Invisible Man, Ralph Waldo Ellison

(1952)

the end is also the beginning

He lives in a "warm hole" with lots of light bulbs, stealing electricity, and Louis Armstrong/ He is hibernating in his warm hole in anticipation of future action

Grew up "model black" citizen

His grandparents were former slaves freed after Civil War, his grandfather, who had always been considered meek, confesses his anger at the white-controlled system, say he's a coward

Everybody works to ignore him, including IM, but his words keep following IM, although he is super obedient as he grows up

HS speech on the importance of humility to black progress (ie., blacks can progress as long as white are reco. as superior);

Speech-->Hotel-->Lady Naked-->Battle Royal-->rug/fake money-->Speech/bloody mouth-->Negro College in New York

His dream after the Battle Royal: "To whom it may concern -- keep this N*-boy running!"

Black in/visibility

Improvisational, jazz-inspired style, lit. equivalent of jazz

rejection of ideology in general

IM takes Mr. Norton (white founder of Negro College) to old slave quarters, N hears about Trueblood impregnating his daughter, they go to a black bar/mental inst(???), ...etc. etc. then IM is kicked out of school for showing Mr. Norton not an idealized part of being black.

Letters of rec-->no job-->OPPOSITE OF HELPING HIM

Paint store, mistaken for unioner, hospital after blow up, ELECTROSHOCK LAB RAT // DANCE :(

Mary Rambo lets him live with her / eviction spech

Brother Jack -- white man/ brother hood--multiracial, communist

gains prestige in Harlem community

Then moved downtown to "women's issues"

Tod Cliffton, a fellow young Black brother is missing. Harlem is worse, then IM finds Clifton selling Sambo dolls in the street--police shoot him, IM wants a public funeral, but Brotherhood thinks it's a bad idea--any public demonstrations

Ras the exhorter/destroyer -- black nationalist, anti-brotherhood

Narrator disguises himself, two men follow him, he calls himself Rinehart--diff. identities like pimp, gambler, reverend

Harlem--race riot--Brotherhood's plan all along?! Ras urges further destruction

Narrator eludes capture--falls down manhole, he realizes full extent of the Brotherhood manipulation

SO he needs a plan of action; will hibernate until then.

Etc.
Conflict b/w self-perception and projection of others

only by isolation can he come to understand himself

identity defined by race-invisibility

use him to suit own purposes

collective v. individual

"what ends up being the key to black progress?"

"Brotherhood's attitude toward race?"

Narrator uses the perspective of his past to derive new feelings/opinions on his experiences

Brotherhood tells him to put aside his past--but he must square with the past, acknowledge and embrace it

Embrace past, not reject shameful parts

White male pale, always, even when not explicit

Flatter white founders / college education--racial uplist, or just another way to keep blacks more firmly enslaved?

Only hold power at "generosity" of white men

Hopelessness of his ambitions/futility

White women, often paralleled to black situation, although they don't know it(?)

No real commentary of black women

manipulated for white people's entertainment (Sambo, battle royal)

in his quest to discover/uncover his identity, neither south nor north is helpful (college, sybil,etc.)

He's still only how he is perceived by others

Invisibility also gives him mobility

coming of age

"I had no desire to destroy myself even if it destroyed the machine. I wanted freedom, not destruction."

* Benito Cereno quote! -- AA invisible, yet cast long shadows