Anna
Osuna
24
April 2012
Professor
Broadous
PAS114
B
Literary
Analysis
Yearning for Identity
In the summer of
1952 Ralph Ellison began to write the Invisible
Man. The Invisible Man is Ellison’s most recognized novel because it illuminated
the truth of the social and racial situation currently affecting African
Americans. In the era of the 1940s,
slavery had recently been put to an end and the African American race finally
gained their rights, or so it was said. In fact blacks were still viewed as
second-class citizens and treated with less value then an animal. They were
humiliated by whites and taught they had neither existence nor real place in
society. Ralph Ellison should not be applauded for explaining the racial
and social issues, but that he was able to do it from the perspective of a
black man. Ralph Ellison explained to a reporter in an interview,“ too many
books by Negro Writers are addressed to a white audience. By doing this authors
run the risk of limiting themselves to the audience’s presumption of what a
Negro is or should be”(Chester and Howard. 292) The point Ellison is trying to
the explain to interviewer and in novel is clear: the danger of under minding
oneself rather then seeking ones own identity will never bring change. African
American writers and individuals during the time of segregation were scared of
announcing to the world what was truly going on beneath the surface of the
racial and social struggles. Ellison chose not only to address the oppression brought
upon their race but also the oppression African Americans brought among
themselves due to fear. This is the problem we see in many of characters
through out the novel: for example in Dr. Bledsoe, the grandfather, and the
narrator. However, unlike the narrator the grandfather, and Dr. Bledsoe were
unable to find their own individuality because they chose to undermine, lie,
and aspire to become like the white man opposed to embracing who they truly
were.
The
grandfather of the narrator wanted to keep the peace between the blacks and
whites. He did not want to say anything to draw any attention towards himself
nor his grandchildren because he feared the white man. The only way thought of
surviving in this era was by cooperating with the white race. The mentality of
cooperation towards whites was impeded in African Americans since the time of
slavery, and is all they could pass on to their youth. For example the
narrators grandfather advised to
the future generations, “ Son after I’m gone I want you to keep up the good
fight. I never told you, but our life is a way and I have been a traitor all my
born days, a spy in the enemy’s county ever since I give up my gun back in the
Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lions mouth, I want you to overcome
em’ with yeses, undermine em’ with grin, agree ‘em to death and
destruction…..Learn it to the younguns” (Ellison. 6). What the grandfather
depicts through this quote is that he felt as he had fought in the civil war
and still obtained no place in society. He further explains that “he put his
gun down” representing he was giving up fighting for equality and accepted his
reality for what is was. Also telling his son “ live with your head in the
lions mouth…undermine em’ with grin” meaning to undermine himself by projecting
to the society that the suppression the black race was experiencing was
acceptable.
The
Reconstruction was a period in time when blacks were free from slavery and
attempted to be integrated into society. Promises to the African American communities
of equality were made but never fulfilled. Instead the law of separate but
equal was created
and defined as “pertaining
to a racial policy by which blacks may be segregated if
granted equal opportunities and facilities, as for education, transportation,
or jobs.” (Separate but Equal). This law was adopted because of the Plessy vs. Freguson case and resulted in segregation and
discrimination towards the black race. At this point, black citizens were fed
up with fighting and not seeing any progress. For example the narrator says“
about eighty-five years ago they were told that they were free, united with
others of our country in everything pertaining to the common good, and, in
everything social, separate like the fingers of the hand, And they believed it.
They exulted it. They stayed in their place, worked hard, and brought up my
father to the same” (Ellison. 15-16). Originally “when
emancipated blacks pursued equality, they demanded the franchise on the same
basis as that exercised by whites” (Civil Rights in America). The African
American race soon found out the reconstruction was only a tease of gaining
equality. In reality the
only way blacks could gain power was undermining their position in society and
playing the role of “ignorant black man”, just as the grandfather does in the
novel. However in the process the grandfather let his individuality be stolen
from him and is a mistake made probably ever person at one point of their life.
This type of self-sabotage prevents you from performing and living at your full
potential giving people the opportunity to think less of you as an individual.
Dr. Bledsoe is
the black president at the university the narrator attends. In the beginning of
the novel the narrator is enchanted with Dr. Bledsoe “ he was an example of
everything he hoped to be: Influential with wealthy men all over the country;
consulted in matters concerning the race; a leader of his people; the possessor
of not one, but two Cadillac’s, a good salary and a soft good looking and
creamy complexioned wife” (Ellison. 100). Dr. Bledsoe was the narrator’s ideal role
model, until he realized Dr. Bledsoe was a coward and seeking only his
self-interest. Dr. Bledsoe is a key example of how undermining the white
society was actually letting down the black community. Dr. Bledsoe viewed
himself as an authority figure not equal to the rich white but a “holder” of
power over the black race. For example “ The white folks tell everybody what to
think, except men like me. I will tell them; that’s my life, telling white folk
how to think about the things I know about the things I know about. Shocks you,
doesn’t it? Well, that’s the way it is. It’s a nasty deal and I don’t always
like myself, But you listen I’ve made my place in it, and I’ll have every Negro
in the Country hanging on tree limbs by morning if it means staying where I am”
(Ellison.141). Dr. Bledsoe addressed this to the narrator when he was being
expelled from school for taking Mr. Norton to the Golden Day. Mr. Norton was
one of the founders of the black university the narrator attended. The reason
he got expelled from school was because Dr. Bledsoe believed “ we take these
white folks where we want them to go, we show them what we want them to see”(Ellison.102).
