RalphEllison’s literary masterpiece, Invisible Man, explores the status of
the black man in mid-century America. In the process, it pays special attention
to the conflict between his personal identity and that which is given to him as
a member of the African-American community in a larger, national context during
a time of rampant racism.
Numerous
scholars, such as Warren and Howe, have pointed out the symbolism of color that
pervades the novel and amplifies its meaning. However, the treatment of light
itself is rarely touched upon in literary criticism. Light was not
scientifically well understood at the time of the novel’s writing and, in fact,
remains poorly understood to this day.
In
Invisible Man, light is used to represent a clearly mysterious force
that, while illuminating whatever was in focus, managed to remain itself
unknown and apparently unknowable. Ralph Ellison used light as a metaphor for
identity and as a device to frame the isolation brought on by intellectual
honesty. This becomes clear particularly in the face of self-serving political
parties, commonly united only by their widespread corruption and brought to his
attention personally by his own betrayal by the Communist party.
The
key to understanding this interpretation of Invisible Man lies in
grasping Ellison’s personal hopes and desires that he felt could be achieved
through affiliation with the Communists. He had spent the years prior to World
War Two writing for numerous Marxist publications, such as The New Masses,
and later found both himself and his people betrayed by the gradual change in
scope from Marxist class politics towards social reform. The black proletariat was
being handed the short end of the hammer, sickle notwithstanding.
Ellison’s
struggle, as it was being felt by millions of other Americans, is revealed by
two major elements. On one hand, there is the nuanced interpretation of Invisible
Man’s overt Marxist themes, in particular its treatment of the Brotherhood,
within the structure of its extended use of light as a metaphor.
On
the other hand, there is the interplay between this and the other political
values expressed throughout the book. It becomes more obvious during the Second
Red Scare that was beginning to take hold at the time of the novel’s release
and which continued to construct a massively dehumanizing era. This era is
governed by the Communist witch hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy as the
country plunged further into Cold War fear mongering.
1. Summary
In
Invisible Man, Ellison portrays a nameless black man who declares
himself socially invisible, giving a first-person account of his past. Telling
the story from a point in the future, the narrator has already experienced the
outcome of his numerous betrayals.
The
first time, it was at the hands of the important white men who gave him a
scholarship to a prestigious black college after forcing him to fight in a
humiliating blindfolded battle royal. The second time, it was by the college
president Dr. Bledsoe.
He
is later betrayed by his black, anti-union supervisor at the Liberty Paints
plant, by the hospital staff following his altercation at the plant, and then
by the Brotherhood, who use his oratory skills for their own needs, making him
an enemy of the Black Nationalist leader Ras the Exhorter.
At
the climax of the story, he flees from the police down a manhole cover where he
remains since and becomes effectively invisible on a social level. Even the two
instances of sexual relations with women, both white, that occur in the story
are shown to be wholly designed for using the narrator on account of his skin
color, as part of a widespread black sexual stereotype.
2.
Light As A Symbol For Identity And
Honesty In Invisible Man
The
long series of betrayals serves as the primary marker of structure in Invisible
Man. Throughout the story, the narrator moves from one situation to
another, each climaxing with a form of betrayal that leads him further into the
light of truth and self-discovery while destroying him socially.
The
use of light, as represented in the story, creates a sense of sharp contrast
between the affirmed, self-aware individuals who are capable of vision, and the
blind, self-righteous representatives of organizations. The only pleasures of
the latter are derived from pushing forward various social and political
agendas at the cost of the narrator’s sense of identity.
2.1. Light
And Isolation In The Beginning
By
the time he reaches the end of this road, he is living in a disused room
underneath an all-white apartment complex where he siphons power from
Monopolated Light & Power to create a space, “full of light. I doubt if
there is a brighter spot in all New York than this hole of mine, and do not
exclude Broadway.” (Ellison 12).
That
brightness is, in fact, the knowledge of his own identity. It has served both to
excise the narrator from society entirely and to give him the ability to
understand himself, not as a functionary whose usefulness is defined by some
organization, but as a complex individual human being. By running 1,369 light bulbs constantly in order to create
this effect of extreme light, Ellison has shown a link between the brightness of
elucidation and truth and the isolation of the uncompromising hermit.
