After reading the book Invisible Man so many questions come up in confusion. Even when I was finished reading the book and asked my friends for help understanding it I was kind of still confused. So in this essay, I’m going to help you understand a special topic of the book that tugged at my inside.
At the beginning of his life I believe that from adolescence to adulthood, the protagonist had a strong desire to find his place in the world. However, I believe it was very clear that he didn’t have a clear place in the so-called world. He started his walk on the path of life as a sincere person with the idea that identity might only be obtained in terms of a particular group of people. Which was a terrible idea. Since they didn’t care about him at all they could care less about him as a person. So during that time, he learned a lot about how mean and cruel people could be. At that time, he did not realize that other people could lie, be angry, and betray. The so-called invisible man believed that submission and humility were the keys to success for black Americans in society. Which was wrong. For example at one time in the book he had to win a fight with another person. And the prize at the end of the fight was a bunch of money. The crazy thing was that the money was coins many many coins spread out on this carpet that had an electrical charge on it so whenever they went to collect the money they were electrocuted. So the high expectations of it only led to struggles and failures. Since he thought that they cared about him even though they showed him they didn’t care about him.
Being nice and kind, the chief character engaged in the right to obtain a safe position among white Americans. However, all the attempts to be let into the so-called gang led to nothing but failures at all costs no matter what he did which is sad. The character was ready for the obstacles as he thought he would be able to overcome thorns that were prepared for him on ways to success; however, the absence of humanity in other people was shocking and devastating for a young man with a big heart. At the school graduation evening, he would have to pronounce his inspirational speech, which helped him to acquire a scholarship for studying at Negro College earlier, with a mouth full of blood. The wealthy citizens did not care about the message of the speech but only wanted the show of black men fighting in a boxing ring and then receiving payment from an electrified rug for it. The character never succeeded in completing his education. After all, he rejected the idea in his mind that he could ever be accepted and left the college, being disillusioned, betrayed, and searching for brand new senses in his life.
“Still, I was more afraid to act any other way because they didn’t like that at all”.
(Ellison, Invisible Man 1952)
Ellison’s Invisible Man represents one of the most significant problems of American society which is racism and the conflict it generates in African American life. The degree of psychological trauma the protagonist of the novel suffered due to the conflicts of double identity and double vision (which are explained in the first chapter of this thesis) is devastating. Throughout the novel, this internal conflict leads to and influences the narrator’s discovery of his true personality and potential in a multicultural American setting. The dual self-awareness that an African American has about himself is expanded by William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, as double-consciousness which is thoroughly explained in the first chapter. Du Bois defines double consciousness as African Americans being forced to view themselves through the hostile and imposed perspectives of white Americans, also struggling to maintain their own self-defined opinions of themselves at the same time. Double consciousness theory affirms that African Americans can “see” themselves through (and look from) their individual and black perspectives while also seeing themselves through (and looking from) the perspectives of the dominant white culture. Hence African Americans, as oppressed people, have been forced to develop a dual perception of who they are as human beings and as blacks who are positioned as racially inferior in a white supremacist society. (Wikipedia 2021).
Du Bois argues that African Americans must be aware of whites’ negative and racist perceptions as subordinated people. In his book, The Souls of Black Folk, 1903 DuBois analyses the concept of double consciousness into three different approaches; First, the power of White stereotypes on Black life and the way of thinking, second, racism and the segregation of Black Americans from White Americans, in the end, Du Bois reveals the internal conflict between being an American from African succession and being an American from White American succession. (Essay 2018). This chapter will deal with the third issue mentioned above and the impact it has on the narrator of The Invisible Man. Through the usage of concepts like invisibility, blindness, and alienation Ellison explores the double vision, double identity, and the internal struggle with the narrator’s self-perception.
The narrator’s realization that everybody was attempting to define him goes back twenty years ago since he was a young boy. He recalls in mind his grandfather’s last will on his deathbed saying to his son ‘Keep up the great battle.’ He preaches to his nephew to satisfy the white man’s desires while remaining wary and sour inside. The old man goes on by saying, that this was how he lived his life, on one hand pretending to be a silent “meek” man who tries to satisfy his master, on the other hand trying to deceive them, but now on his deathbed, he realizes that has lived in a ‘deceitful” life. The narrator’s family thinks that the old man has lost his mind, but these words lay upon him as a ‘curse’ throughout the novel.
Son, after I’m 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 gave up my gun in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ’em with yeses, undermine ’em with grins, agree on ’em to death and destruction, let ’em swollen you till they vomit or bust wide open (Ellison, Invisible Man 1952, 16).
The protagonist, who is said to look like his Grandfather, is seriously concerned by these words, which he fails to understand and torment him through his uncommon journey into invisibility, so according to his grandad’s advice blacks should keep two identities, they should obey and try to satisfy the White’s wish so that to meet the whites’ expectations. Whereas they should remember their sourness and bitterness, and fight against this imposed deceitful identity. “ It was as though he had not died at all, his words caused so much anxiety.” (Ellison, Invisible Man 1952).
Even though the narrator is considered “as an example of desirable conduct” (Ellison, Invisible Man 1952), by the whites of the community where he lives, he subconsciously perceives the duality of his actions, on one hand, if he acts following the white’s expectation he feels like he is committing treachery toward his people (as his grandfather considers it), on the other hand, if he does otherwise he cannot go far with his life. Yet in this pre-invisible phase of his life, the narrator tries to meet white’s stereotypical expectancy that they have for black people. As Pape Mawade Sylla emphasizes those generalizations have influenced profoundly the psyche of the African Americans who try to suppress their true self by Whites’ demands so that they can be accepted and integrated into American society. (Sylla 2022)
Due to his desirable conduct, the narrator is invited to deliver a speech on his graduation day, but before this, he and other black boys had to participate half-naked in a” battle royal” for the sake of entertaining the important well-dressed townsmen of the white society. The prize for the winner is some gold coins set on an electrified carpet in which the two last standing should drag themselves along to collect the coins. The narrator is thrown into the boxing ring and is shaken and bloodied. He manages to stand at the last two but he loses at the end. Still, the narrator does not look impressed by the bloody black guys who fight furiously at each other, he is concerned about his final speech. “On my graduation day, I delivered an oration in which I showed that humility was the secret, indeed, the very essence of progress. (Not that I believed this could I, remembering my grandfather? -I only believed that it worked.)” (Ellison, Invisible Man 1952, 17). The speech included humiliating words to the blacks and pleasing words to the whites. While delivering his speech, he made a mistake instead of saying “social responsibility” he said, “social equality” which made the whites very angry but as soon as he corrected it, he was praised with a scholarship.
