Invisibility In Ralph Ellison's IM Or Invisible Man

The protagonist of the novel, IM or Invisible Man, portrays himself as always being invisible in some sense throughout the novel. A way that Ralph Ellison depicts IM’s invisibility is by dehumanizing his character through other characters dialogue. While talking with a doctor, when with Mr. Nortan, he uses characteristics to describe IM like “a walking zombie’’ or a “mechanical man’’. The words that the doctor uses to describe IM take away his humanity. The doctor is telling him that others, mostly white men, do not see him as a human but as a piece of their plan or a nonexistent undead non human creature. These specific words show the audience that the doctor is furthering IM’s low understanding of his invisibility at this point in the novel. The doctor also mentions that IM has learned to

The doctor is explaining to IM that because of other white men he is no longer able to speak for himself and he is now a puppet to them. He lost his humanity and has turned into another mechanical factor in the white men’s performance. All of IM’s emotions are looked down on and no longer have any meaning therefore IM has now given up on showing them. Men have taken away his personality therefore taking away his humanity and all together his identity till he is left without one, making him an Invisible Man to the people around him. Although this is true and the doctor clearly states this to IM at the time, the white men in IM’s life have deceived him in order to show IM that the idea of dehumanizing not only IM but other black men is not correct. As the doctor is giving his speech about the dehumanization of IM he mentions that IM is unable to see this happening because he his being influenced by other men that everything is fine. In fact, one