Invisibl Man Analysis Essay, Research Paper

James B. Lane s article Underground to manhood: Ralph Ellison s Invisible Man has many important points. All of these points connect to the theme of the Invisible Man , the search for the identity. The article discusses such issues as Ellison s use of symbolism in the novel and what it represents to the invisible man, Ellison s fundamental assumption of the problem, which leads the main character to the new understanding of the world, and invisible man s values and how these values helped to find his identity.

One of the James Lane s points is that Ellison used the imagery of dreams and sight to demonstrate the degree to which racism blinded blacks to reality (Lane, 2). The invisible man had a crazy grandfather who influenced him for the whole life. The grandfather once told his grandson about a dream in which he carried a briefcase of letters, the last one of which said Keep This Nigger-Boy Running (19). Later in life invisible man was expelled from college and sent to New York with seven letters to help him find a job. But soon the invisible man discovered that the principal of his school had betrayed him by sending him to New York with no return. He betrayed him by writing the letters that said Keep this nigger-boy running (19). The letters were a realization of his grandfather s nightmare, and the realization of the race against him.

Another one of the James B. Lane s arguments is that Ellison s fundamental assumption in Invisible Man was that black people became recognizable only when they suppressed their real self and conformed to emasculating parodies of the white man s self-contradictory image of them (Lane, 2). White Americans could only see African Americans as a group. No one cared to take notice in individuals, it was as all of the African Americans were the same, all of them were uneducated, dirty, and had only certain jobs. It was almost impossible to make white people see through the color of the skin and stereotypes. To change this black people had to become different, become more like whites, but to do so black people had to suppress their real selves. They had to lose their identity and find a new one. But the invisible man thought he could help to change this chaos. He thought that the Brotherhood could see beyond the color of the skin and race. But later in the novel he realized that he was betrayed once more, that he was a marionette in hands of the Brotherhood. He was invisible to the Brotherhood and they used him not to let black community urbanize.

Also James B. Lane discusses values that were important to the invisible man. Invisibility, education, and his grandfather s advice influenced invisible man the most in search for his identity.

Throughout the whole novel the invisible man felt like he was unseen by white people. But only towards the end of the novel, he began to value his invisibility. He first began to grasp the value of invisibility when he said “I was and yet I was invisible, that was the fundamental contradiction. I was and yet I was unseen. It was frightening and as I sat there I sensed another frightening world of possibilities”(499) He said this when he took on the identity of Rinehart. He began to realize that “It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen”(499). Not only is he entertained with people mistaking his identity, but it allowed him to slip by Ras the Exhorter unnoticed. Next, invisibility ended up saving his life in the riots, as he thinks “I felt myself plunge down….a long drop that ended upon a load of black coal…..I lay in the black dark upon the black coal no longer running, hiding or concerned (566). He ran away and fell through a hole. He was now literally invisible to everyone, allowing him to escape.

Another value that invisible man found very important was education. His education first brought him briefcase, when the superintendent rewarded him for his success, saying “Take this prize and keep it well. Consider it a badge of office. Prize it. Keep developing as you are and some day it will be filled with important papers that will help shape the destiny of your people”() The narrator treasures the briefcase so much because it symbolizes his education. He carries it throughout the whole novel, and it is the only object he took into the cellar from his former life.

The advice that invisible man received from his grandfather is the most significant of his values. The advice of his grandfather states “Son, after I’m gone I want you to keep up the good fight… Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open (16). This advice had troubled the invisible man since his grandfather died, because he could never understand the full meaning of it. But after the Brotherhood betrayed him, he was able to believe and accept these words. This advice made him rethink his ideas and acquire a new plan. He decided to overthrow the Brotherhood, pretending to be loyal to them. At last, grandfather s advice had the greatest impact on the invisible man, as his understanding of it completes his search for self-identity.

One of the issues that James B. Lane did not discuss thoroughly is the inner eye, but in the invisible man s description of what made an invisible man, he pointed out that the fault lied in the beholder and is a problem with the construction of the beholder’s inner eye. “A matter of the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality”(3). The experiences and conflicts the invisible man endured all refer back to the inner eyes of the people he encountered. These inner eyes only saw the surface of others and nothing deeper.

The way a person was raised reflects on how he or she looks at people and the world around. If a child was raised in a racist family, he is more likely to adopt similar views. The invisible man lived in a very superficial world. He was judged throughout his entire life by the color of his skin. “‘But don’t you think he should be a little blacker,’ asked Emma”(303)? People didn’t look deeper than the surface of the skin during those times. This had a big impact on the invisible man s search for identity. Later he realized that he was invisible to white people.

Professor James B. Lane s essay Underground To Manhood: Ralph Ellison s Invisible Man is a precise summary and analysis of the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Lane s article discusses the theme of the novel, the search for the identity. It explains the meanings of the most important symbols in the novel and states invisible man s important values, which helped to shape his identity.

Bibliography

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.

Lane, James B. Underground to Manhood: Ralph Ellison s Invisible Man. America Online. 20 mar. 2001. Keyword: Invisible Man Identity.