‘social….
What? They yelled.
‘……equality- ‘
The laughter hung smokelike in the sudden stillness, I opened my eyes, puzzled. Sounds of displeasure filled the room. The MC rushed forward. They shouted hostile phrases at me. But I did not understand. A small mustache man in the front row blared out, ‘Say that slowly, son.
What, sir?
What you just said! Social responsibility, sir, I said.
You weren’t being smart, were you, boy? He said, not unkindly.
No, sir!
Are you that” equality” was a mistake?
Oh yes, sir, I said, ‘I was swallowing blood.’
Well, you had better speak more slowly so we can understand you. We mean to do the right by you, but you’ve got to know your place at all times. (Ellison, Invisible Man 1952, 31).
From this passage is evident that the Invisible Man both knows his place and will stay within it:” Are you sure about “equality” was a mistake? OH yes, sir, I said, ‘I was swallowing blood.” (Ellison, Invisible Man 1952, 31). Then his grandfather’s “curse” comes to his mind. This event is the first tremor that awakens the narrator’s perception of who he is in reality and what others expect him to be. In his heart, he knows that he has played the fool as his grandpa suggested to him. Once the fight and the humiliating speech finish, he realizes, that he is just like the other black men: blind and unseen by whites as an individual. Thus, blacks are invisible to them as individuals who can be integrated into society. As Cornel West suggests the dilemma and obstacles that black people face deprive them of individuality, in addition, it reduces blacks to abstractions and objects born of white fantasy and insecurities, as exotic or transgressive entities, as hypersexual or criminal animals. (WEST 1993, 85).
Meanwhile, William James asserts, that African Americans chose to deal with racial discrimination and to protect themselves passively but never fight for their rights and the false identity given to them by Whites. (James 2007, 12). Once again the battle royal event catalyzes the illumination of the narrator over the position of the blacks, in particular, he witnesses the lack of power of African Americans in society, even though has just won a scholarship and now has the potential to obtain a career, he becomes aware that he will never be seen as anything more than entertainment for whites. At this point, Du Bois’s first assumption of Double Consciousness is in full effect as the main character is forced to present himself in a way that he did not intend since is seen within the stereotype frame he feels powerlessness to act differently. The idea that the white Americans had of African Americans was stereotypical and was deep-rooted in the belief of the superiority of White Americans and the inferiority of African Americans.
The narrator s submissiveness is praised by the white school superintendent who grants him a calfskin briefcase that contains a scholarship to attend the local college for Negroes: Keep developing as you are and someday it will be filled with important papers that will help shape the destiny of your people. (Ellison, Invisible Man 1952, 34).
Wells wrote The Invisible Man as something of a lesson about scientists playing God, and placing themselves above normal people. In his book, H.G. Wells ventures into the abstract concept of invisibility and the human emotions and reactions involved in the attainment and realization of this amazingly incomprehensible power. A once sensible scientist is engulfed by the power he feels when unseen, and this power mongering eventually leads into insanity. He carries a sociopath anger that explodes at random, causing as much damage to himself as to others. There is a pervading angst and cynicism running through the story that makes the science aspect of it mere background. In his book, Wells has taken us on a tour of the extremes which human emotions and feelings can reach when confronted with situations requiring immediate action. The story is filled with innuendoes as indications of how petty, vindictive and suspicious the lay man can get. Wells expresses this by elucidating accounts involving the lame and unintelligent villagers with the invisible man.
All the people Griffin encounters after he becomes invisible, right from the marching crowd of the Salvation Army to the people he comes across in Iping, start to panic and cause havoc and chaos uncontrollably with the intention of escaping the danger that might occur if they are targeted by the invisible man. Wells describes how people react when they look at peril and jeopardy at its face, how one behaves in “the moment of truth”. He gives instances of people like Mr. Heelas who break, and go to any extremes as long as their safety is insured. He describes the strong character of people like the police constables who are ready to sacrifice their safety to ensure that of another. He depicts the innocence of a child by including in his book, the narrative of a girl who witnesses the Wickstead murder. Wells shows how unfaithful and greedy people can get by giving the instance of Mr. Marvel, and how he tries to steal the Invisible Man’s books after promising to work loyally for him when given a death threat. He instantiates the curiosity invoked in people when they see outlandish things by describing incidents involving the invisible man which portray the inquisitiveness of villagers like Mr. Henfrey, Mr. Hall, Mr. Fearenside, and Mr. Cuss. Of all the human feelings and emotions described in the book, the one Wells focuses on the most is the one a person would experience when granted absolute power. Wells portrays that once a person is granted a method by which he is convinced that he is uniquely more powerful than anyone else, he becomes insane and power-hungry and ultimately resorts to destruction and plunder in order to dominate everyone else. Wells gives Griffin the stereotyped character of a mad scientist who is out to prove his intelligence to the world by trying to become more powerful than anyone else. As in other stories this one too ends in the failure of the mad scientist, the death of the invisible man in this case.
Griffin says once to Dr. Kemp, “The more I thought it over, the more I realized Kemp what a helpful absurdity an invisible man was . . . Before I made this mad experiment I had dreamt of a thousand advantages. No doubt invisibility made it possible to get them, but it made it impossible to enjoy them once they are got.” Besides science and human nature, the book is also about learning a lesson from the mistakes of Griffin. The story has a moral that nobody can ever be fully satisfied with the attainment of absolute power. Well’s vision of the future is dire: even as man stumbles upon incredible new sciences, he will simply end up destroying others as he does himself.
