Motifs In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Invisible Man Motif Paper

The novel Invisible Man written by Ralph Ellison follows the journey of a black male struggling to find himself through his dreams and vivid flashbacks. Eventually, Invisible Man (IM) starts to become aware of the true problems of racism that he isn’t aware of. The most prevalent dream is that of his grandfather's last words, showing the narrator’s constant thought of the struggles he has to overcome. The idea of undermining blacks is seen throughout the entire novel with the dreams in the form of flashbacks and ‘real’ unreal scenarios such as battle royale, whereas it happened it wasn’t a part of the time period from the rest of the book. Dreaming brings the whole novel together by creating a false hope for Invisible man’s identity. IM thinks he can overcome the whites and all above him to be able to find himself.

His grandfather's last words replay in his head giving the sense of the role blacks have in society.

In the novel “Invisible Man” grandfather tells IM to put a fake bravado on, “to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death” (Ellison 16). The purpose of saying this is to set the place of blacks and where they stand, to be second hand to whites. The blacks have to conform to ideals of the whites, making it hard to be their own person. He realizes “all [his] life [he] had been looking for something,” he wasn't sure what it was yet “everywhere [he] turned someone tried to tell [him] what it was” (Ellison 15). He was thinking back and recounting his thoughts providing the knowledge that it has always been that way, blacks were supposed to just listen and accept what the whites say. It's hard for him to discover where he really stands for himself with people constantly telling him what's acceptable and not. The reality is he believed what they'd tell him he was looking for (they would tell him his

place).
Invisible Man’s dreams are not necessarily positive dreams, they are more considered illusions. For instance, when he refers to New York as being a dream. The world just is not of a great place for blacks the way he thinks it is. “New York...that’s not a place, it’s a dream” (Ellison 152). IM realized that even moving did not make anything better, that the racism was just as bad as the place he lived before. His grandfather continues to tell IM that white oppression does still exist in their world. IM believes that he has “grandfather's curse worrying [his] mind”(18), showing his words are  The whites think of black people as mere animals, that the blacks belong below them for entertainment purposes. The dream (flashback) of the Battle Royal depicts the struggle of finding himself because the way the whites control the blacks making them fight to entertain, no real purpose.
    IM has constant reminders from all he encounters in Harlem and his old dreams. It is important for IM to know that the actions towards black people haven’t changed and probably will not change. Trying to find yourself through dreams and vivid flashbacks aren’t always ideal. In this novel, the dreams are a portal to the thoughts of those who run society.