The Idea Of Masking In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Invisible Man Essay 1 – We Wear the Mask

Quite simply, everyone in the world wears a mask, and, in most cases, they wear multiple ones, switching between them freely, depending on their surroundings. It's needed in our day and age, just to survive. People, as a whole, as a society, will rip you to shreds if you happen to show yourself fully and openly, with absolutely no regard for the standards set by society. They stifle creativity, they smother originality, they crush anything that doesn't look, in the vaguest bit, like them. And, as such, you must mask yourself, your TRUE self, that is, from society, from all those you deem unable to see exactly who you are without judgment.
As this is true in our daily lives, it is also true in the literary world, one of the most profound examples of this truth being the very first chapter of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. In this chapter, the titular character finds that, because of his rather impressive speaking skills, (and because of the humbling content of his speech)
he is invited to a gathering of the town's most prestigious white citizens. Upon arriving, he finds that it is some sort of primitive “battle royale,” in which the Invisible Man must fight other African-American teenagers, merely upon the urging of these men of power. After giving the teens boxing gloves, and suffering upon them to gaze upon a nude white woman, the white men literally blindfold the teens, ordering them then to beat one another to a bloody pulp. After then suffering another indignity in the form of fake, electrified money on a rug, the Invisible Man is then instructed to give is speech to the very men who just disgraced him so fully. The Invisible Man does, indeed, give the speech, but not before making a very large flub, in which the replaces the words “social responsibility” with the words “social equality,” much to the chagrin to the white population who remind him that he must “...know [his] place at all times.” However, despite this blunder, he is given a briefcase, which contains a scholarship to the local school for African-American youth.
Obviously, masks are used in quite a few ways by Ellison, the first being the mask that the Invisible Man wears, a mask of subservience, of acceptance and of praise, for the members of the white community. The curse of his grandfather, mentioned earlier in the chapter, advised him to do just that: To undermine the efforts of the white man to keep the African-American population enslaved by being submissive to the white man, to offer no resistance toward them, so that they might destroy themselves with their acceptance of the situation. Despite finding these words to be haunting, and not in accord with his wishes, the Invisible Man finds himself carrying them out, regardless, most noticeably in the way that he briefly mentions equality, only to drop it once more, in favor of a more humbling and subservient tone, after the members of the white community take great offense at the idea of equality in the African-American community. From the way he speaks of himself, and of his grandfather's curse, it is against his wishes to do so, but, at the same time, he realizes that, while he may not be truly like that, he must wear the mask and play the part, in order to survive in the white man's world.
Another motif in the theme of masking comes as a result of literal masking at the hands of the white man.
Before the Battle Royale, the young teens are blindfolded by the white men, and then told to go and beat each other to a pulp. This sort of “mask” is used by Ellison as a metaphor, to represent the way that the white community “blindfolds” the African-American community, and manipulates them into doing what they want, be it with offers of reward, or with threats of violence, it is made quite clear that the white men of the town hold a sort of power over everyone else, as shown by their actions at the Battle Royale. Also, it is shown that by using these “masks,” the white men of the town are able to the African-American population down by promoting in-fighting. Once the teens are blindfolded, they strike, hit, and beat one another mercilessly, unable to see their actions, unable to see beyond the mask placed upon them to try and be a bigger
person.
Finally, Ellison shows that it isn't just the Invisible Man who wears a mask, it's everyone in the world who has one. The white men, as a whole, are a symbol of hope and goodness in the eyes of the community as a whole, yet, this is only a mask to hide their deep-seeded racism, and hatred for the African-American race in general. Yet, openly, they would never admit this. It is only in a smoke filled room, in which the only witnesses are blindfolded, and the men themselves are mostly drunk, do they show themselves. Behind the mask that they wear of a model citizen, they are pigs, bent upon using the power and pull they have with the community for their own enjoyment, in the form of watching African-American teens beat one another, be electrocuted, and submit openly to the fact that they are “superior” to the African-Americans as a whole. Without these masks they wear, people would surely rise against them, but, because they've painted themselves in such a positive light, the community would never believe who they truly are.
Ellison accurately shows how the extended metaphor of masks and of masking help to keep certain characters alive, and how it serves to cripple your own vision, as well as other's vision of you. He shows that, without these masks, the survival of all people, “good,” as well as “bad,” relies solely upon their ability to mask their true self to all those around them.