Racial And Identity Crisis In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Ellison in Invisible Man presents racial and identity crisis in a political way. The identity crisis has been a problem of the blacks in America for centuries. The whites never consider the blacks as Americans. That means the blacks in America belong neither to America nor to Africa. Racial discrimination is also a major issue. There are even separate schools, hospitals and churches for the blacks. All these kinds of segregations push the blacks to the margins in every aspect.

The white strategy to influence the blacks is very important in the novel. The whites under the guise of being a ‘brother’ to the blacks, in the real sense segregate them. Actually, both the protagonist and Ras the Exhorter belong to the same black ethnic group, but, in the novel both are set against each other. The brotherhood’s aim is to divide the blacks, when Ras works against the Brotherhood, invisible man works against Ras. These are the white man’s strategy to manipulate the blacks into their party.

The grandson of slaves, Ellison was born in 1914 in Oklahoma. As a young man Ellison developed interest in jazz music. Ellison himself studied instruments and played them. In 1933 he left Oklahoma to

He says that no white man can see him without the lights. What he means is that the white man does not want to see or consider a black man who has no affinity or relationship with a white man. But with the help of light he can see him means, if the black man is attached to white man, he will be able to see him. Here the lights symbolize the white people. Invisible man feels that it is very difficult to live as an invisible man. In the epilogue of the novel Norton sees the Invisible man but cannot recognise him. Because it is a long way back that he had seen the Invisible man. Now he lives in a hole as a disguised man without an identity. He does not want to face people till he gets an identity of his own. Tanner