Racism In The Invisible Man Essay

Aspects of Racism and Black generalizations are explicitly written in “The Invisible Man”. The concept of colored inequality and White’s twisted view upon Blacks are embodied in the varies objects throughout Ellison’s masterful piece. Items like the briefcase, sambo dolls, cast iron bank, and leg irons symbolizes the struggle of an entire race being classified under a category, and being treated as such. Blacks are viewed as insignificant and savage, categorizing them into a designated bracket, in result a specific image was given to the African Americans. Stereotypes that will last for decades. In Ralph Ellison’s “The Invisible Man” the narrator’s violent act towards the cast iron bank, in chapter 13, manifests Ellison’s hatred and frustration

When the narrator receives the briefcase as a naive kid, it comes to show, his past vulnerability, early obedient, and youthful ambitions, his final loss of the briefcase implies a complete severance of ties to his past, thus leading to the discovery of his new identity and true self. In chapter 18 the narrator was shown the “real cause” of the Brotherhood when Tarp reveal his leg iron from the 19 years he had being in the chain gang (Black prisoners). Speaking in a more broader term the leg irons, a pair of restriction placed on the Blacks by the White supremacy. In “12 Million Black Voices” by Richard Wright, Blacks who have escaped the South are still facing the same discrimination in the North. . Wherever they go, the blacks are bounded by their past and societal oppression. Both the leg iron and the briefcase symbolizes societal limitations and racism that prohibits the success and power for any colored individual. Some may argue that there are thousands of opportunities and all are distributed equally among the Blacks and the Whites. With 200 years of slavery, the establishment of Jim Crow Law, and segregation, African Americans are left with hardly any opportunities and need to work harder than to gain what Whites consider as