Invisible Man

Ellison's book, Invisible Man was written in the 1930s. It deals with the identity of a black man in white America. The narrator writes in first person, emphasizing his individual experience and events portrayed; though the narrator and the main character remain anonymous throughout the book, they go by the name Invisible Man. The character decides that the world is full of blind people and sleep walkers who cannot see him for who he really is, thus he calls himself the Invisible Man, though he is not truly invisible, it is just a refusal for others to see him. Through a long and frustrating search, the Invisible Man hopes to answer questions that may be unanswerable. The search begins with his desire to attend college. Education represented on opportunity to escape ignorance and poverty. The ability to attend the Negro college comes to him through hard work. As valedictorian of his high school class he receives a scholarship. Invisibility, in the story, is looked upon as a bad thing. While the Invisible Man thinks optimistically and uses his invisibility as a way to undermine people, or society. Though invisibility can not allow you to be powerful or have power of your own, it can bring you freedom, to allow you to go and do whatever it is that you may chose. One person becomes invisible because someone is blind. He should have thought of that at the beginning of his search so that he might have known that no one is ever truly visible to everyone. Ellison uses every aspect of his novel to emphasize his intentions. The novel takes place in early 20th century in a racist-filled Eastern United States. The racism is evident throughout the novel, in the south where the narrator enrolls to college. White men and women influence the black-only college in which the narrator initially resides. Invisible Man, reveals the truth that American society willfully ignores African Americans. Ellison uses the vocabulary of a learned man, to portray the extravagant experiences of the main character. The novel was one of first books to openly state and describe the racial problems in the United States from a black American's point of view. The setting of invisible man was in the 1950's in the United States. The 1950's the world was recovering from WWII. The world was coming together to repair itself and become prosperous again. Although most of the world began to thrive again, the black community in the United States was still being discriminated against. But the blacks began to take action and take a stand on their place in society. So in the 1950's there was still heavy segregation and discrimination against blacks. Invisible man is definitely a disputable book, which most likely caused many problems in the 1950's. In Invisible man there was extreme violence shown. The first chapter called the "battle royal" white men pay for a few 'Negro' young men to fight for their entertainment. At the same scene, a white, nude striper taunts them. I feel that this is ironic because this showed how the male portion of the society reacted to certain forms of entertainment. After the staged fight they are brought to a mat with money on top of it. When the young men lung for the money they discover that the mat is wired with electricity and then the whites attempt to press their faces pressed to the mat. While their wives were probably at home tending the children, these men at this club were killing all the dignity and respect that the narrator had at that time. This violence and sexuality along with the vulgar language is probably shown throughout the book. This chapter shows the face of evil of society that may be looked down upon by some. “Tellin’ tales was more than just a hobby for many men back in the 50’s, it was a way for them to get away from the stresses of everyday life.” The pride in them (the people of that era) helped determine the way of the country today. It helped determine the way their children and grandchildren live today. The narrator being black had a hard time realizing what the people there were doing. He was being mocked without him even knowing it. Being black in this time period was very difficult for the narrator because he wasn’t looked upon as much as the white people his same age. This was not the case for some other men. Of course some had to be perverse in some way or fashion. They got their pleasure from scenes such as the woman dancer in “Battle Royal.” The men at the “smoker” enjoy this form of entertainment with their drinks and cigars. The narrator has to sit through all of this.

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