The Golden Day was a bar in the slave quarter section of the school and when
taken into the bar Mr. Norton and the narrator encountered black veterans and
prostitutes. Dr. Bledsoe was ashamed of this part of the school and crestfallen
to be African American. Most importantly
he was ashamed to acknowledge that the veterans in the bar were just as much a
part of him as he was of them. Dr. Bledsoe should have never apologized to Mr.
Norton for what he had saw at the Golden Day because apologizing showed he was
shameful of where he came from. For a minute the narrator even believed white
people needed to help “us poor, ignorant, people out of the mire and darkness”
(Ellison. 99). Mr. Norton needed to see the reality and the result slavery had
among the African American race.
Nevertheless, Dr.
Bledsoe believed “the only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie” (Ellison.139).
This mentality he retained was wrong. Sabotaging the white race and lying to
them only covered up the feelings of invisibility they internalized, it did not
fix them. For example Dr. Bledsoe says “ the only ones I even pretend to please
are big white folks, and even those I control more then they control me. This
is a power set-up, son, and I’m at the controls. You think about that. When you
buck against me, your bucking against power, rich white folk’s power-which
means government power” (Ellison. 142) This quote illustrated Dr. Bledsoe as a hypocrite
because he claimed he wanted to uplift the race but then says he would hang
every negro if meant keeping his power. These two statements contradict each
other because you cannot help someone if you are resentful of them. The
audiences uncovers he is a fake and only cares about keeping the race and
himself as “the ignorant black man”.
Dr. Bledsoe was only fooling himself when he thought he had control over
the white men because even regardless of his high authority for example the
narrator says” they could laugh at him but they couldn’t ignore him’ (Ellison.101)
Exposing that even with his high standing position, and trying desperately to
be white, he would never gain respect.
The
narrator played a major role of realizing the way to gain power was not through
undermining the white race but was accepting yourself for who you are. In the
epilogue he gains his sense of individuality by saying “ and my problem was
that I always tried to go in everyone’s way but my own. I have also been called
one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called
myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally
rebelled I am the invisible man” (Ellison.575). Unlike his grandfather and Dr.
Bledsoe he realized in order to overcome racism was to acknowledge yourself as
an individual rather then fitting the expectations whites had of blacks.
Richard Nixon once said “ any fellow who tries to tell me that you can do these
things by force (desegregation) is just plain nuts” (Education and Civil Rights)
Richard Nixon was only being truthful because after so much trauma afflicted to
the black race, how could Americans expect desegregation to fix the mental
strain we currently see in African Americans to this day? The United States
might have put segregation to an end but the healing process of African
Americans and minorities who experienced these events will take centuries to
fix just as it was created.
Overall,
Ralph Ellison expressed a an interesting thought when being interviewed, “ if
the negro, or any other writer, is going to do what is expected of him, he’s
lost the battle before he takes the field. I suspect that all the agony that
goes into writing is borne precisely because the writer long for acceptance-but
it must be acceptance on his own terms”(Chester and Howard. 292). Ellison
touches once again the theme of the novel; the danger of undermining oneself
rather then seeking ones own identity. In his response he points out by trying
to please others you have already lost because you should live for yourself.
This problem is not only felt by the African American race but homosexuals,
lesbians, Hispanic, Asians, Whites, Europeans, and almost everybody in the
world. Society cannot blame the African Americans for undermining themselves
because at the time they felt as that is all they could do. The help of authors
like Ralph Ellison, activist, and the of course the people: blacks and
minorities have earned civil rights and hopefully learn to embrace oneself for
who they are.
Work Cited
Chester, Alfred and Vilma Howard. “An
Interview with Ralph Ellison”. International
Library of negro life and history. Lindsay Patterson. New York: Publishers
Company, 1970. Print.
“Civil
Rights in America: Racial Voting Rights”. National
Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior National
Historic Landmarks Program. 2012. 24 April
2012. Web.
“ Education and Civil Rights”. History Learning Site. 2012. 24 April
2012. Web.
Ellison,
Ralph. Invisible Man. New York:
Random House, 1952. Print.
“Separate but Equal” Dictionary.com. 2012. 24 April 2012. Web.
