Analysis Of Ralph Ellison 's ' Flying Home And His Other Writings '

Racism is an issue that blacks face, and have faced throughout history directly and indirectly. Ralph Ellison has done a great job in demonstrating the effects of racism on individual identity through a black narrator. Throughout the story, Ellison provides several examples of what the narrator faced in trying to make his-self visible and acceptable in the white culture. Ellison engages the reader so deeply in the occurrences through the narrator’s agony, confusion, and ambiguity. In order to understand the narrators plight, and to see things through his eyes, it is important to understand that main characters of the story which contributes to his plight as well as the era in which the story takes place.

In Brian Copeland’s memoir, “Not a Genuine Black Man: My Life as an Outsider”, he vividly shares to what kind of racism and treatment that he and his family have gone through in a white community in San Leandro, CA during the 70’s. Through an ethnic studies lens, we can see clearly that indeed, the treatment of most Americans or “whites” toward African-American or “blacks” are hostile. There’s an invisible gap between two races, and Being an African-American

In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B DuBois pioneers two concepts that describe the Black experience in America— the notions of “the veil” and “double-consciousness.” The meaning and implication of these words not only describe the plight of being Black and American then, it also refers to what it means to still be Black and American today – the remnants of the past live on. DuBois explains the veil concept in reference to three things: the literal darker skin of Blacks, which is the physical demarcation of the difference from whiteness, white people’s lack of clarity in order to see Blacks as “true” Americans, and lastly Blacks’ lack of clarity to see themselves outside of what white America prescribes for them. The idea of double consciousness refers to the two-ness, caused by our nations flawed and polarized system, felt by many Blacks. I argue that although DuBois was the first to coin these two terms, it is clear through analyzing Uncle Tom’s Cabin and 12 Years a Slave that these two significant concepts gave a name to what African-Americans had been feeling for years but previously could not define.

This drama recollects the personal feelings of African-American pilots that were active in the second World War – feelings of social inequality, abuse, and neglect. These issues quickly become apparent in the film. At the beginning, the main character, Hannibal Lee(actor Laurence Fishburne) boards a train that is heading to Tuskegee, Alabama. Shortly after boarding the train, he is forcibly removed from the train so that German prisoners of war can board. The social injustice present is horrifying, and is only intensified when viewers realize that Hannibal is on the train so that he can serve in the USAAF. Continuing on in the film, the flight cadets have to retake a flight exam because the presiding officer thought that they cheated on their original exam. Multiple times they are insulted with racial slurs. Hannibal and his cadet acquaintances work hard at flight school, and eventually are seen as accredited – however, there is still resentment from white officers. Upon graduation, these pilots are sent to North African to do ground attack missions. It is during this time that the skills of these pilots are not only tested, but also questioned. Officials in the United States began wondering if the allowance of African-American in the role of a pilot was the best idea. Again, social inequality flared up to life again. Nevertheless, these pilots

The life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination… the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land (qtd. in W.T.L. 235).

Howard Thurman removes the window dressing in the African American experience of segregation in America. Thurman in his book, “The Luminous Darkness” paints an obscure portrait that delved deep into the consciousness of Black men, women and children freshly freed from chattel slavery. Two hundred years of slavery and one hundred years of darkness seeping into each soul perpetuated by an evil explained only through the Word of God. Although this book was published in the 60’s, the stigma segregation continues resonate in the souls of those who remember and perhaps even in the souls of those who do not.

Evans, Louwanda, and Joe Feagin. "Middle-Class African American Pilots: The Continuing Significance of Racism." American Behavioral Scientist, 56.5 (2012): 650-665.

Being a minority in America was burdensome, especially after the events of 9/11. In Sherman Alexie’s short story “Flight Patterns”, these burdens are exemplified through a fictional story of a man of color, or to be more specific, a Native American. This character’s name is William. William is a workaholic businessman whose job requires him to constantly take flights to different locations. Throughout the story, we see the life of a minority through William’s eyes as he wakes up to take another flight and complete his daily routine. On the way to the airport, William takes a taxi cab that will forever change his life and perspective of the world. This journey helps to define the main conflict of the story; the racism and preconceptions of skin color in the society of America and how it affects the lives and self identity of these minorities as well as the wish of many minorities to fulfill their American dream and the inner conflict that the main protagonist goes through.