2.2. Light
Pointing Towards Unachievable Ends
While
the first and most crucial use of light as a literary device within Invisible
Man happens at the very beginning,
the symbol continues to propagate thereafter. When the reader is shown
the actual contents of the recommendation letter written by Dr. Bledsoe, it
concludes with the statement, “I beg of you, sir, to help [the narrator]
continue in the direction of that promise which, like the horizon, recedes ever
brightly and distantly beyond the hopeful traveler.” (Ellison 388).
The
key word in this passage is, “brightly”, where it is shown that the promise in
question, though seemingly false when compared to what Dr. Bledsoe had said, was
entirely correct. The “bright” future, however, was not one working in the
employ of this reputable company - it was surrounded by the stolen light of
more than a thousand bulbs in the ultimate conclusion of ever increasing
self-knowledge and actualization.
2.3. Light
And Blindness
Only
a moment after the preceding scene is complete, the man to whom the narrator is
speaking advises him, “There is no point in blinding yourself to the truth.
Don’t blind yourself…” and later claims that the narrator has been, “freed”
(Ellison 390). The theme of blindness, as explained in depth by Warren’s
interpretation of the novel, runs exactly parallel to the use of light as a
device for understanding one’s identity.
In
every case in which blindness is used throughout the novel, it is done in order
to show a character who has failed to fulfill their individual destiny by
glorifying something or someone else. The best examples here are the blind
reverend Homer Barbee, Brother Jack and the narrator’s own experience of fighting
blindfolded in a battle royal in order to earn his right to go to university.
The
important message that Ellison makes apparent through this treatment of
blindness is that it happens because of the participant’s adoption of the
organization’s goals in place of the individual himself. While this is barely
touched upon in the beginning of the novel, it becomes more and more apparent
until, at the end, Brother Hambro spells it out clearly to the narrator.
In
this explanation, however, Brother Hambro is not just speaking on behalf of the
Brotherhood, but, indeed, on behalf of all social organizations and their
destructive relationship with the self-determining nature of the individual,
particular when defined by race.
3.
Defining The Individual Identity
Through Social Organizations
Ralph
Ellison maintains that organizations, especially political ones, are the first
step towards the loss of self that is commonly referred to as blindness in Invisible Man. In every instance where
the narrator was exposed to an organization, it was used to isolate, humiliate
and dehumanize him.
The
message that Ellison seeks to convey through this treatment of social groups is
that they detract from the individual’s ability to conceive of and create their
own purpose in a modern world that largely only wants them to fit into whatever
preconceived mold is ready for them.
3.1. Suffocating
The Self Through Group Identity
Each
of the organizations of which the narrator plays a part serve as an example for
how black people should integrate successfully in society. Whether constructed
in a negative or positive light, the fundamental idea of all the organizations
represented in Invisible Man is that
they and the character in whom their power is vested, know best what kind of
life the narrator should live.
This
theft of choice is often shown through symbolism, such as in the Liberty Paint
factory where a “dead black” mixture was used to create the extra-pure “Optic
White” paint. It is also shown through situational awareness: in the same location,
the narrator finds himself equally disregarded by both his black supervisor and
the white union members.
The
latter place him squarely in the middle of their own interpersonal conflict,
without even letting him participate in the discussion in a meaningful way. In
essence, both sides of the conflict are completely unaware of the narrator’s
humanity, and simply see him as another piece to their puzzle.
3.2. The
Dim Light Of Those Who Can Define Themselves
Once the narrator returns from his first
encounter with the union, he is interrogated by his black, anti-union
supervisor, Brockway, while “seeing
how the light caught on his wrinkled forehead, his snowy hair” (Ellison 456).
Here, Ellison describes the light in reference to a man who is self-aware and
who has made it clear that he defines his identity, poorly as it may be,
through Liberty Paints, which Brockway has already stated would not exist
without him.
In
the next sentence, he describes, “looking at [Brockway] through a kind of
mist”, which displays the fact that the narrator does not yet understand what
this identity means. He is not aware of his own identity either and, more
importantly at this moment, does not understand Brockway’s ability to define
himself through the organization that Liberty Paints represents on a
socio-political level: that of capitalism (Ellison 456). This leads to a
physical confrontation that distracts both men from the pressure valves,
leading to an explosion that lands the narrator in a hospital.
