Invisible Man Essay -- Literary Analysis, Ralph Ellison

Equality between individuals is a primary step to prosperity under a democracy. However, does this moral continue to apply among differences and distinct characters of the total population? In the novel, Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, the protagonists suffers from the lack of acknowledgement guaranteed to African Americans in both the North and South regions of North America during the early 1900s. The Narrator expresses the poignant problems that blacks face as he travels to the North. An anti-hero is created on his voyage of being expelled from college, earning a job at Liberty Paints, and joining the organization group called Brotherhood. The Narrator begins to follow the definition others characters give to him while fighting for the possibility of black rights. On a hero’s journey to a tragic downfall, the Narrator attempts to help the community of Harlem despite of his black individuality, invisibility, and alienation in society. Family and childhood experiences are the backbone to one’s interests, personality, and view of the world in which they live in. Ralph Ellison’s biological grandparents were part of the movement of colonialism as slaves. His father, Lewis Ellison, brought the family to Oklahoma when he became a construction foreman. Ralph Ellison was exposed to the life of his parents fighting to keep segregation laws nonexistent in the Oklahoma constitution as a child. Ralph Ellison’s father named him after Ralph Waldo Emerson in hopes that his destiny would bring him to become a poet. The start of his interests in literature first came when his mother worked for a minister who owned many books or when she cleaned the homes of those who owned magazines. Oklahoma did not have slavery during the movement when Ralph... ...ibility for an ordinary black. According to David LittleJohn, the novel is not an assault on the demeanors of a white society. On the contrary, the novel shows how blacks are not free from the racial discrimination and combat. With restrictions, the Narrator follows the path of leadership under a race war. People are not accepting of the achievements that can result from the same equality among whites. Each person in the general public has the responsibility to stop the alienation occurring. Each human being should have the same rights in the world. The enemies of man are those that separate and categorize each group of people by ethnicity. When this happens, each group of people is labeled by an instable social order (Littlejohn, David. "Criticism by David Littlejohn." DISCovering Authors. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Student Resources In Context. Web. 2 Mar. 2011).