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Invisible Man

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Invisible Man
The Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man shows the conflict or struggle of one Black man struggling in a white culture. The most important section of this novel is that in, which the narrator joins "the Brotherhood", an organization designed to improve the condition under which his race is at the time. The narrator works hard for society. The narrator works hard for being rewarded society and his efforts named the representative of Harlem district. One of the first people he meets is Brother Tarp, a veteran worker in the Harlem district, who gives the narrator the chain link he broke nineteen years ago, while freeing himself from being imprisoned. Brother Tarp's imprisonment was for standing up to a white man. Therefore, he was sent to jail. Imprisonment made brother Tarp similar to invisible because, he lost part of his identity. However, he regained it by escaping the prison and giving himself a new name. The chain plays an interesting part in the entire play. The chain symbolizes the narrator's experience in college, where he was restricted to living up to Dr. Bredsoe's rules. He feels that he too is trying to be an individual free of others people's control. The chain functions as a link in several ways, between the two men, between the past and the present, as a symbol of opression, and eventually as a weapon for the Invisible Man as he uses it to fight in a street riot. It reminds the narrator significally of his grandfather, a man repressed by the system who went through his entire life trying to obey but at the same time hating all the men in power. At the end of the novel, the narrator continues to fight for his community. He feels betrayed and now he wants to destroy "The Brotherhood". His plan does not work out. He tells the people of Harlem to go on a riot. He falls down though, he gets into isolation. While in isolation he decides that he wants to go back to the society. He grows to understand what the brotherhood

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