《看不见的人》中“不可见”的根本原因

1.2 The contents of Invisible Man .....................................................3

Part II Invisibility Reflected in Three Main Life Phases of the Hero....................5

2.1 Invisibility in University Life...........................................................5

2.2 Invisibility in New York.............................................................6

2.3 Invisibility in Brotherhood.............................................................7 

Part III Root Causes of Invisibility of the hero.................................................9

3.1 Racial discrimination..................................................................9

3.2 Self-Loss of the hero........................................................................10

3.3 Economic development of capitalism................................................12

Conclusion.........................................................................................14

Acknowledgements...............................................................................15

Notes................................................................................................16

Bibliography..........................................................................................17

 

 

Introduction

Ralph•Ellison is an American novelist, essayist, short story writer, and critic. He is regarded as one of the most influential and accomplished American authors for this highly acclaimed novel. He has come to be recognized as one of the most important contemporary writers in America. The novel not only brings Ellison great honors at home, but also abroad. 

This novel is a story about an educated young southern Negro who tries his best to be excellent but never achieve the personal success. He tries to be an honest black to please the white American with humility. He tries his best to search for a space in American industry to be a suitable "gear" of the "machine". He joins the Brotherhood to find the true himself but never find who he is. No matter where he turns to, someone is trying to make him invisible and disappear. He comes to realize that he is an invisible man and is rejected by the racial American society. When his entire dreams end, he sets him in a hidden basement. In this novel, the hero attempt to get self-realization. And this process to get self-realization is the process of his self-discovery. This process made the hero moves from naïve faith to full awareness of himself and of the society.

Invisible Man has been a success in American literature. Many scholars at home and abroad have studied its theme, symbols and images. Different people shares different opinions. But only a few people have studied the causes of the hero's invisibility. This thesis will focus on it.

This thesis is divided into three parts. Part one will give a brief introduction to Ralph•Ellison and his popular work Invisible Man. Part two will deal with the invisibility reflected in the hero's three main life phases. That is in college life, in New York and in the Brotherhood. Part three is the main body of this thesis. It will mainly discuss the root causes of the invisibility of the hero. Racial discrimination and self-loss and the economic development of the capitalism are the main causes in this analysis. This thesis will give focus on the root cause of the invisibility of the hero and will analyze it in detail.

 

Part I Introduction to Ralph•Ellison and Invisible Man

Invisible Man, the most important work of Ralph Ellison, has been regarded as one of the American classics and an epic which reflects the modern African-American life. Because of its unique themes and special styles, the novel has attracted great attention in the field of literary culture. In this chapter, some reviews on the author of Invisible man and several opinions on Invisible man are represented. Though the novel has been considerably interpreted and criticized from different perspectives, the analysis of root cause of the invisibility in Invisible Man has been little explored so far. 

1.1 The brief introduction to Ralph•Ellison

Ralph•Ellison was one of the most popular black writers in the history of American literature and he was considered the father of African-American modernism. He had made a great of contribution both to African-American literature and the whole American literary creation.

In 1914, Ralph•Ellison was born in a black family in Oklahoma which country was located in the middle south of American. His father was Lewis Alfred. He was a building worker and smaller retailer. He named his son Ralph Waldo Ellison with the hope of making Ellison the successful man in literary. This action was out of the renowned American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th century. His mother was a domestic servant who also hoped her son to be a successful person. She used to bring books to her son from the family she worked for. So Ralph Ellison was lost in different kinds of books at the young age. He tried his best to be excellent in every aspect of his life. In 1933, he attended the Tuskegee Institution which was called Tuskegee University at the present. He studied very hard in this institution and won a lot of prize. In 1936, he went to New York City to study carving. At that time, New York City was the cultural and literary center of African-American. Here he made a lot of friends including Richard Wright who gave him a lot of help in his work creation. In 1937, encouraged by Richard Wright Ellison wrote a critical article. Then Ellison began his literary career.

