Ms.

Richard
English 11 Honors A3
27 March 2013

Invisible Man, the protagonist of Ralph Ellisons novel titled Invisible Man, struggles to
come to terms with his identity as he travels from the south to Harlem. The story begins in a
pothole and he proceeds to explain how he ended up in that situation. The journey takes him
from Bledsoes college, to liberty paint, to the Brotherhood, to a pothole in the middle of
Harlem. The novel depicts how the racism throughout the country affects the self esteem of
blacks. Growing up in the Deep South, as a child, Invisible man stood out as an elaborate and
quick thinking speaker. These qualities made him stand out to the rich white people of the town
enough to get him a scholarship to college. The battle royal is one of the most dramatic scenes in
the book showing the black men are forcefully degraded into what white people viewed as
animals. After a series of events he joins the Brotherhood which makes him feel renewed and he
takes on another identity, the identity given to him by the Brotherhood. After the brotherhood
betrays him he finally finds himself and comes to a conclusion that he is in fact an invisible man.
In Ralph Ellisons novel, Invisible Man, racism fosters the feeling of invisibility for African
Americans through the use of irony and symbolism of the sambo doll, the battle royal, and
liberty paint.
Racism has been a burden that America has fostered since its beginnings. From north to
south, east to west, for slavery to liberation African Americans have suffered discrimination
from whites. The narrator states I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I
am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed. About eighty-five years ago
they were told that they were free, united with others of our country in everything pertaining to
the common good, and, in everything social, separate from the fingers of the hand. And they
believed it. They exulted in it. They stayed in their place, worked hard, and brought up by my
father to do the same (Ellison 15). The narrator explains to us that freed slaves were told they
were free in every aspect of their life, although this was not true. After freedom from slavery,
blacks were still kept very separate from the rest of society. Unfortunately, the narrator's
grandparents bought into the promise of true freedom and raised his father to do the same.
During a speech the narrator mistakenly says something about racial equality and the whites
dont seem to take it very well You werent being smart, were you, boy? he said, not unkindly.
No, sir! You sure that bit about equality was a mistake?(Ellison 31). This quote is a
portrayal of how the whites in the south did not promote racial equality, nor did they even try to
hear it. The racial division if the characters was quite obvious, and probably intentional on the
part of the author to facilitate an easy comparison/contrast of the traits of black and white
characters in the novel (Krakue 1). In this criticism, Krakue suggests that the racial division of
black and white characters was drastic.

The narrator, the invisible man, blatantly struggled with his identity and invisibility
throughout the novel. His struggle is shown when he states Who the hell am I?(Ellison 386).
This question seemed to puzzle the invisible man. Also, shown when then narrator says Or
again, you often doubt if you really exist. You wonder whether you arent simply a phantom in
other peoples minds. Say, a figure in a nightmare which the sleeper tries with all his strength to
destroy. Its when you feel like this that out of resentment; you begin to bump people back. And,
let me confess, you feel that way most of the time. You ache with the need to convince yourself
that you do exist in the real world, that youre a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike
out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And alas, its seldom
successful (Ellison 4). The narrator feels empty and furthermore invisible. He believes that a
large part on someones identity is created by others perceptions of them and without others
perception of whom he is, he (narrator) feels lost. People dont usually recognize the narrator for
anything but in this quote from the novel the vet from Golden Day is speaking to Mr. Norton
about the narrator. He registers with his senses but short-circuits his brain. Nothing has
meaning. He takes it in but he doesnt digest it. Already he iswell, blesses my soul! Behold! A
walking zombie! Already hes learned to repress not only his emotions but his humanity. Hes
invisible, a walking personification of the negative, and the most perfect achievement of your
dreams sir! The mechanical man! (Ellison 94). The vet is the first person to call the narrator
invisible, ridiculing him for being exactly what white people at the time expect black people to
be. Critic Dykema-Vanderark states He is invisible not from ant lack of physicality or
intelligence but because of a willed action of those around him, simply because people refuse to
see [him] (Dykema-Vanderark 1). Dykema is stating that the narrator is only invisible
because of ignorance of whites , who do not and will not recognize him as equal people. When
the narrator joined the Brotherhood he finally felt acknowledged, the brotherhood made the
narrator feel reborn , he takes on a new identity when he joins. That is your new name, Brother
Jack said. Start thinking of yourself by that name from this moment. Get it down so the even if
you are called in the middle of the night you will respond. Very soon you shall be known all over
the country. You are to answer to no other, understand? (Ellison 309). Although the narrators
name wasnt revealed throughout the novel, he was assigned a new one by the brotherhood. To
the leaders like jack and tobitt the narrator is the speaker and r brotherhood designed him to be.
Critic Dykema-Vander ark states He is a boy and a nigger to the white citizens of his town
[and] little more than a laboratory animal to the doctors in the factory hospital(Dykema-
Vanderark 1). Dykema is stating that until he joined the Brotherhood the narrator was nothing
but derogatory terms to white people, and he was not thought of as equal.