3.3. The Many Inevitable Betrayals
At the hospital, the narrator is again
subjected to torment at the hands of an organization that was, in theory,
created to help him. Critically, this torment takes the form of electricity,
which is shortly understood to be thematically combined with light. In his
amnesia, the narrator is asked who he is, and responds by telling the reader
that the question, “seemed to
set off a series a weak and distant lights… Who am I?” (Ellison 488).
His
total loss of identity is defined by the darkness of amnesia that was treated
with painful electric current that was again defined as, “dazzling with lights”.
It was forced upon him by an organization whose ostensible virtue was to help
people recover from illness and injury, but whose only real goal was to reduce
him to a test subject for their own purposes (Ellison 492).
In
each case where the narrator finds himself as part of an organization,
regardless of the stated, intended or explicitly promised goals thereof, he is
betrayed, tricked, or otherwise used in a dehumanizing manner. Ellison clearly
points out this as being the result of the organization’s self-serving nature
at the expense of individual identity.
This
is where darkness and blindness are combined into a complex literary device
through which the narrator explains to the reader that those institutions: the
schools, religions, businesses, hospitals and social platforms of which he
found himself a part were, in fact, all designed to push him down while
extending their own goals at any cost.
The
narrator consistently finds himself drawn in against his own will, defined by
those who seek to crush his identity and replace it with their own, and then
give him nothing in return but their condemnation, betrayal, and violence.
4.
Self-Definition Through Isolation:
Shortcomings Of The Early Marxists
The most important elements
of this novel are only available to the close reader who is
aware of the Marxist overtones present throughout, as well as being aware of Ellison’s personal history with the young Communist Party.
aware of the Marxist overtones present throughout, as well as being aware of Ellison’s personal history with the young Communist Party.
Free of the modern
connotations that Communism elicits nowadays, the younger Ellison found himself
attracted to the promise of a free, fair worker’s paradise, of the equality that America had never quite managed to
offer its black citizens before.
He became involved with this
seemingly futuristic, utopian political party and then quickly lost his faith
as it became increasingly clear that the promises being made were, like so many
others, not for him. In response, he colors this aspect of the Invisible Man’s narrator’s story with
the beginning of hope after numerous betrayals leading only further into the
inevitable isolation of self-discovery.
4.1. The History Behind Invisible Man’s Communist Allegory
Upon leaving the hospital and collapsing
in the street, the narrator is treated to the first acts of kindness described
so far in his adventure. This kindness comes not from an organization, but from
an individual named Mary Rambo who takes him in and nurses him back to health.
At this point, light leaves the
narrative until the narrator describes, “a spot of black anger” that “threw off a red hot light of
such intensity…” inside himself, and which led to him joining the Brotherhood,
Ellison’s allegory for the Communist party (Ellison 568).
As
related to fellow author Richard Wright in the 1940’s, concerning his treatment
by the Communist party, Polsgrove quotes Ellison: “‘If they want to play ball with the
bourgeoisie they needn't think they can get away with it…’ [and] In the wake of
this disillusion, Ellison began writing Invisible Man, a novel that was,
in part, his response to the party's betrayal.” (32)
The
foundation for Ellison’s disenfranchisement was the manner in which African
Americans were treated by the early Marxists who felt that, while it was
beneficial to receive support from African Americans, any form of Black
Nationalism was completely out of the question.
As
Robinson writes, “Black nationalism was intolerable to a movement so constantly
close to foundering on national and ethnic divisions” (218). This created a
division between the nationalists, depicted in the novel through characters
such as the sinister Ras The Exhorter and the communists that could never be
restored.
4.2. Half-Blind
Leadership
The identity crisis that begins to
plague the narrator at this point in the story is given form by his attempt to
integrate into the Brotherhood and their resulting use of him for his oratory
ability. After the death of Tod Clifton at the hands of the police, the narrator’s unapproved
funeral earns him harsh treatment from Brother Jack, who serves to represent
the organization as it beats the narrator down and robs him of his identity in
the process.
Brother
Jack’s ideological rant, along with the symbolic dropping of his false eye, shows
a critical moment in which the narrator’s simple ability to make a decision was
met with derision and led to his inevitable later status as a pariah.
The
false eye again uses blindness as a device that shows the manner by which the
Brotherhood’s ideological intention, which Ellison agreed with at one point,
suffers from the practical impossibility of reaching that promised point,
symbolized by Jack’s half-blindness.
