Critical Analysis Of Invisible Man

Critic Roland Barthes said, “Literature is the question minus the answer.” Literature is the question minus the answer is exactly accurate way to describe what literature. Literature is the question minus the answer is saying that literature doesn't come straight out and give you direct answers it is more complex use literary elements to give the answers so you have to work more on and think more complex than if you were reading a normal book. Ralph Ellison the author of Invisible Man uses his literary element which make you really have to concentrate on what you are reading and really think about what you think he is saying, the hard part about literature is that you can think it means one thing but then it can mean something totally different
to another person.
Every book has main themes in it and in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man after read just a couple of chapters everyone sees the main theme as the racism and how black lives were pretty invisible to most of the world.
While I was reading the book Invisible Man i caught on to something different as to what i thought the theme was. This is the hard part of literature is different people seeing things totally different from others. I saw the main theme as Ralph Ellison wanting people to realize that we make our lives the way they are, and sometime we jeopardize our own happiness by changing what we like or what we want to do to what other people want us to do or what they want us to like. I saw this concept pop up several time throughout the book and i started to think about it more and more,about how this theme still exist today. Throughout the book the idea of us changing ourselves to make others happy in the end takes our own happiness away was represented by him being black but I didn't see it as the whole racism black lives matter concept. When the invisible man was talking to Dr. Bledsoe after taking Mr.Norton to get his wiskey and then taking him to the Golden Day Dr.Bledsoe was yelling at him for doing what the white man told him to do,he was just doing what he thought was right but Dr. Bledsoe did not see it that way, “you shouldn't do what you think is right or what the white man asks you, “you should know that a white man just wants to hear a lie.”(139) The invisible man did what he thought was right and what he decides he wanted to do but Dr. Bledsoe didn't think that was what he should have done so the invisible man totally changed his argument to agreeing that he did the wrong thing. “You’re black and living in the south - did you forget how to lie?”(139) People throughout the book kept this idea embedded in the invisible man when Bledsoe said that it made him stop acting and thinking the way he wanted to he was doing thing he didn't like just to please
other people instead of making himself happy.
When invisible man got sent to New York City to work he had trouble he tried not to act like he was from the south just so that he would fit into what the people do and like in the north he didn't want people to see his true colors, hear his accent or to think of him as the typical black southerner stereotype. When he went into the diner to have breakfast the waiter said I know you want the special and when the invisible man asked what the special was he said pork chop and grits and the invisible man got angry because everyone could tell he was from the south even though the invisible man did think that sounded good and he wanted it he ordered toast and orange juice so that he would surprize the waiter and would not be seen as the southerner anymore.” I had to be careful though, not to speak too much like a northern negro; they wouldn't like that.” (178) He was living an unhappy life because he was scared to be himself or the stereotype that he was. He would have been more happy talking the way he talks normally or eating the things that he enjoyed eating instead of caring what everyone else thinks about him. He is making his life harder and worse than it has to be.
As I read further on I started to see him change the way he was living and the way he was making his own life miserable. When the invisible man lost his job he started to act differently and was shocked at the plant to help him after being electrocuted he started to act differently it was the turning point of the story. One of the events that stuck out to me after he changed was when he was eating the yam and he seemed to be so satisfied just by eating this yam. While the Invisible Man was walking eating his yam he said “I no longer had to worry about who saw me or about what was propel.”(264) This seemed so strange to me that her would try to hide something as small as eating a food that he enjoyed so much to escape what other people think of him. “What a group of people we were, I thought why, you could cause us the greatest humiliation simply by confronting us with something we like.” (264) Throughout the story people thought they knew everything about the Invisible Man just because of his race so he tried to hide things he enjoyed so he was seen as not your everyday black man and i think he starts to realize that is not terrible to fit the stereotype if he is happier when he get to order pork chops and grits or eat a yam in front of people.
“Literature is the question minus the answer.” Literature is a nightmare for a lot of people because of this. Literature is deep you have to think about it more the answer to the question you have or someone else has don't just appear there may even be more than one answer. There is more than one answer sometimes,literature takes time you have to read it in depth but it's there. Ralph Ellison the author of Invisible Man uses his literary element which make you really have to concentrate on what you are reading and really think about what you think he is saying, the hard part about literature is that you can think it means one thing but then it can mean something totally different to another person. There was an obvious them dealing with race in this story but i found a different theme while i was reading this is what make literature “Literature is the question minus the answer.” There may not be one answer but there are probably several