As clearly described above, This book is more about humanity than about science and technology. The fact that the story involves the realization of a scientific discovery cannot merely be used as a reason for summing up the entire book as one about science and technology. The detailed description of the human character makes the scientific aspect of the book nothing more than a requirement for the completion of the story. Putting it in John Calvin Bachelors own words, “Yes, the story of Griffin is propped up with speculation about blood chemistry, but at its heart it is not a novel about optics and laboratory work gone wrong but rather about compassion and desire gone wrong.”.
Despite the fact that the book focuses mainly on human nature, it has a fair share of science in it too, and it satisfies the average science fiction reader. In the second half of the book, Wells introduces a new character, Dr. Kemp, a man of science. A man who is on the verge of making a scientific discovery that is going to alter his life and those of many others in some significant way or the other. It is this man who defeats the invisible man in achieving his goal by using his scientific mind to analyze and predict the invisible man’s moves. Dr. Kemp sends out orders based on his scientific thinking that people should commute with hounds as the nose is to a dog as what the eyes are to a man, and the hound would be able to detect the presence of the invisible man. He also gives orders to lock up all food, as he understood that Griffins would ultimately feel hungry again and would some out in search of food. Wells designs the book so that Dr. Kemp, being a man of science, realizes that invisibility is not something unique in living organism’s by recalling how most organisms in the sea are invisible.
It is here in the book where science and its implications start being used. When the invisible man comes across Kemp by coincidence, he narrates to Kemp the story of how he attained invisibility. In this part of the book, Wells makes Griffin describe the concept of visibility and explain in detail, the phenomenon of reflection and refraction that take place in everyday life. He also mentions how the movement of light and hence visibility can be altered by changing the refractive index: the amount by which light changes direction when passing through bodies with different densities. He gives real life examples of light performing its tricks in front of our eyes, which occur in our day to day lives. Hence the style of the book takes a turn and it starts to sound like a science fiction due to the recurring use of scientific concepts. Griffin finally mentions that he had discovered a formula involving four dimensions using which he was able to understand how to complete the process of becoming invisible and by altering the refractive index of a body without altering any of its other properties. Griffin elucidates how he finally discovered how to make blood invisible, completing the requirement for the whole body not to be seen by a normal naked eye. Griffin describes how he verified his discovery by experimenting on the landlady’s cat and a piece of cloth. We can see that Wells takes minute details involving science into consideration, as he explained how Griffin encountered a slight hitch in his experiment because the nails and the Tapetum of the cat’s eye did not become invisible. This demonstrates the aspects of a good science fiction author. Even later on when Griffin describes how he felt when he ventured on the streets for the first time after he became invisible, Wells did not forget to take specific minute details into consideration, which a non-science fiction author would have otherwise overlooked, for example, dust sticking on to Griffins body, rain outlining the shape of his body and the fact that he would leave footmarks on the ground if his feet were dirty.
Hence, we can see that the book is not entirely about human nature and has quite a few instances of science and technology in it. Therefore, the book can be categorized as a science fiction, as it evokes interest in the reader due to the fact that it contains enough material to appease his appetite for science fiction.
Some time ago, in an otherwise monotonous and forgotten issue of “the Horizon” committed to a worsening of life in the USA, an episode from Invisible Man was published. It explained a scuffle of unsighted Negro guys at a party of the foremost inhabitants of a small town.
Previous to being unsighted the boys were made to gaze at a nude white woman; then they are grouped into the circle, and, after the combat royal, one of the combatants, with his mouth full of blood, was named upon to offer his high school graduate’s address. As he stood beneath the lights of the strident room, the inhabitants beam him and make him replicate himself; an unintentional orientation to parity nearly damages him, but the whole thing terminates well and he gets a handsome suitcase enclosing a scholarship to a college for black population. This is shown in the following passage:
“I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?”
This incident might well be the elevated tip of an outstanding novel. It has twisted out to be not the high tip but rather one of the lots of crests of a novel of the very first arranges an excellent book. The valedictorian is just an Invisible Man. He likes too much the college but is thrown away before long by its leader, Dr. Bledsoe, a great teacher and head of his race, for allowing a white caller to visit the wrong puts in the locality. Bearing what he considers to be a letter of advice from Dr. Bledsoe he comes to New York.
The correspondence really advises potential employers hostile to him. He is employed by white radicals and turns out to be a Negro leader, and in the essential association he learns ultimately that all through all his life his contacts with other people have been structured; neither with blacks nor with whites has he ever been noticeable or actual. It is considered that in reading “the Horizon” extract I may have undervalued Mr. Ellison’s ambition and power for the subsequent very good reason, that one is acclimatized to wait for outstanding novels about guys, but a contemporary novel about men is exceptionally uncommon. For this extremely multifaceted and complicated American skill of ours very innumerous people are eager to make themselves honorably and rationally accountable. Therefore, adulthood is hard to find.
It is generally felt that there is no power to match the power of those strengths which assault and cripple contemporary humanity. And these senses are, for the reader of fiction, all too frequently corroborated when he advances a new book. Reader is usually gets prepared, hesitantly, to discover what he has discovered previous to, explicitly, that relations and class, college, manner, the missives of advertising and produce, have had a larger share in the formation of someone called an author than truth or imagination that Bendix and Studebaker and the nylon separation of Du Pont, and the University of Chicago, or Columbia or Harvard or Kenyon College, have once more established mightier than the solitary soul of a personality; to find that one more frivolously manned situation has been applied.
But what an immense obsession it is when a luminous personal victory happens, like Mr. Ellison’s, proving that a truthfully daring excellence can survive among our existing. People too methodically resolute and the organizations by their size and force too methodically decide can’t advance this excellence. That just can be applied by those who oppose the heavy powers and make their own mixture out of the vast mass of phenomenon, the furious, teeming body of emergencies, details, and features. From this pestering and endangered disbanding by features, a writer attempts to save what is significant.
Even when he is most bitter, he constructs by his tone a statement of assessments and he notes, in consequence: There is something however that a man may wish to be. This quality, in the best lines of the novel, those lines, for example, in which an incestuous Negro farmer narrates his story to a white New England humanitarian, comes through very impressively; it is tragicomic, lyrical, the tone of the very strongest kind of original cleverness.