In
the eyes of the Brotherhood, the narrator is not a human being whose real
social and political needs carry any relevance. He is simply a mouthpiece for
their agenda, which, by that point, no longer included anything of value for
him or for the people he represented.
4.3. Resolving
Ideological Conflict Without Identity
In
this particular situation, the narrator was put in the middle of two organized,
ideological forces that refused to offer him the chance the speak up and assert
his own identity. While the Brotherhood claims to be working for the common
people, the black nationalists represented by Ras The Exhorter see the attempt
as futile and turn the narrator into an enemy.
As
a result, violence breaks out quickly as ideologies are taken to their logical
extremes and each one attempts to use the narrator as a vessel for their own
needs. Irving Howe, a longtime critic and detractor of Ellison’s, writes,
“Ideology is sometimes treated by the American novelists as if it were… private
experience.
Those
massive political institutions, parties and movements… are barely present…”
(190) in a clear shot at Ellison, who is targeted as the, “American novelist”
in particular. What Howe failed to realize, however, is that this intensely
character-based depiction of ideology is exactly what gives Invisible Man its
social power.
By
consolidating the ideologies inside the characters that express them, readers
are introduced only to the actions that the ideologies inspire, and are left
only with the impressions of those actions on the narrator, who is pushed
through their gears for as long as he remains useful.
Ellison
points out that the actual ideologies in question are not as important as the
manners in which they are twisted by individuals. They are turned into
mechanisms for destroying the individual in the name of creating a better
environment for whatever social class the ideology caters to most.
For
Communism and Marxism, the proletariat remains the obsession of every
ideological standpoint, while, for Black Nationalism, it is not just the
African-American, but only those somehow untainted by white culture.
5.
Reaching Atonement And Identifying
The Self
Each of these experiences comes
through Ellison to the reader in the form of the narrator, who is placed
through constant trials arising from his inability to assert an identity in a
world that is dictating one for him through whatever socio-political powers he
comes into contact with.
The education system, and, later,
corporate capitalism as embodied by Liberty Paint are given a great deal of
significance towards defining the narrator’s sense of self and identity for him.
However, the highlight of these conflicts remains the isolating struggle
between The Brotherhood and Ras The Exhorter’s black nationalists.
As Warren later suggested,
“Ellison’s reflections on his craft could not help but cast light on the
construction of reconstruction of the problem of the color line” (23). Through this, he means to indicate that, on
both sides, and again through the symbol provided by light, the basis of race
is used both by racists and assertive non-racists in a way that makes political
self-determination impossible.
The
backwards characteristic of Black Nationalism is shown very clearly in
Ellison’s work, as the color line is made unclear by individuals who eschew
identification with the self for that with a group. That identification along
the color line, as well as the Brotherhood’s identification along the line of
social class is shown to be the first step into organized political tyranny.
Once
Brother Hambro tells the narrator clearly that the individual is of no
importance, his ego death is complete. It is from here that the story’s final
elements come into play. The narrator takes part in a race riot through the
symbolic act of burning down a building. He is confronted by Ras The Exhorter
who blames the Brotherhood for not making better use of the funeral for
Clifton, and takes this anger out personally on the narrator.
As
a result, the narrator is forced into hiding and it is only there that he
manages to fully assume his own humanity as a self-determined, complex
individual. It is at this point, hiding deep underground, that his transition
into full invisibility has been completed, and the narrator comes to terms with
the fact that he “has no meaningful
identity until, illuminated by hundreds of light bulbs, he realizes that he is
an invisible man” (Stark 60).
The
narrator, having fulfilled his desire to complete the memoir of his transition,
then tells the reader that he finally feels ready to emerge again into society
and to fulfill his role as a meaningful, complex individual. It is time for him
to define himself and his own needs without being assigned a role by some
nebulous higher authority.
Having
fully isolated himself and coming completely into the light of self-realization
and identity, he is now prepared to face the world on his own and establish his
own road to self-determination. He will no longer allow himself to be used and
defined by others for their own gain.
Ellison
universalizes this in his widely celebrated last sentence that directly addresses
the reader and shows that all people, as social beings, are subject to the
whims of the authorities. These authorities thrust them into darkness in an
attempt to define them as useful for their own causes, but, through the light
of honest appraisal, self-determination can be reached, embodied, and even
enjoyed.
