an actual place in society. He understands that everyone has a purpose that will lead us all to the same higher, more complex fate, but we are nothing but pawns in the game of life. Even though his has discovered himself, he knows that society will continue to look through him, and for this reason, he remains invisible. This novel teaches us about the travail of finding ones true self in order to become a significant individual in society.
This distinct individual will hope to leave a lasting impression behind for others to concede and possibly adhere to. The invisible man showed significant progress during his soul-searching journey in four significant stages: self-ignorance, exposition, false freedom and self-discovery. Ellison's hero is a delineation of individuals who feel they are obsolete in the eyes of society. These individuals sense a need to search for their identity in order to have a purpose or fate in life.
The invisible mans four stages of development linked him to a fate that was far greater than he could apprehend. Understanding his identity helped him to realize the problems of society. If everyone could step back and look at who they are and not what society wants them to be, then possibly the American society would have a better chance of understanding that each person is a distinctive individual and should be judged upon their individuality, thus moving away from commonly believed generalizations of people as a whole.
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