In a time of particular brainpowers, contemporary inventive authors make the attempt to uphold themselves as unskilled experts, and their research is for a true center-of-perception for everybody. What tongue is it that every of us is able to speak, and what is it that we can all distinguish, weep over, what is the figure we can with no overstatement maintain for ourselves; what is the key attend to of perception? The following confirms that:
His name was Tod Clifton, he believed in Brotherhood, he aroused our hopes and he died.”
It is necessary to mention here, that a very significant kind of independence in the writing is observed. So, there is a method for Negro writers to go at their matters, just as there are Jewish or Italian ways. Ralph Ellison has not accepted an alternative quality. If he had created the plot in this way, he would have not succeeded to state a true center-of-awareness for everybody.
Negro Harlem is at once archaic and complicated; it displays the extremes of nature and evolution as few other American societies do. If an author resides on the idiosyncrasy of this, he finishes with an unusual result. And Ralph Ellison is not exotic. For him this equilibrium of character and culture or evolution is not a Harlem substance; it is the issue, German, French, Russian, American, universal, an issue not understood clearly.
It is considered that black population and other minorities, kept under in the huge position encounter, are in the character basement of dark delight. This predictable delight aggravates jealous rage and assassinate; and then it is an outsized segment of human being character itself which turns out to be the deserter murderously followed. In our community ManHimselfis worshipped and openly reverenced, but the solitary personality must conceal himself underground and try to keep his / her wishes, his contemplations, his spirit, in invisibility. One must go back to himself, learning self-reception and refusing all that intimidates to divest him of one’s maturity.
This is what is made of Invisible Man. It is not by any means flawless; and the character’s practices in the Communist party are as innovative in beginning as other chapters of the book, and his love affair with a white lady is in general too short, but it is an enormously touching novel and it has immensity. This is displayed by the passage where:
to repress not only his emotions but his humanity… [to be] invisible, a walking personification of the Negative,… the mechanical man!”
Not all the gravediggers of the book have such difference as Valery’s, though, hardly. And it’s hard to think of them as rising confused from a degree of Stendhal, and then with angry willpower snatching their spades to go and pile more clods on the tomb. No, theirs regrettably isn’t often the dissatisfaction of strengths shaped under the impact of the masters. He labels a few really modern fiction authors, their work unluckily still unissued, and makes a condescending orientation to Invisible Man: almost, but not fairly, the real thing, it is uncooked and “assertive.”
They do not state what they consider; neither of this part nor of another on the same issue and in the same matter by John Aldridge, who denotes: There are only two educational receptacles left in the USA; and they are the Deep South and that region of northeastern United States whose ethical resources is Boston, Massachusetts. This is to note that these are the only locations where there are lots of conducts. In all additional segments of the state people exist in a type of greatly normalized educational desert, a type of inestimable Middle West and that denotes that they don’t actually exist and they don’t actually perform anything. The fact is it is clearly shown in the novel:
had a feeling that your people were somehow connected with my destiny. That what happened to you was connected with what would happen to me”
Thus most Americans are Invisible in accordance to the possible conclusion. Can people wonder at the unkindness of rulers when even a fictional critic, without rotating a hair, proclaims the death of a hundred million people? Let us presume that the narration is, as it is considered, played out. Let us just presume it, for it is not believed it.
This book was dissimilar from the others. Not unavoidably in topic issue, but in writing excellence.
And the text, that Ralph Ellison can make, emphasize that the words open up the page like Alice’s magnifying glass, and draw you into vision like the readers are there, and all the strange dreadful crap that occurs is moving you right in the room Early in the book there is a prospect where the character is asked to say a speech to a Chamber of Commerce meeting. It is one of the best scenes that can be ever undergone in any narration.
In conclusion it is necessary to emphasize, that Ralph Ellison is covering the same themes bases that Parks and Wright did, but unfortunately for the devoted readers it is the only book by him (published, at least).
Literature is an indispensable tool for the expression of the opinions harbored by humans on different people in society. Gender inequality is one such crucial component that is exhibited by literature and indicates the way human beings live their lives. The depiction of women as insignificant characters in some pieces of literature is obvious in the literature composed during the male-dominated ages. The female characters were treated with stereotypes and these obvious errors are displayed overwhelmingly by writers. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is an appropriate example of a book that portrays gender inequality through its various facets. The story is difficult to read during the current era when there is a push for gender equality.
The book portrays open discrimination towards women by the author through their mistreatment and unfair attitude. Despite the book being a depiction of social conditions during its writing, the plight of women during such a period cannot be ignored. Inequality and stigma are prevalent throughout the book and prove that the writer intentionally created literature that openly discriminates against women. Objectification of women, the lack of female names, gender-specific stereotypes, and marginalization of women indicate the gender insensitivity of the creators of this literature.
Gender Inequality
Objectification of women is widespread in the entire book where the author chooses to emphasize female sexuality instead of focus on the various facets that characterize women. At the beginning of the book, the author has a dream where he imagines a black woman being sold to another man. This emphasizes the fact that the writer views women as property that can be readily exchanged for financial gain. In another instance of demonstrating the supremacy of sexuality for women, the author elicits their influence during times of war. The writer denotes that the women who are sexually appealing and attractive are the most powerful and can achieve anything by seducing men. This makes one wonder whether the power held by women is entirely based on their sexuality instead of other facets that make men superior. This take propagates the popular stereotype that women cannot achieve any feat in life without kissing and sexually arousing men. Moreover, the writer himself almost joins the brotherhood under the charms of a woman, displaying the sexual appeal harbored by women. The novel indicates that without sexuality and appeal, women have no other avenue of convincing men.
Additionally, the attitude depicted by men that women are mere objects of sexual desire is a stereotype that focuses on sexuality at the expense of equality. The novel reveals that men are generally strong enough to pay for their sexual needs in women. They can compensate for their trouble of revealing their bodies to men for gratification using financial means. Men can look and feel the bodies of women in several ways before finally deciding they have had enough, paying and leaving them. This is a demeaning aspect of femininity and is in contrast with the modern ethos fought by feminism to enhance gender equality. In addition, men are seen to disregard attractive women for marriage as it is considered taboo (Ellison and Callahan, 2016). This is because such women are not viewed as home builders, which is all a woman was according to the author. This notion is propagated throughout the novel as the writer openly shares the dangers of marrying a sexually attractive woman.