During the years from 1939 to 1944, Ellison published eight short stories among which two excellent stories were Flying Home and King of Bingo. This made Ellison became very famous in literary. As a matter of fact, all of his early writings have paved the way for creation of his masterpiece-Invisible Man. 

Ellison spent fives on composing the Invisible Man. At that time, WWⅡwas over with the Nazi. However, real freedom, democracy and happiness had never blessed the American people. It is impossible to eliminate the conflicts of American society. On the contrary, literature, art and mentality were greatly influenced by the violence of Nazi Concentration camp and the destructive damage of atomic bomb. And at that time racial conflicts which had been covered by WWⅡnow became exposed more clearly. In the year 1947, there were about 530 persecutions by private measures in America. A group of particularly sensitive intellects felt a sense of crisis which aroused their rethinking and exploration of humanity, its value and meaning. Under this situation, Ellison wrote the work Invisible Man.#p#分页标题#e#

In 1952, Invisible Man was published. It was regarded as the revolutionary novel. Also it can be regarded as the epic of reflecting the life of black American. In the following year, Ralph•Ellison won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1969, Ellison won American freedom medal for this book. In 1970, he was awarded Chevalier des Arts et Letters by the French government. In 1985, Ellison won American Art Prize. Also for this book, he won fifteen Honors Degree. He was one of the writers who won a lot of prize.

1.2 The contents of Invisible Man

Invisible Man had won a lot of praise after its being printed. In fact the plot of this book is not very complex. The narrator of this book lived in a small Southern town. For centuries, people in this small town were living a life under discrimination. This made them developed the character of obedience and humility.

In middle school, having delivered a successful speech, he was invited to give this speech before a group of important white men. But first he was forced to attend a "battle royal" with other blacks. In this fighting, the narrator was beaten black and blue and blood was filled in his mouth. But he had to give this speech. For a prize, he got a briefcase containing a scholarship to a black college. During his junior year at the college, the narrator is required to give Mr. Norton, a rich white trustee, a tour of the grounds. He accidentally drove him to a black family where the father impregnated his daughter. Mr. Norton got shocked and he wanted some alcohol. The narrator took him to a local tavern where in fact was a brothel. This let Norton know about the dark aspect of the Negro Community. No doubt, the narrator made a mistake which can not be forgiven. The college president Dr. Bledsoe immediately expelled the narrator. But the president wrote seven letters of recommendation for him to help him find job in the north. 

In New York, after many times losing, he found that the contents of this seven letters was just the opposite. He began to wake up and determined to live by himself. He eventually gets a job in the boiler room of a paint factory. One day after turning a wrong valve when the boss attacking him, a boiler exploded. The narrator was hospitalized. While in hospital the doctors discussing him as a mental health patient. This made him lost himself. After the shock treatments the narrator found a residence of a kind, old-fashioned woman by the name of Mary. No longer able to work at the factory, the narrator wandered the streets of New York. Eventually, he came across an elderly couple being evicted from their apartment and gave an important speech rallying passers-by to their cause. His powerful speech made him get the attention of the Brotherhood.

The narrator was at first very happy to be making a difference in the word. But not very long he found the partners in the Brotherhood are simple minded. He was often forced to do something he did not want to do. Walking along the street one day, the narrator was spotted by Ras and roughed up by his men. He bought sunglasses and a hat as a disguise, and was mistaken for a man named Rinehart in a number of different scenarios: first as a lover, then a hipster, a gambler, a briber, and finally as a reverend. This caused the narrator to think about his identity.

In the end of the novel, the narrator fled and felled down a manhole where he was mocked by his pursuers. Rather than try to escape, he decided to make a new life for himself underground, invisible.

 

Part II Invisibility Reflected in Three Main Life Phases of the Hero

Invisible man is talked about the hero searching for his identity. As to the structure of this novel, there exist different opinions. This paper will talk about the invisibility of the hero in his different life stages. The invisibility has been stressed in varied places, which will be discussed as the story was told. But in this paper, the invisibility of the hero is reflected in his three main life phases: college life, life in New York, and the Brotherhood. In each phase, the invisibility is embodied specific and vivid and this paper will analyze the invisibility in detail. 

