The Role Of Identity In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

For our last assignment in English 253, the major essay, we were assigned to analyze some of the concepts and concerns involved in a novel from the past semester. Our task at hand was to select from a topic and develop a more in-depth understanding of the chosen novel, and exactly how the literature involved in the novel is significant. I decided to choose the first option available in order to complete this essay. Since we’re supposed to investigate the accuracy of the represented ways in the chosen novel, I decided to write about the novel Invisible Man. I chose the novel Invisible Man because it is literally perfect for this assignment. I am fully appreciative of the fact that it is extremely hard for any author to publish a novel

Towards the end of the book “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, the narrator who remains unnamed thought the entire book, risks his life to save a briefcase filled with seemingly random assorted items. But later in the book the narrator is forced to burn the items in his briefcase in order to find his way out of a sewer he gets stuck in. Closer reading reveals that the items in his briefcase are more than random assorted items, but instead are symbols. Each one of those symbols represents a point in the narrator’s life where he is either betrayed or made “invisible” by the people around him. Through the book the two main recurring themes are betrayal and invisibility and the narrator keeps these symbols with him because they represent who he

He portrays his vulnerability by comparing himself to a bird plucked of his feathers and ridiculed for his devoted admiration of Bledsoe. According to Leon Forrest in The Critical Response to Ralph Ellison edited by Robert J. Butler, “the song mocks and thereby instructs him that each person must constantly die, or shed the skin of his innocence, in order to grow” (64). The narrator grows by reflecting upon himself and throughout the novel, his character develops to understand his invisibility. He claims “Perhaps you’ll think it is strange that an invisible man should need light, desire light, love light. But maybe it is exactly because I am invisible. Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form (6). The light represents his own acknowledgement and self-respect for his own identity, that allows him to discard his desire for approval from society. The narrator represents the many African Americans that learned to find their individual identity and black identity. Most importantly, Ellison’s use of a nameless character contributed greatly to his literary work. The story is told by the narrator, who’s name is never revealed throughout the book and represents a metaphoric invisibility. Ellison’s decision to withhold the main character’s name maintains the idea of an ever-changing

In 1952, Ralph Ellison published the only novel of his career: Invisible Man; telling the story of an unnamed “invisible” narrator. Early on, the narrator delineates his invisibility to “people refus[ing] to see [him];” society neglects to see him as a result of his black lineage (Ellison 3). Ellison incorporates several objects, frequently appearing and reappearing throughout the novel, to expose social and intellectual issues imposed on the black community. Amid the “procession of tangible, material objects” moving “in and out of the text” is the dancing Sambo doll whose purpose is to symbolically represent cruel stereotypes and the destructive power of injustice that blacks fall victim to (Lucas 172). Ellison’s rendering of the small

The narrator of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is the victim of his own naiveté. Throughout the novel he trusts that various people and groups are helping him when in reality they are using him for their own benefit. They give him the illusion that he is useful and important, all the while running him in circles. Ellison uses much symbolism in his book, some blatant and some hard to perceive, but nothing embodies the oppression and deception of the white hierarchy surrounding him better than his treasured briefcase, one of the most important symbols in the book.

This is an early look at the invisibility the narrator describes throughout the book. Unknowingly, he attributes these negative traits to the invisibility he will later claim as his own. Along with Mr. Norton, the Invisible Man later idolizes the white leaders of the cult-like Brotherhood. When he identifies with these eminent white figures, he perceives himself to be counted, a part of history.

The novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison depicts the journey of a young African American man finding his way in the world during the Harlem Renaissance. The unnamed protagonist encounters many obstacles, such as the varying ideas of others, that skew his view of how things are supposed to be in the world. As the protagonist attempts to find the truth about his identity, his naivete causes him to become thrown off as he is confronted by new ideas that he does not fully understand. This process causes him much turmoil as he constantly turns to others to provide the guidance that only he can give himself. Throughout the novel the protagonist struggles to find his own identity as he wholeheartedly adopts the ideas of others, Ellison utilizes

Jordan Bialik Ms. Baran AP English Language and Composition 4 September 2014 The Contents of the Briefcase The novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison tells a story of a young black man in early 20th century United States. The story follows the character’s struggle to fight back against the racial injustices in American society at the time.

Right from the commencement of the Invisible Man it’s as if all the odds in the world are constantly being thrown at the story's unnamed narrator. The main obstacle being the narrator’s skin color- as he is a black man in racist, 1930’s era America. It is this “obstacle” that has caused the narrator to be swallowed up in this feeling of banishment and sense of exile- fueled by racial tensions-which in turn becomes a eminent theme of the story’s plot and the narrator’s own life. As the narrator believes that society doesn’t recognize the black people of America (sense of exile), and demonstrates this with a prelude history lesson on the past his own grandparents endured as former slaves and how they now live as supposedly “free people.” These flashbacks reinstate the hatred and feeling the narrator feels as a member of an excommunicated minority group, yet at the same time counteracts the elated emotions the narrator is also trying to use as a facade to fool and win himself over in proving that he isn’t really as invisible as he feels in the world.

The most important thing that we can take from the prologue is his symbolic ‘hibernation’, the Invisible Man’s life in his hole or basement. His hole represents imprisonment, for he feels he is held prisoner by his lack of identity and by the society that refuses to see him. Keeping this ending of his life in mind, we are able to look into the events in the book and see that they all lead to him trying to escape the hole by being noticed as a person in the world. Even the point of him writing and retelling his life is an escape route, giving him hard evidence that he

The Invisible Man develops insecurities because he isolates himself from society. He uses his wealth as well as his new identity to become isolated. From this isolation he feels

The invisible man begins to feel limitless and superior to average man, he feels that “an invisible man is a man of power” (Wells). Being invisible and the subsequent notion of invincibility causes the invisible man to act as he pleases as his inhibitions disappear as the fear of being reprimanded is removed. The absence of consequences strips away the good in Griffin’s nature and fosters his madness as he starts stealing from the markets and begins his spree of breaking into houses.

One can not escape his culture. By placing the shattered bank pieces and chain link in his briefcase, the Invisible Man is adding to his own identity, his integrating heritage, and reforming his self-understanding.

    The Invisible Man's pattern of deference, betrayal, and then movement (or some variation thereof) begins with the event to which I alluded earlier. Before he dreams of his grandfather and the briefcase, the narrator acquires that briefcase by participating in a dubious "battle royal."  A group of white men betray him after inviting him to speak at their Men's Club; this invitation causes the narrator to feel honored, however his feelings soon turn to shock once he realizes that the men desire for him to participate in a demeaning spectacle--without regard for his self-respect he defers to their wishes and participates. They lead him to a boxing ring filled with many other young black men, blindfold him, and then tell him to fight. Hereafter Invisible Man endures several other

Precious finds the love that she was searching for when she meets her teacher, Ms. Rain, her friends, and her baby, Abdul. On the other hand, the main character of Invisible Man never finds self-identity, but just learns to accept it. He then later, at the end of the book, makes a home underground, invisible to those above him, even to the power and electric company who he’s stealing electricity from to power his underground domain.