Racism in Invisible Man Essay

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

The book Invisible Man (448 pages) by Ralph Ellison begins with the narrator telling his story with the claim that he is an invisible man. His invisibility, he says, is not a physical conditionhe is not literally invisiblebut is rather the result of the refusal of others to see him. He says that because of his invisibility, he has been hiding from the world, living underground and that he has gone underground in order to write the story of his life and invisibility.

The narrator's first real glimpse at the cruel manipulation of white people comes when he is invited to the local men's club to read a speech. He gives the speech and is rewarded with a briefcase and a scholarship to a black college, but only after he endures the humiliation of performing for the white men there. He and several black boys are forced to box each other and then scramble around a rug pulsing with electric current to grab coins while the white men laugh at their pain. Racism is the cruel manipulation that the white people portray. The narrator goes off to college and determines to model himself after Dr. Bledsoe, the college's dean and a successful black man who is well respected in his community. Unfortunately, the narrator makes a dreadful mistake when he is chauffeuring Mr. Norton, a wealthy white man who donates a great deal of money to the college. He inadvertently reveals the seedier side of the black race by allowing the man to stop and speak with Joe Trueblood, a poor, black man ostracized from the black community because he got his own daughter pregnant. After the upsetting encounter with Trueblood, the white man is feeling weak and needs a drink, so the young man takes him to the closest place he can think of, the local black bar. Then, shortly after the narrator drives Mr. Norton back to campus. Dr. Bledsoe is so furious with the narrator's indiscretion and stupidity that he expels him. Dr. Bledsoe offers him some hope, however, by offering to write him several letters of recommendation to deliver to the school's trustees in New York. The dean tells the young man that if he makes enough money for tuition, he can come back to school.

The young man sets out for the city unaware that the letters of recommendation are really a hoax just to get him quietly away from the school. Once he finds out about the letters, he is so broke that he takes a job in a paint factory where he has an accident. He wakes up in the factory hospital where they are doing painful experiments on him that leave him disoriented. He recovers somewhat and is released only to dump a spittoon on some man whom he mistakes for Dr. Bledsoe at his boarding house. He then after recovery lives in a womens apartment who is kindly enough to share her home with him. He finds a joy and his live falls apart. He then starts seeing himself as the invisible man.

The invisibility he feels is caused by his race. He lives in that hole until he runs into Mr. Norton one day in the subway and realizes that he will no longer conform to white expectations of him. He tells himself that he must honor his individual complexity and remain true to his own identity without sacrificing his responsibility to the community. He says that he finally feels ready to emerge from underground and will reclaim his humanity by being who he is and no longer struggling to change that.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison proves that people are racist. This book is powerful in showing how people impact others lives. Sometimes people do not even realize that they are hurting others with words or actions. The narrator of Invisible Man tells the story of his live and overcomes the struggles that he unfortunately had to face. People who enjoy a good inspiring book should read Invisible Man. It was an entertaining book and I would recommend it to those who want to read it.