Ignorance In Invisible Man, By Ralph Ellison

People often say that ignorance is bliss, and that it can be used to justify indifference towards a subject. However, this unawareness leads to an unaccepting and blind mindset about the reality of the world. For example, in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man originally published in 1952, Ellison perpetually develops his main character, the narrator, as both invisible and blind. Ellison has the narrator constantly reach the edge of understanding his circumstances and finally learning how the prejudiced nation truly ignores him, until he is influenced by someone else and falls back into his blind state of mind. He slowly realizes how few people actually notice him, but he still strays from the path too much to understand. Ellison introduces several

characters to harmfully impact the narrator’s perspective and the way he views his world. Ellison also forces him into several unfortunate circumstances that he cannot escape from without mental scarring or emotional conflict. Over the course of the novel, the narrator is blind to what is clear to the audience: there lies a confliction between whether he is truly invisible and no one can see him, or if he is blind and cannot see through anyone else.
The narrator constantly ignores the truth, even when it is right in front of his eyes.

He sees the reality that’s there, but misses the big picture. He believes that if he follows everything a white man tells him to do, and if he listens to his superiors, then he will become a part of their successful community. He fails to understand that certain characters will stop at nothing to make sure that never happens. He first starts to realize his faulty faith when the vet is talking to him and Mr. Norton at the Golden Day. The vet’s monologue about how the narrator acts and worships really sets the bar for how oblivious and conditioned he truly is, the he “believes in [Mr. Norton] as he believes in the beat of his heart. He believes in that great false wisdom… that white is right. He’ll do your bidding, and for that is blindness is his chief asset” (Ellison 95). The narrator listens and starts to pick up on how his life is flawed by this belief in the total righteousness of the empowered few he knows. However, his doubts and realizations are pushed aside when he is persuaded by others that any inklings he has are simply wrong or unjustified, especially by those who do not have his best interests in

mind.
He is most commonly influenced by his college’s president and educational leader Dr. Bledsoe. The man attempts to shape and govern the entire student body with an iron fist. He constantly tries to seem like the better man; someone who rose out of poverty to power, only to serve those below him for the greater good. However, while the narrator is originally trusting of him, he soon realizes that he is not who he acts like. This is especially noticeable during chapter five, when Ellison paints him to quite the humble man in his mannerisms. Here, the narrator eventually notices that Dr. Bledsoe is not exactly the same person on the outside as on the inside such as when he notes, “...despite the posture of humility and meekness which made him seem smaller than the others… Dr. Bledsoe made his presence felt by us with a far greater impact” (Ellison 115). Here, the man lies outwardly by wearing a mask to hide his true identity; a mask that covers his true intentions and power, by covering his greed and pride with sense of meekness and feebleness. Later on, Dr. Bledsoe tries to preach the hope of progress for the black race to the narrator, and how he helps to kindle the movement, while still managing to put himself above the others. In all reality, the character is the exact opposite of progress, trying to enforce his tyrannical rule with unjust and opinionated conduct. In this sense, his character is also blind, as he fails to see the progress his race is making regardless of his actions. He is also blind to the narrator’s true intentions, just as the narrator is blind to Bledsoe’s cold heart. The narrator does in fact plan on advancing in society like Dr. Bledsoe himself. Either way, both characters are metaphorically blind just as Bledsoe’s friend Barbee is physically blind.
Ellison portrays blindness and ignorance in several ways throughout the story.

The narrator is blind to the prejudice of society down in his southern roots, while he is completely shocked to find that all of the north society is blind to even him. Therefore, in more ways than one, the narrator is both blind and invisible. He is blind to change and progress. He does not seem to understand how he is nothing but an insubordinate number on a page to Dr. Bledsoe. He does not seem to understand why no one in New York notices him, and is even taken aback by how “they paid him no attention” (Ellison 160). Overall, society is blind to his existence once he actually gets out there in the real world. All the while the narrator himself is oblivious to the true nature of the world around him. He frequently stretches out to the cusp of discovering who he is and what his purpose his, but right when he is about to fully understand everything, something holds him back. He goes through this fluctuating process several times. Roger Ellison does a fantastic job of developing this idea of blindness around the entire novel. As much as the title protagonist is an invisible man, he is also very much a lost and ignorant man, a blind

man.