Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison Essay Research

Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison Essay, Research Paper

"Who the hell am I" (Ellison 386). This question puzzled the invisible

man, the unidentified, anonymous narrator of Ralph Ellison’s acclaimed novel,

Invisible Man. Throughout the story, the narrator embarks on a mental and

physical journey to seek what the narrator believes is "true

identity," a belief quite mistaken, for he, although unaware of it, had

already been inhabited by true identities all along. Ellison, in Invisible Man,

uses the main characters invisibility and conflict with the outside world to

illustrate the confusion of identity that many people experience. The narrator’s

life is filled with constant eruptions of mental traumas. The biggest

psychological burden he has is his identity, or rather his misidentity. He feels

a "wearing on the nerves" (Ellison 3) for people to see him as what

they like to believe he is and not see him as what he really is. Throughout his

life, he takes on several different identities and none, he thinks, adequately

represents his true self, until his final one, as an invisible man. The narrator

thinks the many identities he possesses do not reflect him, but he fails to

recognize that identity is simply a mirror that reflects the surroundings and

the person who looks into it. It is only in this reflection of the immediate

surrounding that the viewers can relate to the narrator’s identity. The viewers

see only the part of the narrator that is apparently connected to the viewer’s

own world. The part obscured is unknown and, therefore, insignificant. Lucius

Brockway, an old operator of the paint factory, saw the narrator only as an

existence threatening his job, despite that the narrator is sent there to merely

assist him. Brockway repeatedly questions the narrator of his purpose there and

his mechanical credentials but never even bother to inquire his name. Because to

the old fellow, who the narrator is as a person is uninterested. What he is as

an object and what that object’s relationship is to Brockway’s engine room is

important. The narrator’s identity is pulled from this relationship, and this

relationship suggests to Brockway that his identity is a "threat."

However, the viewer decides to see someone as the identity they assign to that

person. The Closing of The American Mind, by Allan Bloom, explains this identity

phenomenon by comparing two "ships of states" (Bloom 113). If one ship

"is to be forever at sea, [and] another is to reach port and the passengers

go their separate ways, they think about one another and their relationships on

the ship very differently in the two cases" (Bloom 113). In the first

state, friends will be acquainted and enemies will be formed, while in the

second state, the passengers will most likely not bother to know anyone new, and

everyone will get off the ship and remain strangers to one another. A person’s

identity is unique to every different viewer at every different location and

situation. This point the narrator senses but does not fully understand. During

his first Brotherhood meeting, he exclaims, "I am a new citizen of the

country of your vision, a native of your fraternal land" (Ellison 328) ! He

preaches to others the fact that identity is transitional, yet he does not

accept it himself. Maybe he thought it distressing being liked not for being his

true self but because of the identity he puts on, or being hated not for being

himself but because of his identity. To Dr. Bledsoe, the principal of the black

southern university where the narrator attended, the narrator is a petty

"black educated fool" (Ellison 141). To Mr. Norton, a rich white

trustee of the black university, the narrator is a simple object intertwined

with his fate, a mere somebody, he explained to the narrator, that "[was]

somehow connected with [Mr. Norton's] destiny" (Ellison 41). To the

organizers of the Brotherhood, Jack, Tobitt, and the others, the narrator is

what they designed him to be. They designed for him an identity of a social

speaker and leader, and to his listeners and followers, he is just that. These

were his multiple identities, and none were less authentic than the others were,

because to his onlookers, he is what his identities say he is, even if he thinks

differently. The narrator always had a desire for people "who could give

[him] a proper reflection of [his] importance" (Ellison 160). But there is

no such thing as a proper reflection because his importance varies among

different people. Subconsciously, he craves attention. He wants recognition and

status and wants to be honored as someone special. He must feel that he

"can have no dignity if his status is not special, if he is not essentially

different"(Bloom 193); therefore he joins Brotherhood in order

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