Invisible Man Essay Research Paper Invisible Man 2

Invisible Man Essay, Research Paper

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 Writer’s 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-spokenly 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 man’s

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 o

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