Men are considered powerless in the face of female nudity as they squirm in anguish in the presence of a naked body. Women who are ready to take off their clothes are misrepresented as a weak and inconsequential group reliant on the mercies of men willing to pay to see them without clothes. It is almost guaranteed that without the mercies of the men interested in naked women, women would otherwise encounter financial collapse and ruin (Ellison and Callahan, 2016). This emphasizes the notions of total male dominance and superiority, ensuring the alienation of women.
While the author continues to minimize racial inequality throughout the novel, he gradually propagates gender inequality. This occurs through the deliberate elimination of the women in the story. The author denies the women’s identities and this shows his perception of this gender as a chief component of the main character’s story. When you deny a character a name you make them easily forgettable and generally dispensable (Ellison and Callahan, 2016). In such a state it is also difficult to consider the contribution of such a character to the story. The emission of female names downplays the roles of these characters in the development of the story and the eventual fate of the main characters. The insignificance of female characters in this regard indicates the author’s personal view of women in general.
The lack of identity is the feature of gender discriminative men in the world and is perfectly displayed in this way by the author. The denial of women’s contribution to the success of men hailed as great cannot be accepted. This propagates gender inequality and amounts to discrimination against women by men who feel the urge to control the world (Ellison and Callahan, 2016). The first step in ensuring the divide between men and women is addressed is ensuring the contributions of women are recognized. Recognition first involves mentioning them by names and conferring their identities so that a person can be attached alongside actions.
The dehumanization of female characters is obvious in the book despite the contributions made by women to the grand story of the main character. Within the novel, women are wise enough to remind the main characters about the risks and dangers they face. The women also remind the male characters about the consequences of their various actions, and their limitless freedoms (Ellison and Callahan, 2016). The author ignores this facet and instead chooses to focus on the sexuality of women. The crucial aspects in the book such as the wisdom of the women displayed above are downplayed in a manner suggestive of their insignificance.
The sexuality of women is given sufficient pomp and indicated to be the point of focus by the reader. It is difficult to sufficiently follow the actions undertaken by women through their wits and intellect within the book. The author makes deliberate efforts to mention such brilliant actions as mere passing whiffs instead of the master strokes that they were (Ellison and Callahan, 2016). This is dehumanizing for the female characters and propagates the place of gender inequality within the mind of the writer and the reader. It is ridiculous that the very things men get praise and recognition for are ignored in women in their entirety as though they do not exist.
Double invisibility is clear in the book as the writer makes deliberate efforts to display black women and white women in a different light. The main character considers black women and white women in different profiles throughout the story. The writer thinks that white women are sexually attractive and desirable for use by men willing to satisfy their sexual cravings. Black women on the other hand are regarded as nurturers by the writer. When the author meets Mary Rombo, there is a vivid description of how either race of women is viewed in the story (Ellison and Callahan, 2016). The writer sees Mary as a huge woman with a massive motherly disposition when he meets her. She helped the narrator during a difficult situation and enabled him to discover his charm and purpose.
In contrast, the author displays Sybil as a sexually desirable woman in the novel. When he meets her, she requests him to spend the night with her and fulfill her sexual desires (Ellison and Callahan, 2016). This displays the character of the white woman as a seductress and whore only capable of offering sexuality, without any possibility of a familial setup. The contrasting depictions of white and black women enable the author to propagate the tenets of racial discrimination and inequality. In both cases, women are not availed with the choice to make overwhelming persona identities without the involvement of men.
Marginalization of women is widespread within the novel and highlights racial discrimination further. Women are sidelined and their contributions are consequently downplayed by the author to fit specific agendas. Margination is clear in the case of Mary who is the only woman to come to the aid of the writer. She nurses him to health and enriches him with wisdom, life experiences, and knowledge in addition to the care offered (Ellison and Callahan, 2016). The author notes that Mary has provided the same care for several men before the main character of the novel, before setting them on their way. Such matters that display the obvious wisdom and thoughtfulness of Mary are ignored and her motherly instincts glorified instead. She is praised for enabling the author to get on his feet by taking care of him, downplaying the power that is inherent in women, including black women. The actions of the writer during marginalization ensured that women played no major role in the story and their actions were limited to minimal support of their male counterparts.
Conclusion
In summation, the evaluation of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is essential in painting a picture of the inequality experienced across the gender divide. The book displays discrimination of women by their male counterparts which has been a constant feature of human civilizations since time immemorial. The inability of the author to ensure the place of women is sufficiently guaranteed makes the story questionable and marginally inapplicable in an era of equality. The author discriminates against women by painting them as objects of sexual desire instead of human beings worthy of respect and admiration. The author also propagates the objectification of women within the story as they are sold as commodities to meet certain needs the men may have. Women were also stereotyped by the men by being assigned specific roles that downplayed their power. The author denies identities to the female characters within the story, ensuring their eventual elimination from the mind of the reader. The sexual worth of women is glorified above the things that make men outstanding within society. Men are praised for their intellect, wisdom, and strength while women are praised based on motherliness and sexuality.
Work Cited
Ellison, Ralph, and John F Callahan. Invisible Man. London, Penguin Books, 2016.
Ralph Ellison’s book Invisible Man is a story about a black man whose name is unknown to everyone. This young man from the South follows the deathbed warning of his grandfather not to comply with the wishes of white people which destroy the lives of black people. The narrator observes the manipulation of white people when he comes to the local men’s club to read his speech prepared for his high school graduation. He realizes the humiliation of reading this speech for white people. He is forced to fight with several black boys there while white people laugh at their pain. They are like animals for white people that are used for fun. The depiction of the life of a black man who fights for his rights covers the burning issues of American society.