2.1 Invisibility in University Life 

The story began with a simple sentence "I am an invisible man". He was just a Black American. The hero had no name and no social position. When the hero stayed in South American, he had never experienced the real life and the expectation of himself. In a public speech, he misspoke "social equality" for "social responsibility" and displeased most of the audience, then he was honored a scholarship to a local university for Negroes.

In the university, in order to get success and get the admission of the society, the hero studied hard and preformed well. Then he won recognition from the present who was a respected black man named Bledsoe and who was regarded a successful and powerful person in the eyes of the narrator. In the third year at college, the hero was asked to drive a white trustee, Mr. Norton around the school. Unfortunately,the hero took the White American to some poor places where he should not take the gust to. Because of this, he was driven out of this school. Even though the hero protested, Mr. Bledsoe told him "You are nobody, son. You do not exist---can't you see that? The white folk tell everybody what to think---except men like me. I tell them; that is my life, telling white folk how to think about the things I know about. Shocks you, doesn't it? Well, that is the way it is." [1] In the eyes of the white people, black man wanted to prove their ability by changing the world. This was presented by those like Mr. Bledsoe who shows what the while American wanted to see. In fact the white people just wanted to see what they wished to see. But for the black, they lived in this society. They had no equality with the white American. So the truth of the black people as well as the narrator was invisible to the white people. 

In the University, the hero tried his best to be excellent. But he was cheated by the black present Mr. Bledsoe. The coldness of the society crushed his dream. He was invisible to the American society.

2.2 Invisibility in New York

The hero brought the seven letters to go to New York to look for a job. In this city, sometimes the white people rejected him, and maybe they would immediately apologize to him. But the hero feels that "even they were polite they hardly saw me, that they would have begged the pardon of Jack the Bear, never glancing his way if the bear happened to be walking along minding his business. It was confusing. I did not know if it was desirable or undesirable..."[2] Was this state of invisibility the result of his being black? Exactly not, it was because of the civilized society. In this society, all the people had formed the habit of mechanical courtesy. In another world this was because of the individual invisibility.

Later the hero found a job in a paint plan. In there he had an unpleasant experience because people saw him just his imposed identity not the feature himself. In this paint plan the boss employed the black youth with low price just to fire the skilled labor who should be employed with higher price. So the hero was seen as the scab in the eyes of the workers. The union members in this paint plan treated him very bad. They thought him as an opponent while his supervisor suspects him of spying for the union. This was because of his delaying to return by breaking into one meeting accidently. Then a designed accident was happened. A bomb took place and the hero was taken to a hospital. 

In the hospital, the doctors regarded him as test products. They just wanted to do an operation on his head to cut off his brain to change his opinion about the society and to change him to a tamable person. For a long period of time, the hero lost himself. He did not know who he was and he could not remember his own name. "Whoever else I was, I was no Samson. I had no desire to destroy myself even if it destroyed the machine; I wanted freedom, not destruction. It was exhausting, for no matter what the scheme I conceived, there was one constant flaw---myself. There was no getting around it. I could no more escape than I could think of my identity. When I discover who I am, I will be free." [3] This was the rejection to his humanity and his dignity. He became the truth invisible man in the eyes of the society. This showed that in this society, the black people were staying in the bottom. They had no right and no freedom. So they were controlled by the white American. When the hero was discharged from the hospital, he was so weak that he went down to the ground on the street of New York. He was an invisible man with no name and no identity.

The south and the north have different culture. In north, the black have more freedom in New York. But the hero does not experience his own freedom in this city. On the country, he is also being an invisible man in New York. No one knows his name and no one shows sympathy to him. He is just a black invisible man. 

