Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison presents the interesting and troubling theme of practicing submission as a means of survival through the ambitious actions of the narrator and the often catastrophic results he is met with when attempting to break the set norms of his society. The idea of muting one’s entire identity, aspirations, and personality in the presence of an unforgiving society is both an erasure of individualism and more than present in Ralph Ellison’s novel. To clarify, the novel sets up this idea through the constant trials the narrator must push through, whether that be the internal conflict to show parts of his heritage in public out of fear of rejection, or the external conflicts of his hopes and opinions luring him into constant pitfall after pitfall at the hands of those around him. This sets up the idea that a man …show more content…
The pure culprit of this mentality is Dr. Bledsoe who has turned on his entire race and adopted every nuanced movement of white people while obeying all orders in full and only letting his “teeth flash as he took a white hand” rather than his perceived inferior fellow people of color (115). The narrator himself though represents the rejection of the idea because through his maturing he decides to keep more and more of heritage and expressed it despite the consequences he has faced for it. Ellison used the hero of the story as the vessel in which to spite the idea of assimilation in the face of a stronger power and paints the counter example as a complete villain to express himself, however, the backlash against submission is shown to be a martyr’s act by showing the reader how much pain and rejection one faces while performing the humble task of having a unique