There are three main motifs covered in the novel: motif of anger, betrayal and invisibility. The motif of anger is traced from the beginning of the novel when the narrator’s grandfather dies angry with himself that white people have manipulated him all his life and he has lived following their rules. The grandfather’s anger follows the narrator all his life. He remembers the wish of his grandfather not to give in to white people. The anger is also depicted when Dr. Bledsoe betrays the narrator and causes his failure. The narrator is also angry when he observes when white people throw the possessions of the old black couple into the street. Anger captures the narrator when he is charged with using the cause to further his importance having devoted himself to the Communist cause in Harlem. Later, the narrator leaves the Brotherhood because of their angry caused by the narrator’s willfulness. More than that, the narrator is angry when the Brotherhood sacrifices a lot of people for the sake of the future of the Brotherhood. Generally speaking, the anger is the integral part of this black man whose life costs nothing for white people. He is angry trying to prove that he has the same rights as white people.
The Invisible Man’s life is full of betrayals. He is betrayed by the ideals and people he trusts. All his life is disillusionment for the Invisible Man. At the beginning of the novel, the narrator is disappointed when he comes to the man’s club with the hope that his speech will be honored and appraised. He realizes that it means nothing to white people. All his actions are a sort of entertainment for them. Dr. Bledsoe accuses the narrator of the betrayal of his race when he has introduced the wealthy white man, Mr. Norton. Further on, the narrator is betrayed by Dr. Bledsoe when he makes the Invisible Man believe in the importance of his functions in the college. The narrator writes letters of recommendation believing that he really helps Dr. Bledsoe. In fact, it is the attempt of Dr. Bledsoe to get out from the narrator. Being a member of the Brotherhood, he is betrayed by one from this community. When he walks across Harlem he realizes the senseless of all his speeches which don’t make the life of people better. He feels guilty for the betrayal of these poor people. He promises to change their lives but in fact, he does nothing except talk. The Brotherhood betrays people believing that they make their lives better; instead of the promises which have been given before the Brotherhood donates the people’s lives in favor of the prosperity of the Brotherhood. Betrayal penetrates the life of the Invisible Man.
One of the most important motifs covered in Ellison’s novel is the motif of invisibility and blindness which is traced through the whole novel. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man shows blindness in a new perspective in order to capture the essence of reality and to relate back to the world to prove how blind all people really are. The narrator says: “They think we’re uncommonly blind…think about it, they’ve dispossessed us each of one eye from the day we’re born” (Ellison 343). The narrator accuses white people to be blind. Despite the control of white people over black ones, the narrator doesn’t give in to them saving his soul and staying the man he really is. He says: “I was my experiences and my experiences were me, and no blind men, no matter how powerful they became…could take that” (Ellison 508). The life of this black man is invisible to these blind white people. The metaphor of invisibility expresses the life of a black man attempting to accomplish his goals and the unwillingness of other people to notice him. As a long-distance runner, the invisible man can use it as an advantage and a disadvantage because of the obstacles placed in his path by a racist society that attempts to keep him in his place. The narrator says: “The white folk tells everybody what to think – except men like me” (Ellison 275). His life is a rebellion against the power of white people in society. He expresses his point of view in the following words: “Life is to be lived, not to be controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat” (Ellison 358).
Ralph Ellison’s novel covers the main problems of American society and the life of black people in this society. Their life is connected with anger, betrayal, blindness and invisibility. Ellison depicts a man who doesn’t subdue with his invisibility and rebels against the white people making them admit that he is also a man, a man like he really is.
Works Cited
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage, 1995. Print.
When reading the story “the Invisible Man”, what is immediately apparent is that the invisibility in question is not related to actual invisibility but rather a form of social invisibility wherein the inalienable and indivisible rights that should be accorded to all members of an equal society that are absent in the case of the black people within the novel.
The fact that the author never expressly mentions the real name of the narrator, who is the main character in the story, can actually be perceived as a way in which the author portrays the concept of a lack of social identity and acknowledged of not only whites to blacks but of the perceptions of blacks to themselves.
Perception
What must be understood is that to call someone by name is to acknowledge their existence; it is to encompass them into your world by virtue of awareness and as a result accord them a certain degree of “spatiality” in the way you perceive them in relation to everything else around you. By not naming a person you relegate them into the realm of “non-perception”. This is similar to the concept of knowing that air is around you yet never really consciously acknowledging the fact that is right there in front of your face.
The “invisibility” mentioned in the novel is, thus, a metaphor for the condition of African-Americans before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. They are there in the background but are never really acknowledged by the white majority; they are right there in front of their faces yet are not accorded the same rights and privileges as the whites, they are “invisible”.
Dual Nature of Characters
In fact, it can even be stated that the running theme within the novel is that it is a man’s search for identity and visibility within a predominantly white society that views him as being nothing more than a second class citizen.
Of particular interest within the novel is the sheer disambiguation between what the characters represent and what they actually are, for example, the founder of the university that the narrator attended supposedly rose up from slavery and plays the part of a pivotal role model for the author yet the famous speech of the founder is one of service and humility which in of itself promotes the idea among African Americans that it is their duty to forever be the servants of “the white man”.
Another example is seen in the case of the brotherhood wherein despite the fact that they supposedly fight for the rights of African Americans they are in fact, utilizing them as a means for their own political goals. In fact, the supposedly “invisible man” that the narrator represents is at times not so invisible in that he is often at the center of events of great visibility.
Taking this into consideration it can be assumed that the ambiguous nature of the characterizations wherein they are often revealed to be the complete opposite of who they are could be a metaphor for the dual nature of society at the time wherein on the surface they acknowledge African Americans but in reality will never consider them as being on the same level as whites.
Conclusion
From a certain perspective, it can be stated that the novel itself is an excellent example of the “black condition” that pervaded African American society before the 1960s. It is evidence of the hypocrisy of society and the way in which people are rendered “invisible” by virtue of a lack of acknowledgment.
In Ralph Ellison’s novel The Invisible Man, the protagonist narrates in the first person about his invisibility. He, as he refers to himself without considering his person a subject while being a real person, is made «of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids.» He describes how people around are looking through him. The problem is not with their physical eyes, meaning it is not something that does not allow them to perceive physically.
