Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Invisible Man Essay
As American Author William Dean Howells once said, “Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.” In many ways, this is true. Throughout history, America has been struggling with issues of race and identity. From slavery, to the civil rights movement, to the debate over gay marriage today, people have been questioning and debating issues of equality for centuries. One of the most vehement of these debates has been regarding the flying of the Confederate flag. From 1961 to July 1, 2000, the Confederate flag flew atop the South Carolina State House dome. Ralph Ellison, author of the award-winning novel, Invisible Man, would find the flying of the Confederate flag on government buildings unacceptable.
In Invisible Man, he argues against conformity; the idea of maintaining one’s sense of self and individual freedom is an important aspect of the book. For much of the novel, Invisible Man struggles with his own sense of identity, unsure of where he fits into society. At the end of the book, however he finally has a better idea of who he is. In the epilogue, Invisible Man argues the importance of the individual as opposed to the whole. “Let man keep his many parts and you’ll have no tyrant states,” he says. “Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat” (Ellison 577). Based on this belief, it is reasonable to suspect that Ralph Ellison would oppose the flying of the Confederate flag on government buildings because of the message it sends. By flying the flag, the government is imposing their views on the population, thereby eliminating
The motif of blindness, a major symbol in the book that represents ignorance and misunderstanding, is a prime example of Ellison’s use of symbolism. Throughout Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison uses characters, like the veteran at the Golden Day, to emphasize Invisible Man’s failure to recognize important aspects of society. In his naivety, Invisible Man is blind to the Brotherhood’s real motives, to the truth about people like Dr. Bledsoe, and even to his own identity. As the veteran says of the narrator, “...he fails to understand the simple facts of life...Already he’s learned to repress not only his emotions but his humanity. He’s invisible, a walking personification of the Negative, the most perfect achievement of your dreams, sir! The mechanical man!” (Ellison 94). Although deemed insane, in reality, the veteran has quite an accurate perception of Invisible Man. It is true that at the beginning of the book Invisible Man is blind to the power structure that Ellison sees as perpetuating racism. Although the idea of blindness is symbolic in and of itself, Ellison masterfully weaves in items representative of blindness throughout the course of the novel. For example, the blindfolded boxing match, the reoccurring motif of veils, the blind Homer A. Barbee and Brother Jack’s missing eye are all emblematic of Ralph Ellison’s message that much of society is blind to