The Role Of The Enslaved In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

The Mind of the Enslaved
As we have seen throughout history, the African American man has been enslaved and oppressed by the “White Man” and it is no different in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952), as the protagonist (no name given) has psychological dilemmas that have made his actions inevitable to please and gain the respect of the White and rich men as the society is thriving in bigotry. Initially, the author uses the psychological critical approach to emphasis the mental toll discrimination and slavery has left the protagonist as he says “When I was praised for my conduct I felt a guilt that in some way I was doing something that was really against the wishes of the white folks…It made me afraid that one day they would look upon me as a traitor and I would be lost” (Ellison 17). As the “Invisible man” recalls and feels the same ways as his grandfather felt as he abandoned his own

The use of synecdoche is applied as the White man’s power and authority is represented by the way he judges those beneath him. The fact that he judges and the narrator looks for acceptance of the Whites demonstrates how they are superior to him as he is inferior to the Whites. The fact is that the narrator longs to please and gain the respect from the Whites that he is willing to do anything to recite his speech. In addition the narrator describes his inner conscience as he is in a ring fighting to gain respect, he begins to question himself, “Would not this go against my speech, and was not this a moment for humility, for nonresistance?” This merely suggests that he does not want to be a part of the entertainment but to be a change yet he is pressured to fight in order to get his voice