African Americans In The Invisible Man

The 1930’s were a tumultuous time in regards to the relationship between white and black citizens in the United States. Black folk in the country had their freedom for some time now, but they were still struggling to have many of the civil liberties which they still seeked. Despite the significant strides that black citizens had made in the country, race relations still proved to be a major problem of the time period. Ralph Ellison, in his book Invisible Man, writes about the way black people are living in the 1930’s and the hardships they endure as they seek greater equality. Ellison comments on not only the prejudice that black citizens experienced, but also the lack of identity that arose from it. Ellison tells this story through the eyes
This game that the vet is describing becomes more and more apparent later in the novel as the narrator learns about many of the inherent disadvantages he is facing due to his race. In the earlier parts of the novel the narrator seemingly is thankful for the things the white folk have done for him. As the novel progresses however the narrator becomes more cognisant of the fact that everything is not what it seems. Later in the novel, the narrator understands that he is in a position to make a difference, which he tries to do via speeches. “Play the game, but play it your own way-part of the time at least. Play the game, but raise the ante, my boy” (153). This seems to foreshadow the lessons that the narrator will learn during his time in New York. Most of these lessons being about the relationship between black and white which creates the theme of racial tension in the novel. This theme is one that is reverberated throughout the novel, as the narrator constantly finds himself in the middle of tense situations between blacks and whites is repeatedly defined by his race. By playing the game, the narrator must learn to use his race and not blindly follow the rules of the white people. The passage also foreshadows the potential dangers of doing this. “Play the game...Even if it lands you in a strait jacket or a padded cell” (153). Here, Ellison hints at the fact that
Ellison uses this technique in order to display the subjugation that blacks in the story are experiencing. In response to the quote about being hidden in the open the narrator asks, “Man, who’s this they you talking so much about?” (154). Followed by the vet’s response of “They? Why, the same they we always mean, the white folks, authority, the god, fate, circumstances-the force that pulls your string until you refuse to be pulled anymore. The big man who’s never there, where you think he is” (154). This quote gives off the impression that in society it is everybody versus the black folk. It is likely that this is the point in which Ellison was trying to make with the statement. A statement which he would later back up with seemingly unattainable success which the narrator was attempting to achieve. The you versus they language essentially epitomizes the race relations in the story. No matter what the black folk tried to do, everybody else would do their best to keep them down. Just like many of the other elements of the passage, the narrator did not understand when he first heard it but it was something he would come to understand by the end of the