The Black Struggle Of Mental Illness In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

In Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man”, the main character, unnamed, reacts to injustice in a significant way, when he finally realizes that, even in the North, there is still discrimination among people. Throughout the novel, the main character grows and expands his knowledge of justice. In the beginning of the book, he starts out as a follower, and literally follows people in higher positions around (such as the Founder) and takes everything they say to heart. He begins to realize that the things he heard in his sheltered life may not be so great when he works in a paint factory.

Why would a man want to portray himself as invisible? Is he antisocial? Disliked? In the novel, Invisible Man, the reader will be guided through the life of an oppressed African-American man who feels “invisible”. Throughout the novel, the narrator is on a search for his true identity.

The narrator in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man functions according to his psychological state of mind. Ellison creates the narrator with his own, unique mind, paralleling with the effect he has on the environment and his peers. The narrator's underdeveloped unconscious mind, as well as the constant clashes he has with his unconscious and conscious thoughts, lead him to a straight path of invisibility. Although physical factors also play a role in affecting the narrator's decisions, psychological traits primarily shape the narrator to become an “invisible man”. As Sigmund Freud theorized, the mind is broken up into both the conscious mind and the unconscious mind.

Invisible Man: The History and Connectedness of the Character The Black Struggle in the United States of America, dating back to the eighteenth century and before, is alive and well in the modern day. Beginning with the Atlantic Slave Trade in the eighteenth century, blacks were viewed as an inferior breed and had no civil rights- they were inhumane and barbaric. Before the Emancipation Proclamation was passed in 1863, they were property of the white man. In a governmental context, the Emancipation Proclamation brought the black community to an equal level, yet the same struggle for civil rights has been relative and extremely prominent in the twentieth century- when racism and bigotry was at an all time high (Otis).

While the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison appears to be a book based on the oppressiveness of invisibility, it is in fact the opinion of the author that there are distinct advantages of being “invisible” to people of the opposite race. In the book, Ellison struggled to define a black culture as something precious, but indissolubly linked to white culture. When you start trying to touch on these grounds, it leaves a lot of room for controversial arguments to occur.

Racism is one of the most important social and national issues that face the word. As resistance literature is decrying oppression, injustice, terrorism and violations of the people rights , it also decries racism .Ralph Ellison is one of the writers of the resistance literature , who is fighting against racism though his writings. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison , represents resistance literature and its important issues which is racism ; through racial polices and the loss of individual identity. The novel starts with the narrator who is college-educated black man struggling to survive and succeed in a racially divided society that refuses to see him as a human being, he introduces himself as an "invisible man" which is the title of the novel .

According to Ralph Ellison in the book Invisible Man, to be invisible means to be viewed by the people of society as a stereotype rather than an actual person. The narrator states, "they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination-indeed, everything except me" . Although the people of society have a physically real, living human being in front of them, they are still blind to the presence of that person. They are not literally blind but they project their pre-conceived notions and stereotypes of his identity onto him rather than bothering to find out his true

In the novel Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison depicts a narrator who delves into his story of discovering his unseen status in society. As the narrator reflects back to a time when he was unaware of his invisibility, he ponders the feelings he had toward his old college campus then and now. Through diction evoking a surreal image, stark juxtaposition, and consistent questioning of the school, he effectively demonstrates that the college was but a bubble, a reality unaccommodating to true progress—its magical sensation only disappearing once he fully sees the blinding nature of the college. Throughout the passage, the narrator seems to paint the college with an otherworldly light, detaching it from the reality that lies beyond its walls.

The novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is a classic American literature novel. The story sheds light onto an arbitrary character who seeks to find his African American identity in New York during the Harlem Renaissance. Ralph Ellison provides the readers with an insightful account consisting of great literary elements with his choice of theme, perspectives, and exigency; furthermore, Invisible Man consists of various literary elements to make it a profound novel. Significantly, a major literary method use used is the adamant Southern gothic nature underlined in the novel.

RALPH ELLISON’S INVISIBLE MAN: A CULTURAL RESISTANCE Amrutha T V Guest Faculty Sreekrishna College, Guruvayur ABSTRACT: African-American writers of fiction have always been pre occupied with racial themes and cultural legacies. This is due to their history of enslavement and colonization. The variety of races thrown together has created a melting-pot and the writers often tend to focus on racial prejudice and colour hierarchies. They have been subject to some of the worst fonts of physical, political, social and educational deprivation. It is comparable to the Dalit and tribal situation in India.