2.3 Invisibility in Brotherhood

In one speech for an old black couple, the hero was picked out by the leader of the Brotherhood as their spokesman. He then got a new name and new identity, but he had no right to choose the theme of the speech. For a period of time, he was envied by the brothers in this union because of his disobedience to the decision of the Brotherhood and his rising fame among people and the media. The leader who first let him join the Brotherhood now became hate him deeply.

In the Brotherhood, the hero meets two friends, Tod and Ras. Tod was a promising human like the hero. He at last discovered the Brotherhood was playing game on him and the people in here were so innocent. So he got away. But Tod died when he try to escape from the police because of his illegal peddling. Ras was a leader. He wanted to fight against the white people and wanted to own the power of black people. Ras did things at his own will in this Brotherhood. Then he was deprived by the brotherhood cruelly. The Brotherhood took him as the instruments to get their own selfish voice heard more clearly. These two characters both searched for their own identities, but both in vain.#p#分页标题#e#

In the brotherhood, the hero's another friend was Rinehart. Because the hero was also the instrument in this Brotherhood, he wanted to flee. So one day Rinehart helped the hero to escape from here to help the hero become invisible to others. This individual invisibility was also caused by the American society. When the hero knew that he was an invisible man, he ignored the other people's rumor. The other way around he decided to live for himself and remained underground. 

The hero was an invisible man with no name and no identity. The experience in the brotherhood let him know he was an instrument for the union. In this union, he did the thing the leader let him do but for himself he did not want to do. He had no decision no right and no freedom of himself. What he should do was to listen to the leader's order in the brotherhood. For the Brotherhood he was an invisible man, for the American society he was also an invisible man. His identity was a really absurd existence. At last, the hero found himself and found a solution to his state of existence that was living underground.

 

Part III Root Causes of Invisibility of the hero 

The major theme of Invisible Man was about the invisibility of the hero. He was a black man with no name and no identity. He tried his best to perform well to get his own identity. But in that American society to realize this was very hard. There were a lot of reasons to lead the hero to become an invisible man, such as the racial problem existing in American society, the economic development of capitalism, the Black man's self-denial and self-loss and so on. In order to show the causes clearly, this paper will analyze the root causes of invisibility of the hero in detail. 

3.1 Racial discrimination 

Invisible man was written by Ralph Ellison who was an American black writer. In this book he tried to show the society discrimination and racial repression. Du Bois ever pointed out "racial discrimination and racial repression had divided American society into two isolated parts---white man society and black man society". [4] In American, black man could only live in black ghettos. The black were forbidden from staying with the white American. If a black man broke the rule, he would be immediately and cruelly killed by the white people.

Because of the existing of society discrimination, the Afro-American just lived in the black ghettos with poor life and poor education for their children. Every Afro-American was treated particularly from the time he was born. Because of his skin being black, he had no equality with the white man. This was not equal, but no one had the ability to change it. Afro-American stayed in American with two identities. They were American, but in fact they were second class citizens. This society condition had made the Afro-American lack self-confidence and loss their dignity. They were belonging to the weak union in politics, economy and culture, so they needed to obey the white American society. In American, the white man could get cheap labor from the black man. In this aspect they could accept the black. But they hated to contact with the black man just because of their ugly skin. In the eyes of the white man, they could not see the value and the ideology of the black people. They could not hear the voice of the black man. For the American white person, the black were absolutely necessary, but also invisible.

Many black American had tried their best to revolt and to improve their society state, but they were rejected and opposed in every filed by the white American, that was because the American society had been a white-dominated one since its formation. In their mind, the white American were the lord of them, they had to serve white man without any hesitation. They should to please the white man even though they did not want to do so. In the American society, the color of the skin would judge your society position and the right you would have in the world. Living in this society, the black could not be themselves. The black skin brought them a hideous society. They could not see through the white American's nature of racism and they usually unconsciously deceived by the white man.