Several symbols emerge throughout the course of the novel. The sambo dolls that
Clifton sold were modeled after black slaves. Clifton was putting on a show for the crowd and at
first the dolls looked they were moving by themselves but he realized Clifton controlled the doll
with a thin black string that no one but the narrator could see. It was Clifton , riding easily back
and forth in his knees, flexing his legs without shifting his feet, his right shoulder raised at an
angle and his arm pointing stiffly at the bouncing doll as he spieled from the corner of his
mouth(Ellison 433). In this quote the narrator had noticed Cliftons trick and was angered. The
sambo doll symbolized how blacks were used for white entertainment. It also symbolizes how
the brotherhood manipulated both Clifton and the narrator. In the battle royal the narrator is
forced to fight for a scholarship from the white elites in his town. Critic German states In [the]
Battle Royal the boxing ring symbolizes the blacks being socially confined (German 2).
German is stating that the battle royal represents the reduced level of blacks in society. To
Whom It May Concern, I intoned. Keep This Nigger-Boy Running (Ellison 33). The narrator
dreamed that the scholarship they gave to him for the all Negro college was really another way
for whites to keep him running in place that a college education wont really change a lot in his
life. Another symbol in the novel was Liberty paints paint. Liberty Paint Company boasted of its
superior white paint symbolizing white supremacy arguments he brags Our white is so white
you can paint a chunka coal and youd have to crack it open with a sledge hammer to prove it
wasnt white clear through (217). The paint is named Optic White, the process of making the
paint required using dead black and various dark colors to make the pure white paint
symbolizing invisible man dissolving and becoming nonexistent [invisible] in the white society.

In Ralph Ellisons novel, Invisible Man, the feeling of invisibility by African Americans
as a result of racism is shown through the themes of racism and identity and the symbolism of
the sambo doll, liberty paint, and the battle royal. Throughout the novel invisible man struggles
to find his identity from the south in Bledsoes college, to the streets of Harlem only to find that
he was invisible in the white society .The story of the invisible describes the hardship and reality
to many African Americans. The novel implies that we live in a society divided by race and
ethnicity, that a persons life is heavily dependent upon these boundaries. The storys theme is
that racism makes people, mainly African Americans, feel invisible compared to their superior
counterparts, but invisible man learned to accept and embrace his invisibility as the story ends.
This ideology is similar to that of Booker T. Washington who believed that the whites would not
help the blacks; therefore they had to fend for themselves. Washington was for segregation only
so that blacks could build themselves into a self sufficient politically , economically and socially
powerful race. Critic Dykema-Vanderark writes Only after seeing this composite picture of his
past does the narrator recognize not only his invisibility but also the great potentialities and
possibilities that exist in spite of that invisibility (Dykema-Vanderark 3). This proves my
statement that he learned to embrace his invisibility despite his trials and tribulations. The racist
society the invisible man lived in caused him to feel invisible and made him journey to find his
identity or himself. In the end or beginning he came to the conclusion that I am an invisible
man (Ellison 3).