Only a few pages later, readers randomly find out that the narrator is spoken as of being black. The rest who look through him are characterized as white. In this way, the unexpected flow of expressively violent scenes pours light on an exceptionally sophisticated form of racist unification against which the protagonist will act. It is not a fact of physical absence but the social non-existence of an individual. To the question about his invisibility, the narrator replies that the nature of the vision of those who look through him has to be held responsible for this.
This is not a flaw in their physical vision and actual inability to perceive, but it is an internal prejudice that does not allow them to understand it the right way. The duality of the conflict between the main character and the world surrounding him is gradually unfolded with every step of the development of the book. Thus, with the sharp and aggressive sentences of the first-person narration, this prologue opens the story. The script is characterized by several particularly sophisticated forms of discrimination and humiliation against which the protagonist will fight throughout the novel. It takes a form of invisibility, namely, the suppression of the personality, which, obviously, deals not with physical absence, but with non-existence in a social sense. The demonstration of the latter explains why this story has such an importance for American and world culture.
Plot Summary
The story begins with the narrator’s reminiscence about his past life. He tells readers how he dreamed of becoming a renowned educator and orator. However, readers are quickly shown how the system is going to treat the narrator’s dreams as the humiliating procedure of receiving a scholarship to a specially designated state college is described in detail. The narrator then experiences a plethora of situations where he is disregarded, disrespected, and mistreated because of the color of his skin. He gets expelled from the college and goes North, where he eventually finds out that what he considered exceptional freedom turns out to be the same he saw in the South.
The author goes as far as putting the narrator through experiencing the consequences of explosion and being subjected to medical experiments by White doctors. This is acknowledged when the narrator gives an introspection of his life as being “based upon the fallacious assumption that I, like other men, was visible”, referring to his past worldview. Further life makes the narrator more and more disenfranchised and disillusioned about the social situation of his race.
However, despite the numerous misfortunes of his life, including being chased into a manhole by a furious mob, the narrator finds a way to ease his hatred and emotional pain. To do so, he uses writing, and as he entrusts paper with the story of his path, he feels that life is still worthy of living. Thus, the man rediscovers the fact that he loves living no matter what. The latter is an example of an excellent new way of perceiving life that is not based on superficial ideas of others, judgment, and prejudice.
Themes and Characters
The theme of racial injustice is the most vividly expressed theme of the entire book. The author shows how deeply it has rooted in the fabric of society. The perceived social invisibility of the protagonist is representative of the racial practices imposed on the African American community that are described by the author in his novel. The writer pictures the situation brightly and with striking accuracy because he was a witness of it during his lifetime. While it is obvious that social traditions such as segregation, discrimination, and similar are racist and, thus, absolutely unacceptable, the more important theme of the novel is not the description of the racial situation in the United States.
The topic of greater importance for the readers of all times and nations is the theme of one man’s journey to discovering self-identity. The main character serves the purpose of expressing that idea explicitly. In relation to this, the scene of the expulsion of the narrator from college has great importance as it functions as one of the most powerful triggers that move the character to step on a path of realization, which stems from the inability to understand southern mores.
The return of the narrator from the White culture to the cultural roots of his folk represents the evolution of his conscientiousness. This is the act of self-liberation of his true identity from the oppressive influence of the dominant racial discourse. As the character sets him free, Ellison here pushes the theme of Black identity in American literature, which strongly influenced future writers in their attempts to resolve this issue.
Opinion
In my opinion, Ellison’s warning to readers about the necessity of moderation, as it is depicted in the scenes of unrest in Harlem, was the most important idea. Despite the injustices, it is always crucial to stay away from violence or resentment and dedicate the efforts to something more productive. The latter I consider to be the second most valuable thought I derived from reading this book as it can be given to a person of any generation. If the piece of literature is capable of being useful through time, then it can be concluded that it is truly an art and is worthy of being a part of humanity’s cultural heritage.
Conclusion
The Invisible Man is one of the most powerful writings on the topics of racial justice ever written by any American writer. Its value is even greater as it provides readers with a valuable lesson on discovering one’s true identity and setting oneself free of the influence of the dominant culture. This idea is essential for modern culture as more and more people suffer from being unable to discover their true selves. Finding and establishing a meaningful connection with the cultural heritage of one’s people is presented by the author to be one of the ways to do so.
Bibliography
Banks, Joy. 2018. “Invisible Man: Examining the Intersectionality of Disability, Race, and Gender in an Urban Community.” Disability & Society 33, no. 6 (2018): 894-908. doi:10.1080/09687599.2018.1456912.
Ellison, Ralph, and John Callahan. Invisible Man. London: Penguin UK, 2016.
King, Lovalerie, and Linda F Selzer. New Essays on the African American Novel. New York: Springer, 2016.
Wang, Gaixia. “On The Construction of Self Identity in Invisible Man“. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research 87 (2017): 656-660. doi:10.2991/icemeet-16.2017.139.
There is quite a large number of works on racism in the USA in American literature. “The Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison is probably one of the most famous novels on this topic. The “Battle Royal” chapter in the novel brings rather controversial reactions and thoughts, due to its being a blend of relief for the main character, the shame for the abusive white society, and the pain for the very existence of racism, blackening the image of America during the whole history of the country.
The main character of the novel lives keeping in mind the words of his passed grandfather. Before dying he tells him to live on the verge, but win the sympathy and a certain kind of name in the white society by all possible means, as he is an African American. In the “Battle Royal” part we see the character struggling for the ability to say a word on the education for the Afro-Americans. The white society invents a very abusive and cruel kind of entertainment: they let the main character say his words only after winning the blindfolded fighting battle with other Afro-American young men. They promise the winner the scholarship at the University, and the young men have to fight for their aims and ideas. As a result, the character wins. He pronounces his motivational speech and gets the desired scholarship, for he believes that education is the only thing, which can make him be as respected as the rest of the white society. But the scholarship he gets is the irony and cruelty of the white people, as it gives him an opportunity to study at the University for the African Americas only (Ellison 35-60).
How did you react when the narrator received the scholarship? Did it make you feel any differently toward the town leaders?
