Invisibility In Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man

Invisibility for some is a boon but for others it is about losing their identity in the society. The concept of invisibility discussed in the book “The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison”, discusses two forms of invisibility. One is where whites view the blacks as different creatures and are invisible to their eyes in the form of humans who are equal in abilities to them. Another form of invisibility is where the narrator decides to adopt invisibility to recede power from the white community. Both forms of invisibility is still relevant in modern society Invisibility through, dominance/power, hatred/racism, and being afraid to express oneself are the forms of invisibility one can expect from this contemporary era.

Invisibility through dominance/power is the most significant problem in our society today. the greed for dominance and power in the society makes life attributes like love, passion, and affection for others invisible to people. Blinded by these effects, humans also become invisible to their eyes as they are obstacles to their goal. This is what causes the biggest disaster

that anyone can predict. Examples of this type of invisibility: Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, 2014 Peshawar School Attacks, 9/11 attacks, 2001 Gujarat Riots, Gaddafi’s Libya, ISIS in Middle East and others. These examples all have something in common and that is blindness to power and religion that makes others invisible much like the narrator was in the eyes of Brotherhood. The results of all these events marked the end of innocent citizens’ lives and helped established the goals of people who want power and dominance. People should instead indulge in helping others in need as it gives more power to people than to dominate and ruin their lives. In an article by Daily Mail, poverty is discussed as a big issue and shows the sad side of America where several children with their families are struggling to live. In a country like America where it is known for its riches the problem of poverty is invisible to others. The result of this invisibility is that people continue to live in poverty and struggle to make both ends meet. The cause for this type of invisibility is the urge by people to make more money and have more power over others and this makes them have no time to think about others. This later makes situations for poor people worse. Nowadays, however people have started to bring down the deficit between poor and rich through charitable organizations and have started donating at a regular basis. This helps a couple of poor families to live their lives to the fullest. People have started to realise the difficulties of others and are ready to help them in different ways. This helps in eliminating invisibility caused by blindness towards money and also the lives of poor people who have been invisible until now because of their life problems.
In addition to dominance and power, Invisibility still exists as a result of racism or hatred towards a particular race.

In the book Invisible Man, the narrator’s race was the reason why he was betrayed by almost everyone that he held trust upon. They wanted him to stay loyal to them and follow their orders rather than him coming up with ideas. He was just a tool in their toolbox of tricks to persuade the people to follow their ideals. Throughout the world racism has grown as a form of game even where people tease others for entertainment. One big example is the Holocaust where Adolf Hitler and his troops of Nazis set up camps to keep the Jews because they were just Jews. Several Jews died as a result and the ill -treatment of people started to become more popular around Germany. Germans started to find Jews and put them under gas chambers and torture them to death because they were

Jews.
Another form of invisibility is where people don’t have the courage to express themselves and this makes them invisible in front of several others. In High Schools, there are group of people who are shy and don’t really express themselves are invisible to others when a group of active and expressive people are seen together. In an article by BlogHer, a mother talks about how she found it rather hard to spot her child in between several active and expressive children. She almost felt as if her child was “invisible” to her. This is one of the major problems that surround students in high schools where their abilities are not brought out to the world because they are afraid of expressing it to others.
Invisibility is one of the major problems that is not discussed much in this world. The different forms of invisibility can be prevented if appropriate actions are taken.