Individual Identity In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

“What was I, a man or a natural resource?” (Ellison 303). Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man establishes the narrator’s struggle between the perception of himself and the attribution of his character to others, attempting to discover his true identity.

Ellison delineates the narrator as a bildungsroman, allowing the reader to see the development and growth of him as an individual throughout the novel. For a majority of the story the narrator is perceived as a naïve and inexperienced young man, always conforming to the beliefs of others and devoting himself to those superior to him (15). During his time in college, he serves as a compliant black man to Dr. Bledsoe and Mr. Norton in order to keep them content and gain their approval (143). When

he reaches New York, he joins the Brotherhood and agrees to be their black spokesperson, blindly enabling them to use him for their own benefit (309). His innocence and foolish respect for authority prove him incapable of forming his own opinions and cause him to misinterpret crucial events in the novel (311). The narrator’s vulnerability allows him to unknowingly maintain this image as an obedient African American and play different roles to satisfy those around him, unable to identify the deception and manipulation involved with each situation.
A key theme of the novel the author establishes is how racism acts as a hindrance to individual identity.

The narrator’s primary struggle is trying to find his own identity, and he finds this a somewhat difficult task to complete as a black man in a racist society. Throughout his experiences in Invisible Man, he realizes how each environment provided a different idea of how blacks should conduct themselves based on the preference of whites. He is constantly bombarded with different beliefs and values to advocate, making his attempt to define himself rather impossible (243). When the narrator gets hired at the Liberty Paints plant, the audience is able to infer that whites depend on and use blacks for their own financial success (216). When he joins the Brotherhood, he believes he will be able to achieve racial equality by supporting their ideology (306). However, following and adapting to their principles only helped the Brotherhood manipulate both the narrator and society around them for the personal triumph of whites. The narrator does not realize until it is too late that he was incessantly being used and looked at as an object of race rather than a human being, supporting Ellison’s emphasis on racial prejudice. Because he was continuously forced to play an unnatural role in society, he felt the only way to attain his own identity was to become

invisible.
Toward the end of Invisible Man, the narrator begins to grasp the sickening fact that he had been taken advantage of for an important part of his life. Symbolizing identity, Rinehart’s character helps him come to this realization. Rinehart possesses several unique personalities signifying a world of freedom and possibility, and this discovery made by the narrator causes a vital shift in the novel. “What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?” (266). The narrator becomes aware of the fact that others had control over his life, and does not like the inauthentic role he was being forced to play. He learns that his real identity is invisible to his surroundings, and in order to understand himself he must become completely separated from society. He goes into “hibernation,” attempting to go against racial stereotypes and embrace his new invisible identity, but realizes this would not have a major effect on society. He then decides to re-enter the world, fighting for the individuality of others and rendering free from these authorized roles placed upon them.
Throughout the novel, the narrator tries desperately to fit the stereotypes placed upon him by whites, but loses a part of him each time he changes.

The narrator portrays this lack of identity by becoming invisible, and purposely fails to ever mention his name in the novel. Because of this, the motif of identity in Invisible Man is paradoxical. The narrator explains that others refuse to recognize his existence, allowing his absence of identity to define the narrator. Identity plays a crucial role in the novel and relays the message that understanding one’s self, not the expectations society forces upon them, will lead to

success.