Finding Ralph Ellison in Phillip Roth’s The Human Stain Phillip Roth’s, The Human Stain, is a novel that relies heavily on the literary path of race set forth by Ralph Ellison in The Invisible Man. In Roth’s novel it is not enough for Coleman Silk to be merely invisible, like the narrator in Ellison’s novel, instead Silk changes his identity in attempt to erase the stain of being African American. It would be remiss to say that Coleman Silk is the second coming of the invisible narrator that Ellison has imagined, however, The Human Stain is the cultural, social, and above all racial, successor to Ellison’s novel. Ralph Ellison is identifiable present having stained Roth’s novel irreparably. Upon closer examination of The Human Stain the reader …show more content…
As literary tools, however, the Veteran of Ellison’s novel acts as a soothsayer of truth, particularly if we attribute his words towards Coleman Silk. Lester Farley, though not black, commits the act of eliminating Silk and placing him in Ellison’s metaphorical hole, making Silk truly invisible by death. The act of murder is the extension of Ellison’s Veteran wanting to bash the narrators head in. The two veterans of these novels act as symbolic protectors of a nation, which cannot afford fallacious behavior, such as that of Ellison’s early narrator or Silk’s refusal of ancestry, if the issues of a post-slavery society are to be …show more content…
Ellison stands out in plot line, narrative structure, symbolic themes, and even minor references. Ultimately Ellison’s narrator and Coleman Silk fall prey to their own society that forces them to be invisible, they are martyrs. Roth utilizes the framework of Ellison’s novel and creates what could be considered a spiritual successor, a “check-in” to see what has become of our society thirty years past the setting of Ellison’s novel. Unfortunately, as the reader sees, not much has changed as illustrated by the charged nature of the epithet “spook;” the social and cultural arena that illustrates unknowing racism by white men and women; the education of Silk as retribution; and the role that veterans play as symbolic protectorates. Roth has utilized Ellison, unknowingly, to create two novels which grippingly tell the story of 20th century America at her darkest moments, and which most people prefer to keep