How Does Ralph Ellison Use Repetition In Invisible Man

Throughout Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, we see a plethora of themes corresponding with the main character’s journey and growth along with many of the background characters and the backgrounds themselves. One that is constantly present throughout the film is repetition. Repetition presents itself in many different ways, a certain word, the reappearance of certain items over and over, or even the narrators own action. Repetition serves as a catalyst to the character’s revelations throughout the novel. The theme of repetition is by far the most important aspect of the book.
As I said before repetition is the prevailing theme throughout the whole story, but at Tod Clifton’s Funeral we see it stronger than ever. It seemed as if each repetition

Defying what even he believed of himself. He is running while protecting himself from the refuge of the bird symbolizing what the founder was not able to do run away from the white stain upon black history. “I ran blindly, boiling with outrage and despair and harsh laughter. Running from the birds to what, I didn't know. I ran. Why was I here at all? I ran through the night, ran within myself. Ran” (Ellison 534). This repetition of this idea of running is that he is taking control of this word and showing that it does not have to be only for his antagonists that force him to go blindly into a new environment, so he will realize his own potential. Or is he running away from this idea of him being invisible and the questions he has hidden from himself. I believe that it is, once again, a door. A door that leads to him coming to accept his invisibility to allow it to become part of

It stares not only the readers in the face but also the narrator. First, we see it in the car ride with Mr. Norton. Mr. Norton sees the narrator not as a person but as his fate, erasing the narrator’s self and replacing it with what he thinks is best, an empty space waiting to be filled. The vet is the first one to tell the narrator of is invisibility, immediately being signed off as a mad man whose words are nothing more than nonsense. “Behold! a walking zombie! Already he's learned to repress not only his emotions but his humanity. Person, He's invisible, a walking personification of the Negative, the most perfect achievement of your dreams, sir! The mechanical man!”. (94). We see him becoming aware of his invisibility only when he is dressed as someone else. It is only when he becomes Rine the runner, Rine the gambler, Rine the briber, Rine the lover, and Rinehart the Reverend? That he is truly able to understand who and what he is. Even Rineheart a man who both exists and doesn’t calls out what he is in all caps “BEHOLD THE SEEN UNSEEN BEHOLD THE INVISIBLE” (Ellison 495). Saying that the narrator already knew before he even put the dark green glasses and the wide brimmed white hat on. He the mechanical man had finally been broken, no longer function to its many