Ralph Ellison Invisible Man

Written in a brilliant way, Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” captures the attention of the reader for its multi-layered perfection. The novel focuses an African American living in Harlem, New York. The novelist does not name his protagonist for a couple of reasons. One reason is to show his confusion of personal identity and the other to show he is “invisible”. Thus he becomes every Black American who is in search of their own identity. He is a true representative of the black community in America who is socially and psychologically dominated everywhere. The narrator is invisible to others because he is seen by the stereotypes rather than his true identity. He takes on several identities to find acceptance from his peers, but eventually

Several times the author alludes to the narrator’s naivety and ignorance of how he, as a black man, was viewed in society. The narrator first shows that he believes he makes his own decisions, when in reality he is manipulated by white men at the club, “Blindfolded, I could no longer control my motions.”(p.22). Moreover, he thinks that his perception of the world is clear and is confused at the lack of respect he is afforded, “I was unused to darkness.”(p.21). By foul actions of the men the narrator looked up to, his bright world is destroyed and all that is left is the darkness; a brutal realization of what it means to be black.

Racism was a harsh reality for African Americans after the American slave era and is a prominent theme in the short story “Battle Royal”. This story highlights how racism is not only a powerful tool used to keep people down but can also promote savagery. The author, Ralph Ellison, uses vivid imagery to depict the acts of savagery shown by both the slaves and the white crowd.

Ellison once said, “Our social mobility was strictly, and violently, limited” (German 2). The black society is portrayed in a special way in “Battle Royal.” The boxing ring of the Battle symbolizes the confinement of blacks in their society (German 2). The whites are always superior, and the blacks are constantly held back and left fighting. “The story’s title, ‘Battle Royal,’ suggests that the incidents described in the narrative are just one battle in the ongoing racial war” (Brent 2). There is constant controversy between whites and blacks, so far as it is described as a war. In the grandfather’s speech, he describes it as a war, and he states that he wants the narrator to “keep up the good fight.” He then explains how the narrator should do so; he orders him “Live with your head in the lion’s

essential to the reading of the narrator’s struggle with his own identity and how the black

Bledsoe believes himself to be superior merely because of the status he’s gained throughout the years and the control he has over the students at his school. To him, “white folks are always giving orders, it’s a bad habit with them.” (Ellison 108) Such feelings may be conceived because of previous experiences Ellison himself has had with people believing they live within a hierarchical society that cannot be toppled. In fact, Dr. Bledsoe intentionally attempts to hurt the narrator’s chances at work because he’s proven to be a liability within the agenda he’s made for his own idea of progression—the appeasement of the white folk. As the invisible man finally discovers the content of the letter which explicitly states, “...a former student of ours who has been expelled…”(Ellison 190) he realizes the corruptness of the society even only considering his own race. This leads him to not trust anyone that may have their own agenda fully and to carefully go through his work. For Ellison it got him, “thinking about how complicated American culture is, and how related it is to issues of race and ethnicity.” (Cargill) This culture is related to issues of race not only nationally but also within each community and shifts from location to

He is forced to fight at this “battle royale” as he calls it, and with a mouthful of blood delivers his speech. As he is coughing on his own blood, he accidentally switches the words “social responsibility” with “social equality,” infuriating the white men there. He hastily insists it was a mistake, and after all of that, he receives a scholarship to go to a black college. He rushes home so proud, and stands in front of his grandfather’s portrait, feeling triumphant (Ellison, 30-33). He followed his grandfather’s advice of doing as he was told, but at that point has yet to realizes why that makes him a traitor. As he is faced with more challenges and more racism the narrator begins to understand why simply doing what is wanted of him to get ahead is traitorous. At his college, the President is a black man named Dr. Bledsoe. This man has used servility to get ahead in life, and when faced with the narrator, rather than attempting to help another black man succeed, he purposely squanders his chances of success. At this point, the narrator begins to understand what it means to be a traitor to your race. After being sent away from school and sabotaged by Dr. Bledsoe, his perspective on people, racism, and his own identity begins to shift.

