Character Analysis Of Invisible Man - 711 Words

The narrator not only tells the story of Invisible Man, he is also its principal character. Because Invisible Man is a bildungsroman (a type of novel that chronicles a character’s moral and psychological growth), the narrative and thematic concerns of the story revolve around the development of the narrator as an individual. Additionally, because the narrator relates the story in the first person, the text doesn’t truly probe the consciousness of any other figure in the story. Ironically, though he dominates the novel, the narrator remains somewhat obscure to the reader; most notably, he never reveals his name. The names that he is given in the hospital and in the Brotherhood, the name of his college, even the state in which the college is†¦show more content†¦As a result, just as a division exists between Ellison and the narrator, a division arises between the narrator as a narrator and the narrator as a character. Ellison renders the narrator’s voice a s that of a man looking back on his experiences with greater perspective, but he ensures that the reader sees into the mind of the still-innocent character. He does so by having the narrator recall how he perceived of events when they happened rather than offer commentary on these events with the benefit of hindsight. The narrator’s innocence prevents him from recognizing the truth behind others’ errant behavior and leads him to try to fulfill their misguided expectations. He remains extremely vulnerable to the identity that society thrusts upon him as an African American. He plays the role of the servile black man to the white men in Chapter 1; he plays the industrious, uncomplaining disciple of Booker T. Washington during his college years; he agrees to act as the Brotherhood’s black spokesperson, which allows the Brotherhood to use him. But the narrator also proves very intelligent and deeply introspective, and as a result, he is able to realize the extent to which his social roles limit him from discovering his individual identity. He gradually assumes a mask of invisibility in order to rebel against this limitation. The narrator first dons the mask after his falling-out with the Brotherhood, in Chapter 22. He becomes even more invisible in Chapter 23,Show MoreRelatedInvisible Man Character Analysis1760 Words   |  8 Pagesmoment in the text, if they ever physically make an appearance at all. It is the comical distortion of their nonexistent or brief physical occurrence in the text that demands a closer examination and analysis of the character to the text as a whole. Ralph Ellison fabricated such a character in Invisible Man, famously known by all of Harlem as Rinehart. Rinehart never physically appears in the novel, and is only known to both the reader and the narrator for his various reputations. While the narratorRead MoreInvisible Man Character Analysis1533 Words   |  7 PagesIf you skipped from the end of the prologue of Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, all the way until the protagonist’s eviction speech, you would probably pick up the plot and character developments without a p roblem. The first few ordeals described in the novel can be infuriating because of the narrator’s naà ¯ve outlook and his persistence in trying to follow a ‘respectable’ path upwards in life. All of the psychological shifts that lead up to the captivating scenario from the first few pages happenRead MoreInvisible Man-Character Analysis1691 Words   |  7 Pagesthroughout the South through cooperating with the white people 6. died in 1915 To those of my race who depend on bettering their condition in a foreign land or who underestimate the importance of cultivating friendly relations with the Southern white man, who is their next-door neighbour, I would say: â€Å"Cast down your bucket where you are†Ã¢â‚¬â€cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded.   Cast it down in agriculture, mechanics, in commerce, in domesticRead MoreThe Invisible Man Character Analysis1150 Words   |  5 PagesH.G wells and Joyce Carol Oates utilize negative emotions of their characters in order to showcase the complexities of their motives. Griffin, the protagonist of the book The Invisible Man, is egotistical and selfish, but this is just his outer emotions. Throughout the story there are hints at a complex background behind the famed invisible man that contribute to the reason for his erratic behavior. This is the same with the Arnold Friend, the main antagonist for Wells short story Where Are You GoingRead MoreCharacter Analysis Of Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man920 Words   |  4 Pagesnovel Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, the main character, Invisible Man, is taken on a journey to find himself and who he is. Along the way, he meets multiple people who change and morph him, but he comes to find out that he had been invisible the whole time. Not physically, of course; he could be touched and people saw him. But just because people saw him, doesn’t mean he was being seen. He was irrelevant and unnecessary, according to that time period’s society and standards. He was invisible, andRead MoreCharacter Analysis of Brother Jack and Brother Tod in Ralph Ellison’s, The Invisible Man696 Words   |  3 PagesRalph Ellison’s â€Å"The Invisible Man†, is a novel that reveals the characters psychological growth. Also, in this novel the story revolves around the narrator as an individual. In this novel the narrator relates t he whole story in a first person point of view in which his name is never revealed. The narrator remains a voice throughout the entire novel, never establishing a concrete presence in the story. This is why he is looked at as an â€Å"invisible man.† In the novel, he is an African AmericanRead MoreAnalysis Of The Prologue Of Ralph Ellison s Invisible Man1367 Words   |  6 PagesIn the prologue of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the unnamed narrator says that he is invisible, for he is not actually seen—or rather recognized—for his true self but through the imaginations of others’ minds. As surreal as his life under this â€Å"invisibility† and, literally, the ground is, the Invisible Man convinces with vivid details and emphatic diction. But the passage detailing his hallucination seems out of place, as it has far more ambiguous language and moral. However, his hallucinationRead MoreInvisible Man1629 Words   |  7 PagesAmanda Trujillo Gianunzio English 1B 24 October 2017 Invisible Man: Impact of Invisibility and Blindness on Individual identity The themes of blindness and invisibility are evident throughout the novel. The society is blind to the behavior and characteristics of the narrator. The narrator makes himself invisible since he knows the society already sees him as an unimportant individual. The aspect of invisibility is evident throughout the novel including his aim of impressing the white, his innocenceRead MoreInvisible Man by Ralph Ellison Essay1403 Words   |  6 Pages nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;In Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man, the narrator is a young, African-American male who believes that he is invisible. Throughout the novel, he spends a great amount of time and effort trying to figure out his identity and find a way to make himself visible in society. One of the narrator’s main attempts brings him to join an organization known as the Brotherhood, where he is able to utilize his talent for public speaking as an advocate for the Brotherhood and allRead MoreBlack Men And The Brotherhood Essay1422 Words   |  6 Pagesblack men to amplify their visibility and expedite their success. The Brotherhood is an organization led by Brother Jack that entices the Invisible Man, recruits him, and takes advantage of his invisibility to spark a riot in the streets of Harlem. The Brotherhood takes advantage of his invisibility in multiple ways: the organization advises the Invisible Man during his speeches, the organization sends him across New York as it see fit, the organization gives him money, and the organization fuels