Invisible Man Identity Essay Example For Students

Invisible Man Identity Essay Who the hell am I? (Ellison 386) This question puzzled the invisible man, the unidentified, anonymous narrator of Ralph Ellisons acclaimed novel Invisible Man. Throughout the story, the narrator embarks on a mental and physical journey to seek what the narrator believes is true identity, a belief quite mistaken, for he, although unaware of it, had already been inhabiting true identities all along.The narrators life is filled with constant eruptions of mental traumas. The biggest psychological burden he has is his identity, or rather his misidentity. He feels wearing on the nerves (Ellison 3) for people to see him as what they like to believe he is and not see him as what he really is. Throughout his life, he takes on several different identities and none, he thinks, adequately represents his true self, until his final one, as an invisible man.The narrator thinks the many identities he possesses does not reflect himself, but he fails to recognize that identity is simply a mirror that reflects the surrounding and the person who looks into it. It is only in this reflection of the immediate surrounding can the viewers relate the narrators identity to. The viewers see only the part of the narrator that is apparently connected to the viewers own world. The part obscured is unknown and therefore insignificant. Lucius Brockway, an old operator of the paint factory, saw the narrator only as an existence threatening his job, despite that the narrator is sent there to merely assist him. Brockway repeatedly question the narrator of his purpose there and his mechanical credentials but never even bother to inquire his name. Because to the old fellow, who the narrator is as a person is uninterested. What he is as an object, and what that objects relationship is to Lucius Brockways engine room is important. The narrators identity is derived from this relationship, and this relationship suggests to Brockway that his identity is a threat. However the viewer decides to see someone is the identity they assign to that person. The Closing of The American Mind, by Allan Bloom, explains this identity phenomenon by comparing two ships of states (Bloom 113). If one ship is to be forever at sea, and K another is to reach port and the passengers go their separate ways, they think about one another and their relationships on the ship very differently in the two cases (Bloom 113). In the first state, friends will be acquainted and enemies will be formed, while in the second state, the passengers will most likely not bother to know anyone new, and everyone will get off the ship and remain strangers to one another. A persons identity is unalike to every different viewer at every different location and situation. This point the narrator senses but does not fully understand. During his first Brotherhood meeting, he exclaimed, I am a new citizen of the country of your vision, a native of your fraternal land! (Ellison 328) He preaches to others the fact that identity is transitional yet he does not accept it himself. Maybe he thought it distressing being liked not for being his true self but because of the identity he puts on or being hated not for being himself but because of his identity. To Dr. Bledsoe, the principal of the black southern university where the narrator attended, the narrator is a petty black educated fool (Ellison 141). To Mr. Norton, a rich white trustee of the black university, the narrator is a simple object intertwined with his fate, a mere somebody, he explained to the narrator, that were somehow connected with his (Mr. Nortons) destiny (Ellison 41). To the organizers of the Brotherhood, Jack, Tobitt, and the others, the narrator is what they designed him to be. They designed for him an identity of a social speaker and leader, and to his listeners and followers, he is just that. Those were his multiple identities and none were less authentic than the others because to his onlookers, he is what his identities say he is, even if he thinks differently. The narrator always had a desire for people who could give him a proper reflection of his importance (Ellison 160). But there is no such thing as a proper reflection because his importance varies among different people. Subconsciously, he craves attention. He wants recognition and status, and wants to be honored as someone special. Stand Up And Fight Essay Like a stereotype, identity exists externally from the person it identifies because it exists within the eye of the viewer. The narrator during his fight with a white man on the street suddenly realized that he is fighting a person that had not seen him (Ellison 4). However that white man does see him, just that he is seen through an identity not too sincere in respect. The narrator is disgusted with people stereotyping him, therefore he wants to believe himself as invisible. He does not want to speak at Cliftons funeral yet the people will not leave until he performs what is expected of him to give a speech. He comes to view his fame as a stereotype no different than that of those black brothers who entertained them, white people, with stories so often that they white people laughed even before these fellows opened their mouths (Ellison 413). The narrator can believe himself to be whatever he wants. But what he sees of himself is not what others see of him. He cannot decide for others how to see him, although he can influence the way people see him V just as easy as how J. H. Griffin adopted his new identities when he wakes up in a black mans skin (Griffon 161). According to The Closing of the American Mind, all identities depends on the free consent of individuals (Bloom 110). A president holds his identity only because people elect to see him that way, otherwise he is like any ordinary Joe; even if he thinks of himself as really nothing more than of common flesh and bones, he is no less a president because his identity is for the public to perceive and not for himself. Even if there is a single person who considers him a president, he is a president to that person. Just like how the narrator is perceived as a fink when he stumbled into a Union meeting. That is his identity in that particular occasion, to those particular people, despite he truthfully denies it. Because identity is something K which one has no control (Griffon 7).He believes he finally found his true identity when he realizes he is invisible to his surroundings; therefore, he assumes invisibility. However, invisibility is only his way to avoid reality. He is not invisible but simply not seen as what he thinks he should be seen as. He feels invisible only because no one really understands him, but in reality, can any person be fully understood? A person can only be understood to an extent. Not even a brother or sister, a best friend, a spouse, or a persons parents who created him or her can totally understand. Nobody is seen exactly as what they want to be seen as, but that does not mean they are invisible, just that the identity they have on might not be what they desire for.Despite the narrators belief that after his long journey, he has finally found the true understanding of identity and discovered his real identity, he is mistaken, for all the identities he experienced were real. He is the same human individual, seen differently only in appearance (Griffon 161) and that shows invisibility is a false revelation. Every different person who sees him, holds a unique perception of him, even if he does not like how he is perceived; it is still a unique identity of his very being, and that identity is real on a simple basis that it exist. Because identity is a tool for the beholder to assess the identified, therefore it belongs to the beholder and not the identified. Without people around, a person will not have an identity and there will be no need for one. That is the whole reasoning behind identity.Works Cited:Bloom, Allan (1988). The Closing Of The American Mind. (First Touchstone Ed. ). New York: Simon Schuster Inc.Ellison, Ralph (1994). Invisible Man. (Library Ed.). New York: Random House, Inc.Griffon, John Howard (1996). Black Like Me. (35th Anniversary Ed.). New York: Penguin Books USA Inc.