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Oppression In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

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Oppression surrounds everyone everyday, oppression does not define the person but the reaction to the oppression defines the strength and personality of that person. Invisibility does not derive from oppression itself but from the lack of courage to challenge the oppression. The invisible man in the novel faces oppression and falls to the oppression unknowingly. Throughout his life, he complies with the oppression he faces. Throughout Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man, the protagonist journeys through life displaying signs of Stockholm syndrome as a result of his acceptance of the white oppression he encounters. His compliance towards his oppression leads to the confusion of his identity.
The invisible man falls victim to the Stockholm …show more content…

The invisible man idolized Dr. Bledsoe and dreamed to become like him one day. Dr. Bledsoe is the president of the school that the invisible man studied at. Br. Bledsoe is the perfect example of white oppression. Bledsoe, in that time, would considered to be very close to the white man's` level due to Bledsoe's wealth and popularity. Bledsoe had this demeanor towards the invisible man that he was better than him. The invisible man had so much respect and for Bledsoe that even when Bledsoe kicked him out of school, he still had faith in that Bledsoe knew what he was doing and Bledsoe had his best interest in mind. Bledsoe gave the invisible man a letter warning employers to not hire him and even after the Invisible man found out, he still believed in Bledsoe and though that it was just a mistake. Even when an employer was trying to help the invisible man out, he declined help because he had so much faith in Bledsoe and trusted in what he was …show more content…

The Norrmalmstorg Bank robbery was were hostages in the bank began to sympathize with their captors. Also they were hostile towards police that tried to help them out of the situation. The invisible man was like the hostages that were blind to see the true intentions of their captor which in the invisible man case it would be Bledsoe. Since the invisible man was blind to this oppression, he is indirectly allowing it to continue. The invisible man was allowing the oppression he was under to dictate his life which eventually will lead to confusion in

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In the Invisible Man, the author presents multiple power struggles between the nameless narrator and various other characters which the Invisible Man must free himself from in order to discover his identity. The first powerful character that the Invisible Man must free himself from in an effort to grow is Dr. Bledsoe at the college. Initially, the Invisible Man looks up to Dr. Bledsoe as a center of the black community, but soon discovers that Dr. Bledsoe is just interested in maintaining his power. Dr. Bledsoe reveals to the narrator in their meeting that he fears no one since he knows that he is the only one in charge, which is Dr. Bledsoe’s way of letting the Invisible Man know that he will not win if he tries to go against him.

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In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, masking, and signifying serve as methods of survival for the narrator, as well as ways for malicious outsiders to take advantage of the narrator. Dr Bledsoe is the head of school at the college he attends, who extorts the narrator, but also teaches him a valuable lesson on masking. Dr Bledsoe teaches the narrator about masking after the narrator messes up and takes a wealthy, white trustee of the college to a black part of town in order to show him

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Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is a riveting novel encompassing the life and hardships of an unnamed black narrator in the 1930’s. Ellison’s beautifully crafted work dives deep into the racism and hardships of 1930 and uses numerous conventions to layer depth onto his subject. Ellison attempts to inform the reader of the extreme racism that was rampant in 1930’s society. The violence displayed in the battle royale held in the narrator's home town in chapter one is a shocking opening to the rest of the novel.

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The patterns of trust and subsequent betrayal found in the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, serve to teach lessons about what it was like for African Americans in post-slavery America, when the book is set. The Invisible Man trusts easily and naively. Yet, despite working hard, he is betrayed by the institutions and people he looks up to as role models as they exploit his expectations for their own agenda. Overall, there are four strong examples of those taking advantage and hurting the Invisible Man. With each incident, he learns a lesson about how blatantly the black population is disregarded, along with being given an object that represents the underlying racism found in a society.

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Ralph Ellison understood that violence is far more than simply hurting another person physically. Violence can be committed with words, consequently, The Invisble Man had to deal with much verbal violence during the novel. This verbal violence was a constant his entire life, leading him to try and reject his culture. After deciding to resist his urges and order orange juice with toast and coffee instead of a pork chop and grits, The Invisible Man states, “It was an act of discipline, a sign of the change that was coming over me and which would return me to college a more experienced man.” The verbal violence of white people, his entire life, led him to believe that to become the best possible man, he needed to give up his culture.

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The protagonist in several works of literature is generally plagued by conflicting influences, adding to the overall meaning of the literary work. The Invisible Man’s narrator is the same. As the narrator struggles in pursuit of understanding his invisibility, he finds himself vacillating between influences of Dr. Bledsoe, Brother Jack, and his grandfather. Dr. Bledsoe’s beliefs and actions toward the narrator mark him as invisible, adding to narrator’s inability to advance in life. Dr. Bledsoe explains to the narrator that black people are only able to succeed when they play the white man’s game.

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