Essay on Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Without the use of name the writer introduces himself as a man to describe the nature of his visibility. He makes a view of himself as an invisible due to his strong belief that the world is full of blind individual, people who are unable to identify him for who he is. Throughout the novel, the narrator is seen to be passing through series of different communities from the Liberty Paints plant to the brotherhood recognizing different ideas on how black individuals are supposed to behave in the society. At the beginning of the story, the narrator is viewed with the serious stereotype, where the whites perceive him as a violent, poor and sex hungry. The white men are blind and they dont know what the black men are. However in the progress of the novel, the narrator is realized to be calculative, and he finds means to stay invisible, yet take control and finds power from those who previously owned it. Later in the story, the invisible man can grow up into a full man who is capable of going against racism and stereotype in a manner which is very visible. Through hard work, endurance and persistence the narrator can beat way racist attitudes.

The most significant motif in the Invisible Man is that of blindness which is portrayed in the whole novel, representing how individuals willfully avoid confronting and seeing the truth. The narrator views are that individuals possess the ability to see what they wish not to see as a result of prejudice; this costs him a life which is full of effective invisibility. Hence the boys who are fighting in the battle royal are wearing a blindfold which symbolizes their inability and powerlessness in recognizing the exploitation in black men hands, through this w are still able to acknowledge the divide and rule theme where the whites just wanted the blacks to fight just to separate and rule over them.

Initially, the story tends to focus on one young black boy who is struggling to stay ahead in a society where the white individuals severely dominated. Through staying focus on his dying grandfathers words, on which is emphasized to him to live with his head in the lions mouth. The words were so strong and motivating since the grandfather insisted that, he wanted his grandson to overcome even to destruction and death. Ideally, the boys grandfather was telling him to conform to the white people way of life so as not lag behind but to stay ahead. Through the struggle of the young boy, we realize that under that environment he was not only the individual who was going through the experience, but we realize that it was a great struggle of all the black individuals at the time the story was taking place.

Making an analysis of the grandfather's dying words, the views of most conformist blacks Americans is expressed and the only option that was available for any black individual to excel at that time was to confirm to the nature and the traditions of the white individual in the society. During this period any rebel who tried to go against the oppression of the whites through fighting for their rights were mostly done with, through the anti-black groups. Basically, through making others suffers as a result of their skin color, I find this to be ignorance and blind hatred. The story portrays a time in the white society of America where black community was not recognized, and all the whites can be justified to be sending blind blows of segregation without taking into consideration or even actually taking their time to know each. All that happened was an act of stereotype, and a whole race was recognized to have no good and identified as a lesser being just because of their skin color.

With all the adventure and the overall experience, the protagonist who was a boy full of hope and tolerance is chosen to represent his race as a result of the responsibility he had to the society.He was exposed to severe conditions, and he had to endure a boxing match, carrying all kinds of nasty names and even being shocked. He demonstrated a persistence for the black Americans, and no hope was lost through the different manner of hardship that the boy was exposed to or could go through. Regardless of the mind battles and all manner of hardship, the boy went through; he could endure and was able to keep his mind on the final goal without giving up on the final purpose of achieving social equality. Additionally, the protagonist got chosen to represent his race through the speech stressed submission on matters to with black American advancement in their social structure, through this the speech was so received in a courteous manner that the town made an arrangement for him to give the speech in front of some famous white men. The narrator is so calculative in his thoughts, and he can realize that the white men are publicly rewarding his submissive nature although he had the overall perception of what was to take place as he arrived to meet this man.

In the story, the white people show disrespect for women, in the case where they brought a naked blond woman, exposing her and even forcing her into the public eyes. The black men are forced to look at the woman with some being aroused sexually. Through this, the stereotype is continued to be realized of blacks being portrayed as individuals who are hypersexual, just like animals. This is a total disrespect for women, and its recognized as a humiliating idea.

With the white men forcing the black boys into a battle royals the narrator can fight the black classmates in a blindfolded manner. It is rather appropriate that the boys are blindfolded, a perception on how on how the white men are viewing the boys. Therefore the true identity of the black boys cannot be realized and are invisible to the white men; through this the origin of the narrative title is recognized. Ideally, the blindfolds also reveal to how the black men are unable to see the ulterior motive that the white men were having. Through a general view, the white men are considered to be undertaking a mission of goodwill, with the black boy's fight being an allegory to the reason why blacks are not successful in trying to gain power, in that instead of working together to fight for rights of the black, they are fighting themselves (Ellison).

Ideally, liberty paint plants have been viewed to serve as a complex metaphor for the society of America when considering race. The notion of liberty is defined with a deeply ingrained racism. In the novel, it is identified that the black culture is covered with the white culture and economically, the white tend to benefit through selling the paint and gaining the larger wage, with the blacks performing crucial labor with minimum pay.

Finally, the narrator in the story is viewed to be hibernating in his invisibility, through his invisible music, in making preparation to the unnamed action, stating that the beginning of the story is the end.

Work cited.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Paw Prints, 2008. Print.