The native Africans' heritage and way of life were forever altered by the white slave drivers who took them into captivity in the 18th century. Along with their freedom, slaves were also robbed of their culture and consequently their identities. They became property instead of people, leaving them at the hands of merciless slave owners. Their quest to reclaim their stolen identities was a long and difficult struggle, especially in the years following the Civil War and the subsequent release of their people from bondage. In Ralph Ellison's 1948 short story "Battle Royal," he uses the point of view of a young black man living in the south to convey the theme of racial identity crisis that faced African Americans in the United States

Throughout all of the history of the United States of America, race has been a prevailing issue. Although the ways in which racism presented itself has changed, the prevalence of the problem has not. Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man does an excellent job of allowing some insight into the way racism has and still does impact the life and self identity of affected individuals. In this book, the narrator is faced with the challenges that come with being an African American in mid 1900s. The struggle first becomes something the narrator is aware of when his grandfather utters some troubling advice on his deathbed. He said in order to succeed in a white man’s world, you have to

In the play Fly, a narrative about the Airmen, they discussed the story of a white officer who wrote an essay with false data claiming the low intelligence of African Americans. In fact, military officers widely expected the Tuskegee Experiment to be a failure. The military officers in Fly represented the cruel and prejudice officers overseeing the Tuskegee program. Over 65% of the African American trainees were washed out for any minor infraction. When the Airmen passed the rigorous and unfair training program with flying colors, they solidified their rightful place amongst white pilots. The play Fly recounts the moment during WWII when the Airmen escorted a white-piloted bomber jet to safety. The pilots of the bomber were extremely surprised to realize that their protectors were actually African Americans. Once again, the Airmen proved their competence despite their race. The Tuskegee Airmen’s triumph was indisputable proof that African Americans were equal in intellect to their white peers, further inspiring the civil rights

W.E.B. Du Bois writes a collection of essays on race, preferably the African American race, entitled The Souls of Black Folks. In the forethought, Du Bois lets the reader know gather together an introduction of the rest of the book. He introduces you to his concept of “the veil” Drawing from his own personal experiences, Du Bois develops a remarkable book on how the world is divided by a color line. The divide being between white and privileged, and black and controlled. I will attempt to break down the thought process of Du Bois during the entirety of this synopsis of chapters 1, 3, and 6.

   I am an invisible man. With these five words, Ralph Ellison ignited the literary world with a work that commanded the respect of scholars everywhere and opened the floodgates for dialogue about the role of African-Americans in American society, the blindness that drove the nation to prejudice, and racial pluralism as a forum for recognizing the interconnection between all members of society regardless of race.

Power binaries are a prevalent feature in all societies, past and present. One group in power holds the position at the top of the binary and, in doing so, pushes those who do not fit into the group to the bottom, socially and politically powerless. During the 1930’s in America, the most significant binary was the division between whites and people of color, specifically African Americans. (“Historical Context: Invisible Man”). Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man explores this time period through the story of an unnamed narrator struggling to find his individual identity as a young black man in a world that is constantly holding him down. The trials and tribulations the narrator endures and the people he encounters on his journey exemplify how the imbalanced power structure of a racist society will not truly allow even successful people of color to obtain substantial power unless they twist the definition of power itself.

   In the early twentieth century black American writers started employing modernist ways of argumentation to come up with possible answers to the race question. Two of the most outstanding figures of them on both, the literary and the political level, were Richard Wright, the "most important voice in black American literature for the first half of the twentieth century" (Norton, 548) and his contemporary Ralph Ellison, "one of the most footnoted writers in American literary history" (Norton, 700). In this paper I want to compare Wright's autobiography "Black Boy" with Ellison's novel "Invisible Man" and, in doing so, assess the effectiveness of their conclusions.