Shedding Fear in Invisible Man
Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison explores the issues of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness through the protagonist; Invisible Man. Invisible Man is not giving a name. Ellison explores how unalienable rights cannot be obtained without freedom from the obstacles in life - especially from one's own fears.
Several major characters affect the protagonist. One of the major characters is Dr. Bledsoe, who is the president of the school. Dr. Bledsoe had a major effect on the main character, because the Protagonist idolizes him. "He was every thing that I hope to be," (Ellison 99), but the Dr. Bledsoe degrades him when we says "Why, the dumbest black bastard in the cotton patch knows that the only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie" (Emerson 137) and calls him a Nigger. In addition, the Protagonist grandfather had a major effect on him.
The Protagonist's grandfather last word, "Live in the Lions mouth" (Ellison 16) has a lasting effect on him throughout most of the novel. Finally and most important, Ras the Destroyer, whom the Protagonist fears whom along with Dr. Bledsoe in a separate encountering calls him "a educated fool" (Ellison 140).
The first encounter of the Protagonist own fears is introduce when his grandfather' s tells the Protagonist to go against the white man by "overcome 'em with yeses" (Emerson 16). These words haunts the Protagonist when he is kicked out getting kicked out of college. When Dr. Bledsoe kicks him out of college, the Protagonist reflects on his grandfather last words "undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death^"(Emerson 16). For a moment, the Protagonist wonders if his grandfather might be right. Howev...
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...ld not let him rest. He states that "I'm an invisible man and it placed me in a hole- or showed me the hole I was in^."(Ellison Epilogue). This is an effective metaphor, because that is where life left him. As stated by a German Philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, "A snake that does not shed its skin will perish". The Protagonist realized he must shed his metaphorical skin of fear and denial of being a Negro in order to obtain his unalienable which are rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The freedom he obtains through shedding his skin is that he knows he is free to be himself without the fear of not being accepted.
Works Cited
Ellison, Ralph. The Invisible Man. New York, Vintage Books
Latu, Susan. School Web Site. 1998. Phillips,
Elizabeth C. "Monarch Notes" Ralph Ellison Invisible Man. New York, Monarch
Many papers seem to show good fortune for the narrator, but only provide false dreams. The narrator’s prize of a brief case containing his scholarship first illustrates this falsehood: “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” (32). The narrator is filled with joy from receiving his scholarship and brief case but subconsciously knows of the shallowness of the superintendent’s heart felt speech. Ellison shows this subconscious knowledge through the narrator’s dream of receiving a letter of deep and truthful meaning: “And I did and in it I found an engraved document containing a short message in letters of gold…” “To Whom It May Concern,” I intoned. “Keep This Nigger-Boy Running” (33). Even though it is just a dream, the white people actually do want to keep the narrator and his race running after false dreams.
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In Ellison’s book, The Invisible Man, the narrator confronts the challenges of becoming what society expects of him, and accepting his “Invisibility.” Although he contends with the stereotypes in the beginning stages of his journey, he discovers a way to thrive in lieu of his “Absence” in society.
The Liberty Paint Factory in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man provides the setting for a very significant chain of events in the novel. In addition, it provides many symbols which will influence a reader's interpretation. Some of those symbols are associated with the structure itself, with Mr. Kimbro, and with Mr. Lucius Brockway.
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Therefore, the theme of self-realization by relying solely upon one's self is developed. The type of self-reliance that is eventually displayed by the narrator is the same type of self-reliance exhibited by such blacks as Booker T. Washington. This is something for the reader to keep in mind when exploring the episodes in which the narrator is at college (it has never been proven, but many critics think that the founder of the college was Booker T. Washington.). Although the founder of the college never appears in the novel, his success story offers many parallels to Washington's
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