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Literary Symbols In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

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Within Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, he uses many literary devices - most prominently symbolism. He includes the descriptions of objects to help his audience grow a better understanding of the things that the invisible man (IM) goes through, and to create a sort of pathway to connect with him. Some of the more significant objects that he use are: Mary Rambo’s racist (broken) coin bank, the idea of IM identifying as Brer Rabbit, as well as IM’s briefcase which he brought along with him everywhere throughout the book. Upon IM finding Mary’s racist coin bank and having broken it out of pure hatred and rage. Ralph Ellison - who is rather descriptive with how the invisible man sees the bank - writes “the cast-iron figure of a very black, …show more content…

The use of tricksters have always been relevant and present in African American Literature as a form of freedom. Ellison used Brer Rabbit to represent the lose of fear towards those that were considered on a higher position or leaders over him. After waking up in the factory hospital after the accident during a fight with Brockway, IM realized “I was no longer afraid. Not of important men, not of trustees and such; for knowing now that there was nothing which I could expect from them, there was no reason to be afraid” (249). IM continuously refused to admit to himself that this newly discovered identity was true, as he thought it would greatly displease those around him. Although it greatly pleased him that he had the ability to be so friendly, and it lead him to feel overjoyed with the abilities and desire that this self-discovery led to. “I laughed, deep, deep inside me, giddy with the delight of self-discovery and the desire to hide it… I could not bring myself to admit it, it was too ridiculous” (241,242). He wanted the ability to remain strictly within himself, so that he was filled with the freedom and him alone - as well as the fact that others may ridicule him, especially the whites, and his lack of fear towards the higher

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When one examines Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, immediately one notices the duality of being black in society. Ellison uses the narrator to highlight his invisibility in society, although African-Americans have brought forth so many advances. This statement best represents the novel as the narrator examines his location (geography), his social identity, historical legacies of America, and the ontological starting point for African-Americans. The “odyssey” that the narrators partakes in reflects the same journey that many African-Americans have been drug through for generations.

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Without knowledge of these two black literary traditions, understanding the motives of Brother Jack, and more importantly Dr Bledsoe, are nearly impossible. Masking and signifying were methods of survival for blacks (and whites) trying to make it in the world. They were also ways to take advantage of others who were less informed of the world. Ralph Ellison writes the narrator as a person naive of the world at first, who gradually learns, through masking and signifying, that the world is a colder place than originally thought. The lessons the narrator learns from Dr Bledsoe and Brother Jack go a long way in establishing the identity of the man who chooses to live underground for the remainder of his life.

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This alludes to the imagery of folklore because Br'er Rabbit an example from old folktale with its origins drawing back to Africa. This references Ellison’s purpose through the use of motifs, specifically symbols of racism because folklore were symbols for how African Americans dealt with the world. They identified themselves as the characters in the well-known folk tales similar to how the narrator of Invisible Man identifies himself as characters such as Br'er Rabbit, which is characterized as a clever, likable character. Br'er Rabbit is cunning and uses his intelligence to avoid/escape difficult situations, and the narrator is compared to him because he also attempts to use his intellectual ability to find his way out of tough situations. This is evident as the narrator leaves the factory hospital because he not only has a new identity and sense of himself, but he also can only remember specific folklore, an important symbol of racism in his life, as he moves

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