The Dangers Of Blindness In Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man

As James Baldwin has expressed, “The state of birth, suffering, love and death are extreme states -extreme, universal, and inescapable. We all know this, but we would rather not know it”. Of course, motivation is only natural, but it causes us to have tunnel vision, and only set our targets on our desire. However, many do not remember, nor question the effects or occurrences of anything other than these desires; within this ignorance, lies the error. Many people would rather set their eyes on the prize than focus on reality and our present state. Such blindness and ignorance of realities will cause severe damage to one’s true self. An example, which proves this, is the protagonist of the novel, The Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, whose ambitions

Now, alone in New York and all of his faith in the hands of the same man who expelled him from college, he still remained with the same aspirations, not questioning any of his circumstances, nor searching for any answers within himself or others. Coming to terms with one’s true self is certainly something many people would rather avoid. “It is an issue [we] can only comfort by evading...” (Ellison, p.93) .This was exactly what the protagonist did. Ignorant to the fact that several people had been deceiving him through the entire situation. The only way he could remain content while reaching for the near impossible was to avoid his problems and avoid what his instinct, his true self, was trying to tell him. However, the main character was not the only person in the world who has lost substance within himself grasping at shadows (Aesop). In fact, Ellison addresses that many others also hurry along through a fog (Ellison,

Many people spend their time creating his/her image in order to get where they want to be, celebrities, politicians, public figures, etc., but never do they spend time trying to be themselves; Instead they suppress it. Yes, all of those examples are undeniably successful, but there is fault in their methods. They are suppressing their true selves in order to create a greater image and in the same moment in which we deny our true selves, we deny true happiness. Carolyn Gregoire reports that the rate of happiness continues to decrease in America, even though the economy is recovering (Happiness index). This means that although the general population seems to be recovering financially and statistically “improving”, their happiness rate is