Invisible man was a story of a short period life experience of a black youth. The novel did reflect the black and white issue in American society. In this book the hero was invisible to the society. He was a black man with no name and no identity. Maybe he was a slave in this American society. He was not only invisible to the white man but also invisible to the whole American people. His living life was miserable. He had tried his best to be an excellent person and to get respect from the white man, but the society beated him back. He did not really know what caused the result, and he suspected his black family was the root that made him out of the white society. In a word, the root cause of the hero's invisibility was racial discrimination. Under this white man dominated society, black man has no right and no freedom, what they could do was just obeying the rule of the society. 

In brief, the racial discrimination was the main reason to make the hero become an invisible man. Under this environment and this white man dominated society, the black had no right and no freedom. They could not do what they wanted to do and they could not be themselves truly. The white American were dominating the society. So the black man obeyed the rules stipulated by the white people. In this society, the white men were the lord. Until the racial discrimination and racial depression eliminated, the black could be seen and could be themselves freely. 

3.2 Self-Loss of the hero

In invisible man the hero was invisible to the American society. His invisibility was not because he had super power but because he had lost himself. He could not be the person who he was. Many black people believed a jock on themselves that they were too black to be seen in the dark night. But in brief analyzing and thinking, it was the self-loss that caused the hero can not be seen as the equal man in the world.

The name was the basic culture mark of an individual. The hero in Invisible Man had no name. This had deep meaning in the American society. It meant all the black men in American; also it meant that the hero had no identity. But the way he found himself was so particular. All his life he had been looking for something, and everywhere he turned someone tried to tell him what it was. He was looking for himself. He asked all the people around him who he was rather than asked himself who he was. He had lost himself except his knowing. He felt the world was opposite to him and the world had abandoned him. He was just a black American from the south part with no identity. The white man treated him as a tool and regarded him as an invisible man. 

His being at loss came from his young age and innocence and his rejection to his national culture. As a wise man, his grandpa symboled the weathered history. The last words before his death reflected the true life of American. Their life was like a war, you should be strong in the danger. Maybe the world was not equal to everyone, but you needed to be yourself and to fight with the white American to get your right and position. If the hero had understood the deep meaning of his grandfather's world, he would not think his grandfather's laugh was meaningless.

Like all the American people, the hero thought if he had worked hard he would achieve success and would own high society position. But he had not known that what he would pay off was his dignity. He also did not know in this white-man dominated society, to achieve his dream is beyond reach. His losing himself came from his ignorance and rejection to his national culture. He admired Bledso the present of the college, who was a black but had got power and higher society position. The hero in fact did not know Bledso how to get this. As a black man, in order to get higher position and to get admiration from the white man and the black man, Bledso attempted to betray the white man and the black man. In front of the white American, Bledso behaved him humbly and loosed his dignity. In front of the black man, Bledso did not know he was also black. He thought he was in upper class compared with the black. His body was black truly, but his soul had been turned to be white. His soul had been separated from his body and never would be joined together. The hero in this novel was admired Bledso the present of a black college. He had lost himself not only his name but also his identity. He did not know who he was and what his goal in the society was. 

In the Brotherhood, he also did not know who he was. He had said for himself, he was the man who the brotherhood thought him was. In the Brotherhood you were not allowed to own yourself consciousness. So the hero did not know who he was. He could not found the former himself. Now he was a new person to be presented in the public occasion to represent the Brotherhood. He did the things that the brotherhood let him do, even though the thing was beyond his intention. He thought he was racing with himself. But this was not the true himself. The hero in the brotherhood had lost himself. It was difficult to find himself again.

Briefly, self-loss was the root reason to make the hero be an invisible man. With no name and no identity, he had been a totally invisible man.

3.3 Economic development of capitalism

Searching for freedom was a typical theme in American literature. In different historical period, the meaning of searching for freedom was different. When Ellison wrote the Invisible Man, the world had entered 20th century. At that time, the American society of material civilization was improving rapidly. After the two world wars being over, people began to pay attention to the problem of humanitarian and humanity. But in the contemporary capitalist society, with the fast development of material civilization people's spiritual life became more and more empty. And because of the rapid development of scientific technology and the height of the production socialization, people became associated to the machine. They lost their personality and human nature. #p#分页标题#e#

And people found it was difficult to be himself especially for the black man.

