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Individual Identity And Community In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

915 Words4 Pages

while for other characters individual identity is suppressed by community affiliation. What is the relationship between individual identity and community in Ellison's invisible man? Is it possible for persons to achieve a balance between the two in the novel?

Leonardo Da Vinci once said “every action is prompted by a motive.” Motives are induced by personal goals as well as communal goals but, they are not limited to those simple terms. Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” is a novel that explores these complex motives as well as identities through the journey of the narrator. This unnamed narrator goes through a character development where he learns the superficiality of most interactions with authority figures, especially when it comes to race. …show more content…

While he believes that he is an individual who is not dependant on the actions of others, he develops a reactive personality in the early chapters of the novel. Depending on others to define him, he develops a crutch in which he looks to his community to find answers for who he is. "I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer." (184) Even with the false notion that he was dedicated to himself, he shows a strong reliance on his community for self-definition. However, the perception that other characters have of him differs greatly from the person that he grows to be throughout the course of this novel. “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me...When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.”(Prologue. Pg 1) This quote taken from the prologue provides a lens to see and understand the fragile relationship between self-identity and community for the Invisible Man. The community affiliations that the narrator assumes become part of his perceived identity. With people refusing to

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