Vivid Identity In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Three contrasting feelings defined my experience of Invisible Man: skepticism, villainization, and the feeling of being proven wrong. Skepticism came rather quickly upon being introduced to the narrator of the story. Immediate disdain came when he described his selfish existence as a squatter inhabiting someone else’s property and leeching their electricity with outlandish light fixtures covering the ceiling and walls. I also was not keen to his braggadocious attitude towards assaulting someone in the middle of the night, beating him “within an inch of his life” (Ellison 5). My realization of my own villainy came as the story began to unfold, with the narrator’s life being shaped by the hands of a cruel, white society. Many key adversaries

While I did not connect to the racial overtones of the novel, it was the theme of a fluid identity that made this story different from the rest of books on the topic. Before reading the book it was my belief that one’s participation in society defines them, meaning that anyone can be defined by his/her income bracket, occupation, education, or political standing. However, early on with the grandfather of the Invisible Man’s deathbed confession, my belief was beginning to be challenged. Urging him to “undermine ‘em with grins, agree ‘em to death and destruction , let ‘em swoller you ‘till they vomit or bust wide open,” his grandfather presents an ideology towards identity that was opposite to mine (16). While I saw the narrator as a promising young man who would one day make a possible contribution to society, his grandfather would see this “contribution” corresponding with him ending up as a cog in a machine working for a society that actively subjugates him to a life as a second-class citizen. In fact, his grandfather would most likely consider his acceptance of his position in society as much of a failure as I consider his complete removal from it. The narrator first takes these words for granted, and tries to find success within the oppressive society. He would later remark, “I started out with my share of optimism. I believed in hard work and progress and action” (576). However, he continues this thought with an idea that he and I both had to learn for ourselves throughout the course of the story, “But now, after first being ‘for’ society and then ‘against’ it, I assign myself no rank or limit” (576). In essence, the narrator states here that no label or societal standing can define his identity. For once, a novel about prejudice had actually taught me something further about the effects of racism. I had been wrong