The first emotion one can feel the moment he reads about winning the scholarship, is shame. It is rather shameful and disgusting to know that people can be so cruel for those, who are different only by their skin color. One has to feel the relief and admiration of a strong personality, which lets the main character go to his aim and win at last, but the relief does not come. On the contrary, the emotions are quite painful: we understand that he cannot win in the white society, and at the very beginning of the Battle Royal, he lost knowing nothing about it. There is also much sympathy and pity for such a plot twist, just because it is obvious that the main character has no ways to win at all, even struggling harder, for the society belongs to white people, and only they can establish its cruel rules.
What is the symbolism of “The Battle Royal,” Explain.
The novel is symbolic itself, but rather a large number of symbols can be observed exactly in the “Battle Royal” chapter. Among the strongest symbols, one could, probably mention the very notion of a blindfolded fight. Both parties are blindfolded in the American racist society under discussion: the white people are blindly hateful for others, whose only fault is looking another way; the African Americans are blind in their struggle for respect and equality, as they do not see how this discrimination can be avoided. Seemingly, the blind fight itself is also a symbol of following a dream of one’s life and doing everything, even if it contradicts the natural and human laws. It is also noteworthy, that the nameless status of the main character and other African Americans in the whole novel speaks much for the disrespect they have to endure in the racist society. And, of course, the scholarship the character gets is both the symbol and the disillusion for the reader. The moment one thinks that the main character reaches the passionately desired aim, every reader understands that it is just another kind of mockery over the situation, which has no way out (Fu 1-5).
Overall, “The Invisible Man” in general and the “Battle Royal” part in particular leave the reader in fusion. It is not possible to imagine that ordinary people can be so painfully cruel and fascist, sincerely thinking, it is the only possible way of behavior with the people of another skin color. Racism is one of the most shameful and unseemly displays of the human nature, together with the discrimination by any parameter. Thus, it is even more fearful that even knowing all the inadmissibility of such behavior, nowadays, people are still capable of it.
Fu, Meiling. “Black’s Survival Strategy: Tricksterism in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.” International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, vol 6, no. 2, 2017, pp. 1-5
Invisible Man is the famous novel by the American author Ralph Ellison. The novel represents the integral part of the American literature. Invisible Man plot has a symbolic meaning in its background and the definition of the “invisible” should not be understood in a straightforward way. The novel’s plot does not consist of any fantastic elements. Quite the opposite, it touches upon the real keen social problem of the American society of the XX century.
Invisible Man is devoted to the life of Afro-Americans in the United States. However, the author uncovers the problem a little bit differently from the typical literature works and speeches of the activists of that time. The narrator of the novel tells us that he is “invisible”.
However, it is not his physical stance. Rather, he feels this way because his existence is ignored by the society. He says that “when they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination — indeed, everything and anything except me” (Ellison n.pag.).
The “invisibility” to which he refers is caused by not his actions or behavior but rather by the attitude of people towards him. In his speech introduced in the Prologue, he tells us that he is invisible simply because people refuse to see him (Ellison n.pag.). The race discrimination of the Afro-Americans in the United States had been the urgent problem for decades. However, the authors like Ellison tried to shake people’s minds and to make them “see” the black people.
“The bewildered and nameless hero of “Invisible Man” longs desperately to achieve a personal success and to help his people. But his role as a man acted upon more often than acting, as a symbol of doubt, perplexity, betrayal and defeat, robs him of the individual identity of the people who play a part in his life” (Prescott par. 8).
In the “battle royal” episode, the example of the attitude of the white Americans to the black Americans can be seen.
“Blindfolded, the Negro boys stage a “battle royal,” a free-for-all in which they pummel each other to the drunken shouts of the whites. “Practical jokes,” humiliations, terrors–and then the boy delivers a prepared speech of gratitude to his white benefactors” (Howe par. 2).
The force which the white used towards the narrator is explained by the overall madness and blindness of the social minds. The narrator tells us that he fought “automatically” because everyone did (Ellison n.pag.). The “battle royal” episode shows us that the violence provokes further violence.
The episode of the meeting of the main character with Mr. Norton represents one of the most important elements of the plot. Mr. Norton is the wealthy Boston citizen and the sponsor of the college.
The narrator describes him as “a Bostonian, smoker of cigars, teller of polite Negro stories, shrewd banker, skilled scientist, director, philanthropist, forty years a bearer of the white man’s burden, and for sixty a symbol of the Great Traditions” (Ellison n.pag.). Mr. Norton is “blind” as he cannot see the real side of the life of the Afro-Americans in the United States.
Although he spends a lot of money for charity, his good actions do not yet tell about his world outlook. Mr. Norton is the successful well-educated person but he lives in the world the reality of which is far from the reality of the Afro-Americans. That is why he becomes the marionette in this situation. In fact, it becomes obvious that the amounts spent by Mr. Norton only contribute to the further discrimination and exploitation of the blacks.
In his talk with the main character of the novel, he tries to explain him his vision. However, it can be hardly done if he lacks the real understanding of the problem. He mentions that the fortune is pleasant but the main character, the “invisible man”, wonders how the fortune can be pleasant if his parents, grandparents and relatives experienced the hard way of life, so, the fortune is painful (Ellison n. pag.).
It is not surprising that they misunderstand each other. Mr. Norton belongs to the absolutely different social layer. It is hard for him to realize all the life troubles which the main character and the other blacks suffered. In spite of the fact that Mr. Norton is sincere, he is not able to help because he does not see the actual reality and the main character remains “invisible” to him.
In order to summarize all above mentioned, it should be said that Invisible Man is the outstanding work by Ralph Ellison. The metaphor of “invisible” is used by him to reflect the life of the Afro-Americans in the American society of the XX century. In the Prologue, the main character explains what it likes to be the “invisible” as he is seen by people’s eyes but not by their minds.
In the first chapter, “the battle royal” shows the attitude of the whites towards the blacks clearly representing the race stratification of the American society. In the following chapter, the character of Mr. Norton is introduced to the readers. Mr. Norton is another example of the person who cannot see the real life of the blacks, though he intends to make his own contribution to the overcoming of the social problems in the United States.