As the narrator’s grandfather explains, he has been “a traitor for all [his] born days, a spy in the enemy’s country” because internally, he has continued to resist, while externally remaining “the meekest of men” (1211). Meekness is not a weakness but a necessary survival mechanism for African Americans: direct action will lead to more restrictions, so they must comply to receive any opportunity possible of moving up in society. The narrator understands that his compliance “[is] really against the wishes of the white folk” who “[are] fooled” but feels conflicted about whether to act to their expectations or his own desires (1212). However, the white community is more aware of African American resistance than he believes and actively suppresses it through a combination of debasement and concessions. When the narrator accidently utters social equality, a citizen reminds him that “[he’s] got to know [his] place,” highlighting that the white citizens are not only aware of racial inequality but will not do anything to change it (1220).

Maryam Al Shammari Mrs. Carter-Salazar AP Literature and Composition 03 March 2024 Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man”: Invisibility Through Expectations Within his book, “Invisible Man,” Ralph Ellison contributes to the conversation around how race, power, and identity are interconnected. The book is a bildungsroman since it follows the journey of an African American man who discovers his invisibility; eventually, learning how to live with it. In addition to that, his journey of self-discovery taught him about the painful truths of society. Throughout the book, Ellison uses a motif of expectations, in order to convey concepts of race, power, and identity.

Maryam Al Shammari Mrs. Carter-Salazar AP Literature and Composition 03 March 2024 Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man”: Invisibility Through Expectations Within his book, “Invisible Man,” Ralph Ellison contributes to the conversation around how race, power, and identity are interconnected. The book is a bildungsroman since it follows the journey of an African American man who discovers his invisibility; eventually, learning how to live with it. In addition to that, his journey of self-discovery taught him about the painful truths of society. Throughout the book, Ellison uses a motif of expectations, in order to convey concepts of race, power, and identity.

The entertainment not only came from the black men fighting over coins, but little did the blacks know, the rug was electrified. The narrator tells us “I lunged for a yellow coin lying on the blue design of the carpet, touching it and sending a surprised shriek to join the rising around me. I tried to frantically to remove my hand but could not let go. A hot, violent force tore though my body, shaking me like wet rat. The rug was electrified.” (27). The white men make the narrator feel inferior to them by making him the course of their entertainment. They make him feel ashamed and worthless. His feeling of invisibility not only comes from the belittling remarks they make, and what he has to do, but also the thought that the whites have that much control over what he is doing.

In the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison the unnamed main character is at the fate of many adversities facing him. Not only does he find difficulty with discovering his own personal identity however, he lives in a racist society. He is also faced with the juggling act of trying to balance the challenge of how society want him to behave and uncovering who he really is. Faced with many different opinions on how black males should behave in society. The author demonstrates that because of underlying pressures existing in the society such

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

The Battle Royal established the relationship between white power, male power, and (hetero)sexual power, the ‘self-grounding presumptions’ of dominant subjectivity, as central to the narrator’s embrace of abjection. Furthermore, it equates these structures or power with the visibility of disempowered bodies. (Jarenski 89)

In this story he was a young black man who recently graduated from high school and was given an opportunity to giving a speech to the towns established white leaders. To him, this was a great opportunity for him to become visible in the eyes of whites. He had high hopes of gaining acceptance that in turn would lead to a brighter future. He had no idea that the humiliation that he would have to go through in order to fulfill this opportunity. When he arrived, he was told that in order for him to give his speech, he would have to take part in the entertainment known as the battle royal, by being blindfolded and put into a boxing ring with nine other black men that he had went to school with and beat each other to a pulp. During the battle, not only did he have to deal with being beat up, he also had to endure the racial slurs such as, "Let me at those black sonsabitches; I want to get at that ginger-colored nigger. Tear him limb from limb” (Ellison, 4), that came from the drunken white men that he was trying to gain acceptance from. Although they allowed him to give his speech, they continued to humiliate him throughout his speech. It is amazing the lengths that one would go through to obtain