Under this situation of American society, in order to live in this unequal society, the black man should obey the rule of the society that was the white people were superior. The black have no right to choose his position. And the black have no freedom and no dignity in this American society. They listened to the arrangement of the white man. 

Invisible Man was written in this situation. It reflected the black's miserable life living in American. In this novel the hero's invisibility came from the society's ignoring to the black. In this novel, the white trustee, Mr. Norton was the represent of upper capitalist. He played the role of a kind-heart man. On the surface he was cared about the life of the black man in American and cared about the fate of the black. But in fact, he had a stony heart. When the hero brought him to a black family, he could not accept this and could not believe this. He never showed sympathy to the black man. On the country, he had ignored this. Unfortunately, the hero was droved off from this black's college. It was because the hero let the white trustee see what he should not see. And the hero should be punished. 

In the Brotherhood, the head of the Brotherhood just regarded the hero as a tool. Their relationship was not close fraternal ties but employer-employee relationship. In this society which was dominated by the cold fish, the black man seemed more helpless. In this novel, Ellison did not write the time the place and the name of the hero on purpose. He just used the invisible man to observe the society and to describe the unequal world. It showed the misery of the hero searching for his dream. He tried his best to be excellent in the white man ruled society, but he never achieved his goal. This revealed the contradiction of capitalism.

With the development of the capitalism, the black man also could not find their position. They had no freedom and no right to choose their life, because the society was ruled by the white people. Invisible Man was written in this situation, the hero's invisibility owned to the fast development of capitalism.

 

Conclusion

Ralph•Ellison is an American black writer. He has made a success in American literature. He uses his novel Invisible Man to awake all blacks rather than to depress them. Ellison's idea of tracking down black's self-identity is embodied sufficiently in the book Invisible Man. In American society, blacks are driven into a corner because of racial discrimination and oppression and the unequal treatment. Ellison's book Invisible Man is a story about a black man who is invisible to the American society. The hero tries his best to be excellent not only among the white people but also among the black people. But no matter how well he performed, he never achieves the thing he wants to get. He is an invisible man without no name and no identity. Is this hero really invisible? Certainly not. He is invisible because of the existing of racial discrimination. Under this situation, the black have no real freedom and have no dignity and no right to living in this society. They have struggled a lot in political, economic and cultural field, but achieve nothing. Another reason of the hero's invisibility is his being lost of himself. As a Negro, he can not find the right position of living in this society. His innocence and his rejection to his national culture also let him lost. The third reason of the hero's invisibility comes from the fast economic development of the capitalism. It makes the black people become associated to machine and makes them lose humanility. This are the root causes of the hero's being invisibility.

Ellison's novel Invisible Man is regarded as one of masterpieces of American literature, and its influence on American society is going on in modern time. All in all this thesis is just an initial exploration into the root causes of the invisibility of the hero in Invisible Man. Because of the limitation of the author's knowledge, the present study is by no means comprehensive or complete, so some future researchers are still needed to study it profoundly.

 

Acknowledgements

First of all, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to my respected supervisor Prof. YuBo for her enlightenment and sufficient support in both my academic study and daily life. This thesis is accomplished under the guidance and exhaustive revisions of her, to whom goes my deepest gratitude and admiration.

I am also grateful to all the other teachers of my undergraduate studies in Tangshan College for their excellent lectures and great helps in my academic study.

Thanks also due to my friends and classmates, who gave me assistance in study and made my life colorful in three years.

Last but not least, my special gratitude must go to my family for their encouragements and constant supports. Without their unselfish help, I could not have produced this thesis.

 

Notes 

[1] Ralph•Ellison. Invisible Man[M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2002:143.

[2] Ralph•Ellison. Invisible Man[M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2002:168.

[3] Ralph•Ellison. Invisible Man[M]. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 2002:243.

[4] Web Do Bois. The Souls of Black Folk[M]. Oxford University Press, 2007:48.

 

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