Group items tagged

This source discusses the dehumanization of IM. Constantly, people use IM for their own benefit, and manipulate him to do their will. He is seen as an asset, even by the Brotherhood, the very organization which is supposed to be fighting invisibility. Over time, his identity is so manipulated and bent to the will of others that by the epilogue, IM has lost track of who he himself is supposed to be.

goes into detail about the theme of invisibility and connects it to the real world. Relates the apocalyptic ending of the novel to the theme of invisibility, as well as discussing Ellison's literary influences

This article talks about the Invisible Man in a more historic and political context, examining different political atmospheres in Harlem and the brotherhood.

Discusses direct correlations between quotes from IM and the racist impact they have upon him. As seen in the case of the yams, it is only after IM decides to accept his own culture and past that he can have his own identity. Until then, he is still trying to live white. Also, back to the theme of oppression, the Brotherhood was acting in the name of blacks, yet truly just held IM back, hovering inches from success, in order to ensure that he never gets his fully deserved recognition or rights.

in Invisible Man this struggle toward self-definition is applied to individuals, groups, and the society as a whole. The particular genius of Invisible Man is Ellison's ability to interweave these individual, communal, and national quests into a single, complex vision. However, Ellison does not restrict himself to the concerns of African-Americans because he believes that African-American culture is an inextricable part of American culture. Thus, Invisible Man shows how the struggles of the narrator as an individual and as a representative of an ethnic minority are paralleled by the struggle of the nation to define and redefine itself.

The invisible man was important to the time period because Ellison challenged the way that African AMericans were typically characterized. When Ellison wrote Invisible Man, ther were few other novels that proposed the idea the black people were suffering from their lack of civil rights. He was ahead of his time.

This literary review of IM praises the plot line, and discusses its relevancy to not only Harlem, but everywhere in the world where a social norm has developed. 

For there is a way for Negro novelists to go at their problems, just as there are Jewish or Italian ways. Mr. Ellison has not adopted a minority tone. If he had done so, he would have failed to establish a true middle-of-consciousness for everyone. In all other parts of the country people live in a kind of vastly standardized cultural prairie, a sort of infinite Middle West, and that means that they don't really live and they don't really do anything. Invisibility touches everyone, and Ellison helps to bring this fact to light.

"Most Americans thus are Invisible." Discusses both the faults of the novel as well as the powerful impact of the novel, and the application of it to all Americans, both past and contemporary. 

"Ultimately, the lack of civil disobedience in Invisible Man follows the lack of recognition and the legal invisibility of African Americans in the United States of the 1930's"

This source criticizes IM for his lack of action. It claims that his lack of disobedience and blindness to his situation ultimately parallels that of many African Americans in the early 1900's, explaining why their oppression was allowed to go on.

"Here, Ellison suggests the narrator's invisibility to the Brotherhood and his blindness to his own exploitation by the group"

This source provides a detailed analysis of the entire novel, highlighting the theme of invisibility and blindness. Here it describes how IM is betrayed by the Brotherhood, and how blind he was to the whole ordeal.

Winther explains that the imagery used in Invisible Man describes the idea of societal imprisonment that IM experiences. For example, the iron chain that he carries around in his briefcase refers not only to the physical enslavement of the Black people but the emotional and mental restrictions but on them by society.

"... the Renaissance encouraged literary and artistic works that would reshape notions of blackness in American popular consciousness and counter dominant stereotypes of black inferiority."

This article discusses the Harlem Renaissance in terms of the contribution of women and how they were often overlooked. This article provides additional insight into the culture of the period in which Invisible Man takes place and the role of women. This article provides support for an essay discussing the roles and oppression of gender in Invisible Man.

"Many of the contributions of women and sexual minorities to the Harlem Renaissance were overlooked, minimized, or forgotten in the decades after the movement."

Source which coincides with Ellison's novel-ending accusation, that everyone, regardless of color or gender, oppresses someone else. In this case, IM oppresses women, viewing them as sex objects, rather than as living, breathing, human beings. Although he knows it's hypocritical to protest dehumanization and then to use people for himself, he allows himself to be swept away and to use the women anyway.

In this article, the author tracks the growth of identity of IM from beginning to end, through three questions. The quotes are long, so I won't post them.

this discusses the archetypal oppression situation. As one group is oppressed, before trying to liberate themselves, they try to conform to the way of their oppressors because they sub-consciously redefine what it is to be a human. We see examples of this in both Malcolm x and Invisible man.

shows alienation used by Ellison as a strategy in the invisible man, connecting it to slavery, Frederick Douglass, the postwar attitude of the 1940s, and the civil rights movement, all of which can be connected to Malcolm X.

"Oklahoma-a rogue state of sorts, Southern in geography, but not slaveholding-gave mixed messages to the young Ellison"

This source discusses the background of Ralph Ellison, and his upbringing and how it shaped the way he wrote "Invisible Man". The source shows how his childhood and experiences make the novel have themes and topics still relevant today.

this article highlights the fact that the only effective disobedience in Invisible Man is violent disobedience, because civil disobedience never works in the novel. Whenever action is taken, serious action, it is taken with force.

"Much of the Invisible Man's experience is betrayal by the people and ideals that he trusts"

This source provides detailed examples of how IM's experiences are plagued by betrayal, both by white people and black people.

This shows the rebirth of the narrator in which the scale begins to tip in favor of his maturity. By wiping the slate clean with the destruction of his memory, he is able to move on with his life and see the oppression that the whites use to keep the blacks invisible