What Was The Narrator's Role In The Invisible Man

Words: 800
Pages: 4
Open Document
In the novel, Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, the narrator considers himself an invisible man because of the fact that he is dark skin and says that the world does not appreciate him. At many times the narrator felt alone and lost because he believed the world was always against him and no one ever noticed him. Throughout the novel the narrator's role as a character shows that the society in which he lived looked down on blacks and treated them as if they were worthless, leaving him to isolate himself. Throughout the novel the narrator was more concerned with living up to people's expectations more than anything. He wanted to prove to the white people that he was not an ordinary black man. However, while trying to do this the narrator …show more content…
We see the narrator taking on his new identity when Jack tells him, “This is your new identity...Inside I found a name written on a slip of paper”(Pg 309). The narrator was forced to take on another name in order to be a part of the Brotherhood. He tried so hard to not be himself that he even ended up looking different. This is shown when he says, “The new suit imparted a newness to me. It was the clothes and the new name and the circumstances… I was becoming someone else”(Pg 335). The narrator knew that the only way for him to be something or “someone” he had to act and even look different, he needed a new identity. However, all this change only led him into losing himself. Towards the end of the novel the narrator ends up with nothing and all alone. He says, “I’m an invisible man and it placed me in a hole⎯or showed me the hole I was in”(Pg 572). The narrator finally realized the hole in which he placed himself, he realized that by him trying to live up to society’s expectations he only ended up losing himself and was left all alone. After finally only trying to live up to others expectations, he decided to speak up for himself, although it left him alone and feeling invisible, he was able to understand who he
Show More

Related Documents: What Was The Narrator's Role In The Invisible Man

Invisible Man Essay

Invisible Man In the novel, The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the narrator of the story, like Siddhartha and Antonius Blok, is on a journey, but he is searching to find himself. This is interesting because the narrator is looking for himself and is not given a name in the book. Like many black people, the narrator of the story faces persecution because of the color of his skin. The journey that the narrator takes has him as a college student as well as a part of the Brotherhood in Harlem…

Words 829 - Pages 4

Identity In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man. In this novel a striking and horrific picture of what America was like back then and how society viewed and treated others. It was also very moving and an eye opener to show how this world basically tells how to view others and leaves many feeling “invisible”. The narrator was a black male who got kicked out of his university and moved to New York where he struggled to find work and also struggled to find himself. He went through many hardships and he was one of those…

Words 536 - Pages 3

Invisible Man Rinehart Character Analysis

and fluidity of identity, and accept that visibility and the acceptance of others does not go hand in hand. In the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the nameless narrator as well as protagonist struggles with who he is as a young black man in the eyes of a judgmental and oppressive society. It is not until the narrator is misidentified as a mysterious, extremely ambiguous man named Rinehart that he realizes that having a strong sense of self and sustaining an ever-changing, malleable identity is…

Words 1834 - Pages 8

Invisible Man Griffin Isolation

proves to help keep her sane as she lives her life, sheltered from the world, invisible to most. The protagonist of “The Invisible Man,” Griffin, is a scientist that proves to be very unique both in his situation and his ever changing personality. Griffin occupies a room at an Inn in a small rural village where he tries make himself visible again…

Words 1901 - Pages 8

Essay about William Fulkner

community, and they think a great deal of her. In the disparity of the community’s view, the audience realizes that Miss Emily not only poisons and kills her lover, Homer Barron, but entombs his corpse in her bedroom and reveals her necrophilia. The narrator’s point of view, along with Falkner’s symbolism and characterization create and reinforce the story’s main theme: repression can twist a soul into something beyond recognition. “A Rose for Emily” reveals a chilling theme by its unique narrative…

Words 997 - Pages 4

Graham Greene: the Invisible Japanese Gentlemen Essay

Graham Greene: The Invisible Japanese Gentlemen 1. Describe the characters. The young woman: She had thin blonde hair and how she spoke showed that she studied in one of the best school of London. Her fiancé: He was doomed and easy to control by others. The narrator (author): He was a reflective person who analyzed different situation from what people said and expressed physically. The Japanese gentlemen: They spoke their tongue; they were always with a smile in their faces and doing a lot of…

Words 4331 - Pages 18

Essay about Summary of Articles

viewed was called “Glaspell’s Trifles.” This article was summarizing what the short story by Glaspell wrote. They explained basically in detail what the short story was about. They used descriptive words to describe the feelings and what each character was surrounded by. It starts out by introducing the two main characters. Although neither of them are present in the legitimate short story they play a huge role in the story and without them there wouldn’t be a story the whole short story was based…

Words 2076 - Pages 9

Heart of Darkness The Horror of Human Essay

than one heart of darkness, as there is more than one ‘horror’ within the novel. Conrad stresses the role of narration as the key to transmit meaning, and this is evident in the use of frame narration and the invisible narrator’s statement that "The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut. But to (Marlow) the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the tale which brought it out only as a glow brings…

Words 1381 - Pages 6

Alice Walker Tone

Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. She worked as a social worker, teacher and lecturer, and took part in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. Walker won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1982 novel, The Color Purple, and is also an acclaimed poet and essayist. She brought black women’s lives into primary focus as a rich and important subject for US American literature. Her landmark novel The Color Purple (1982), which drew upon her sharecropper family’s…

Words 1894 - Pages 8

Predictions Of A Novelist

modern day novelist who wrote a total of 161 books, including science fiction books, The Time Machine and The Invisible Man. His writings on many different subjects made him the most famous literary figure of his age. Greatly influenced by T.H. Huxley, he predicted the use of chemicals in war, the atom bomb, and technological advances such as the computer chip in many of his works. He was also fascinated by the human mind, evolution, and mythological creatures. His early works show a constant struggle…

Words 2690 - Pages 11