Rhetorical Devices In Invisible Man

Jonathan Toek
Professor Wieland
Philosophy 405
3 December 2016
Aliens on Earth Like an alien sent to Earth, it is forced to adjust to the lifestyles of its surroundings. It is forced to discern the difference between right and wrong. In Ralph Ellison’s novel, “Invisible Man” the main character (who never mentions his name) is placed into varying situations where he is forced to adapt to new situations and stimulus. From very early on in the narrator’s life, he was told to be passive. His grandfather told his father, “Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins…” (Ellison 16). The narrator followed the advice of his grandfather. In his early life, the narrator followed his advice

An alien, a person who has no real interpersonality, merely following what society dictates. He was to drive Mr. Norton, one of his college’s founders, around the area. He stated, “‘Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,’ I said, pleased that he wished something pleasant for me” (Ellison 40). This resembled the way the narrator lived his life, he was happy to hear that he could be of service to the white individuals. He liked that he was able to be of service, he was happy that a white man treated him like a servant. For these reasons he was expelled from the

In the beginning of the novel it seemed as the narrator was not a self, since no one would recognize him. The narrator was at the whims of the individuals with higher powers. Instead of thinking for himself, he acted like sheep blindly following leaders to ruin. Fortunately, the narrator had a realization after one of the members of the Brotherhood had passed, that the individuals of power in his life were all trying to impose their way of living onto him. He gave that, “They were very much the same, each attempting to force his picture of reality upon me and neither giving a hoot in hell for how things looked to me” (Ellison 508). The narrator, in earlier instances of his life, lacked volitions of the second order, he merely had first order volitions. Harry Frankfurt gave that, “No animal other than man appears to have the capacity for reflective self-evaluation that is manifested in the formation of the second order desires.” With this Frankfurt establishes that to be a person it is necessary that they have volitions of the second order, or a desire to desire. While the narrator was younger he had no volitions of the second order. He seemed to act as an animal who had received praise for a simple action, and repeating those actions because he received a reward for acting in such a way. While the narrator was young he was to give a speech to a room full of drunken white men, but not before brawling for their