Invisible Man Essay

The Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison is about a black man who struggles in society trying to figure out his identity. The invisible protagonist had an exhausting journey throughout the book. He went from trying to be everything but Black to than accepting himself. He had been used, lied to and betrayed due to his invisibility. He dealt with this ache of being invisible by simply trying to continue to move up in society. The invisible man was extremely concerned about how society might view him instead of accepting himself. The invisible man did not want to have any customs or traditions that could have made the society define him as a lower class black man. The invisible protagonist felt insulted that the waiter offered him pork chops, grits and a egg (Page :178). The invisible man felt as if the food they offered him was a lower class black man’s meal. Later on in the book, the narrator no longer has the same belief. When he goes out he ends up purchasing a yam and ate it with no problem (Page: 265-266). “They’re my birthmark, I yam what I am” (Page: 266). This shows that the invisible protagonist transformed from being aware of everything that someone could judge him by to finally accepting himself. He stopped caring about the fact that the food Black people regularly might make him define him as something he is not. Before the invisible man was cautious about how society might judge him; he was trying to be everything but black. Luckily, he ends up accepting the fact that he is black and that it does not matter how some people in society might look at him by certain foods. He started to realize that it does not matter what you eat, but how you act and present yourself. The protagonists invisibility impacted his character because it caused him to be used by the brotherhood. The brotherhood was an organization similar to communism. They believe in community and working together rather than having individual success. The brotherhood hired the invisible man to