Curse Of Knowledge In Invisible Man

The Curse of Knowledge In a society where people are defined by others and not by themselves, conflict arises on the daily, and was most certainly prevalent in the life of an Invisible Man. In the book Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, an African American man struggles to find his identity and to understand the world around him. A large part of this Invisible Man’s life was influenced by his grandfather even though he only appeared for a short portion of the book. The invisible man is trying to fight for a better life much like many African Americans but is lead astray by a society that is built upon limiting others in order to keep a certain group on top. The grandfather reveals the truth of obtaining a better life by telling the narrator
Throughout the book, the Invisible Man would be lied to and brought down by his superiors, but his grandfather’s “curse” allowed the narrator to see the world in a different light in that he can now question the actions of those around him and society itself. One instance of this was when the invisible man set out to deliver his last letter and found out he had been led astray by Doctor Bledsoe. Ellison writes, “My head spun. He was addressing me, leaning forward confidentially, as though he'd known me for years, and I remembered something my grandfather had said long ago: Don't let no white man tell you his business, 'cause after he tells you he's liable to git shame he tole it to you and then he'll hate you. Fact is, he was hating you all the time. . .” (186). The main character has been dragged down by his superiors whether they share the same skin color or not and because of his grandfather’s wisdom, he has now been granted the ability to see through the corrupt system that is society and learn that he must fight on his own for a better life. Another example of the grandfather helping to enlighten the narrator was when the invisible man compared his life to his grandfather’s in order to compare the societies of his life to that of his grandfather’s. “Perhaps that makes me a little bit as human as my grandfather. Once I thought my grandfather incapable of thoughts about humanity, but I was
A primary example of this was when he had become committed to his grandfather’s advice and was looking to utilize it to its fullest. Ellison writes, “I didn't know what my grandfather had meant, but I was ready to test his advice. I'd overcome them with yeses, undermine them with grins, I'd agree them to death and destruction. Yes, and I'd let them swallow me until they vomited or burst wide open. Let them gag on what they refused to see. Let them choke on it. That was one risk they hadn't calculated. That was a risk they had never dreamt of in their philosophy. Nor did they know that they could discipline themselves to destruction, that saying "yes" could destroy them. (508) By taking past events into consideration including his grandfather’s advice, he has learned that he must break through the society that has constantly been dragging him down and in order to do this, he must work within the system, which the narrator describes as being “swallowed” and then working inside society and slowly breaking it down by obtaining power which goes against its racial hierarchy and thus making it “vomit or burst wide open”. Another case of the narrator’s plan to obtain a better life being influenced by his grandfather was when the narrator was caught sitting in front of a picture of a