Racial Prejudice And Discrimination In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Racial prejudice, discrimination, and societal expectations made it difficult for the protagonist of the novel, Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, to be true to his own identity. He changes throughout the book to fit these high expectations and this causes him to struggle in achieving his American Dream.The narrator calls himself the Invisible Man because he has yet to find his identity through all the cruel acts that come upon him because of his race. He goes through different roles in society such as a college student, a paint maker, and also as a leader in the Brotherhood. This work shows the struggle blacks have to go through in society because they either aren't heard or they are treated unjustly. The protagonist is at a loss with himself because he believes the only way to become successful, is to be noticed by a white man. The narrator finds himself continuously unable to balance his

Because of the discrimination, the narrator lost himself, his identity, and began to become an invisible man. Due to the cultural and geographical surroundings of the narrator it inculcates psychological traits in the protagonist of the play. The invisible man encounters many societal hardships due to his race. The protagonist realizes the injustices of how the whites’ treatment to blacks is and this makes it inevitable for him to find justice in the society. This leads him to his acceptance of his African American invisibility. The narrator implants in his head that he has to follow the white man in order to be someone in society and in order to be noticed. But due to the consistent change of his surrounding he can't fit in and is always at complete loss of who he actually is. This affects the work as a whole because it illustrates how the black man continues to struggle in society due to racial prejudice and societal