Metaphors In The Invisible Man

Many people are invisible to society, not literally, but metaphorically. People are perceived by their race, gender, religion, social status, and many other differences. They aren’t seen for who they are on the inside and what they actually have to contribute to society. The Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison is a story about a man of African American race who wants to be seen for who he is and not his race. The whole book is full of symbolism and metaphors about being invisible to society, inequality, the difficulty for blacks to earn money, and how the blacks are controlled by whites. All of which relates to stereotypes in society.

In the book, the protagonist describes himself as being literally invisible to people, even though he isn’t. He never says his real name and is never given one throughout the entirety of the book. The metaphor behind the protagonists invisibility is that his physical body isn't invisible to others, but who he is as a person is invisible to society. The color of his skin makes him invisible to others. He wants people to see him for who he is and not because of the color of his skin.

Another example from the book is, a toy of a black person that stores change at Mary’s house.

The toy has prominent, big, red lips that quarters can be inserted through. When the quarters are collected by the black figurine it becomes joyful, this is a form of symbolism because even though it only gets quarters as a reward it still has to act happy. This reminded him alot of what his grandfather had told him, to fake a smile. The protagonist did not want to move forward with life by just having to fake a smile, so he disliked this toy very much. He would always try and break it to get rid of it, but everytime it is returned back to him. This is another symbol showing how blacks can't get rid of

inequality.
In another scenario, the protagonist, along with three other boys, are blindfolded and told if they pick up change off the floor they can keep it. On the other hand, there is a catch. The floor is electric, making it hard for them to get the money. This is symbolic because it shows how hard African Americans have to work just to get a little amount of money.
Another good example of symbolism is seen in the doll named Sambo. The paper doll on black strings, which he keeps to put into his brief case, is being puppeteered by a white man who is trying to sell them to a watching crowd. The seller tells the crowd that by purchasing one of the black paper dolls, it will bring them joy. This is symbolic because it shows how white men can just control black people. It also shows how black people have been taken advantage of for white people's entertainment.
Towards the end of the book the protagonist begins to burn everything he has within his briefcase to light up the sewer he was sleeping in that night. Items included the black paper doll, an anonymous threat letter, a paper with a name he was given by Jack Brotherhoods, andddd… While burning everything he realizes that the handwriting in the anonymous threat letter was the same on the piece of paper that Jack gave him with a name for him. The protagonist goes to sleep that same night thinking about Jack, Emerson, Bledsoe, Norton, and Ras, which all have deprived him from reaching success. This scene was symbolic because everything in his bag is everything he has and represents who he is. It is everything that has prevented him from succeeding and burning all of it symbolizes that fact that he is moving on from it all.