Not Money Hungry but Power Hungry Throughout the book Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison addresses many social themes during this time. He takes a unique perspective on displaying African-Americans and the world around them. Power is one of the themes that help him portray the novel's characters and their lifestyles. Power infuses nearly all the relationships depicted in Invisible Man. More specifically, white male power threads its way throughout the novel. Even in situations where there are no white men present, it's clear that white men hold the power. For instance, when Blacks hold any form of power, they hold it only through the assistance or "generosity" of white men. Ellison seems to use his writing to illustrate the pros and cons of power mainly through the lives of the narrator, Dr. Bledsoe, and Brother Jack. The narrator encounters power throughout his entire journey in the book. In the prologue, Ellison explains how other people have the power to make the narrator visible or invisible: "I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me (3)." I believe he wants people to understand that others have the power, no matter …show more content…
For example after some of his speeches, the narrator receives a note saying that he is moving too fast and this is a "white man's world (383)," which he realizes in the end is from Jack: "It was the anonymous letter.. It was the slip upon which Jack had written my Brotherhood name.. The handwriting was the same (568)." I believe Brother Jack knew that he was more powerful with Blacks among him than against him. He is no different from Bledsoe because he was so worried about winning blacks over that he did not care about the lies he had to tell to do