The Conflicting Forces of Racial Identity and Familial Expectat…

Emma Ledford The Conflicting Forces of Racial Identity and Familial Expectations in Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man

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Emma Ledford

The Invisible Man

The novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison follows the journey of an unnamed narrator in finding his identity in a society that has already defined it for him. During his journey, the narrator is pulled in many directions by many people and organizations as he struggles between the decision of following his grandfather’s advice of silently rebelling through obedience or outwardly making a stand against the stereotypical expectations many have for him due to his identity as a black man. The narrator’s constant struggle throughout the novel to follow his grandfather’s advice while also making a stand against oppressive white influence leaves the narrator conflicted; he cannot simultaneously “yes them to death” while outwardly opposing the white systems that he is supposed to destroy through compliance. This conflict emphasizes the difficulty of the narrator’s journey to discovering his identity throughout the work and plays into a major theme of Invisible Man: It is often hard for one to discover their identity while living in a society that has predetermined it for them.

After the narrator’s expulsion from his college, he began questioning the legitimacy of his grandfather’s advice. He wondered if that was actually the way to make progress. At the beginning of the novel, the narrator introduced the advice his grandfather gave him while on his deathbed: do not outwardly oppose white power even if you are in disagreement. Instead, agree them to death, make them believe you are on their side, and destroy them from the inside out by gaining their trust and useing it to improve your situation. Instantly, this advice had a great impact on the narrator, and he continued to carry it with him throughout the novel. As displayed by his graduation speech, he worked to gain the support of white men by preaching social responsibility rather than social equality and participated in their battle royale simply to please them. Initially, following this advice paid off. He got a scholarship to a black college where he worked hard and became trusted around campus. However, his grandfather’s advice caused him to make a major misstep while being responsible for Mr. Norton, a white trustee of the college. He agreed too much to Mr. Norton'sNortons requests, resulting in his eventual expulsion from the university. Dr. Bledsoe, the president of the college, was infuriated after hearing of what happened to Norton while under the narrator’s care, and decided to expel the narrator, sending him to New York with recommendation letters addressed to the white trustees of the college. The narrator could not comprehend where he went wrong. He followed his grandfather’s advice and gave the white trustee what he asked, yet he was being expelled from the college. This experience and the realization of Bledsoe’s corruption is what fueled the narrator’s urge to speak out against injustice. However, he still could not let go of his grandfather’s advice. He was determined to return to the college by serving the white trustees in New York, and it was not until the contents of the recommendation letters were revealed to him that he considered any other option. The narrator’s expulsion from the college marks the initial dissipation of his identity, as it also marks his initial desire to speak out against injustice which contradicts his grandfather’s advice. This experience proved to the narrator that obeying white power, organizations, and systems would not always protect him from the effects of negative societal stereotypes of black people, causing his desire to speak out against these systems to grow and creating a conflict between these desires.

During the eviction of the old black couple that the narrator experienced after his rebirth from the Liberty Paints explosion, the narrator chose to defy his grandfather’s advice, speaking in front of the crowd in a misguided, yet nonetheless effective manner. This speech, outwardly defying the white power of the evictors in the situation, completely went against the grandfather’s advice. Although initially urging the crowd to stay calm, this speech from the narrator caused the crowd to riot against the couple’s eviction, showing the first true moment of rebellion from the narrator. Despite the powerful effect his speech had on the crowd, he fled, realizing the power of his words and his blatant protest that was in no way a form of compliance to white power. The narrator’s desire to speak out against injustice directly conflicts with his desire to follow his grandfather’s advice. However, the Brotherhood finds him, giving him a seemingly perfect opportunity to fulfill both desires. He would be serving the white members of the Brotherhood, while simultaneously speaking out against racial injustice. As the narrator works to satisfy both of his desires, his true identity deteriorates further and further. He is no longer led by his own thoughts, just the advice of his grandfather and the orders of the Brotherhood, making it almost impossible to define his individuality.

Even once the narrator realized the true corruption of the Brotherhood, he was determined to fight them, not by revealing their corruption or gathering other black Brotherhood members to confront this injustice, but by acting completely obedient and destroying them from the inside out, just as he believes his grandfather would have advised him to do. Despite the fact that blatant disobedience and rebellion toward the Brotherhood would be a much more effective manner of destruction, he cannot part from the advice of his grandfather. This eventually leads to the downfall of Harlem, sacrificed to the Brotherhood, as well as the narrator who was sacrificed with the rest of Harlem. The narrator was made aware of the plan to sacrifice Harlem by Brother Hambro, and could likely have prevented these chaotic events, or at least slowed them. Instead, he was determined to be who his grandfather wanted him to be and fit the mold of an obedient black citizen, by the standards of white society. Once again, this desire to rebel against injustice, but not in a manner that would be perceived as loud, violent, or any other stereotypical adjective that could be used to negatively describe black men during this time tore the narrator. He couldn’t prioritize one desire over the other, ultimately leading to his destruction and the destruction of Harlem. Only after he completely isolated himself from society was he able to understand that his efforts to define himself as one who does not fit the negative stereotypes regarding blacks was almost useless. Society had already defined the narrator before he could realize his identity for himself, and his desire to defy these expectations caused him to strictly follow his grandfather’s advice, preventing him from fully achieving his desire of fighting against social and racist injustice. This conflict caused the narrator to be unable to truly fulfill either of these desires, once again emphasizing the theme of the novel because his search to live these contradictory lives prevented him from discovering his true identity until he was free from the expectations of society.

The narrator’s conflict between following his grandfather's advice and silently gaining power from the trust of white people and organizations while also speaking out against injustice and fighting for what he believes in illuminates a central theme of the work: It is often hard for one to discover their identity while living in a society that has predetermined it for them. The narrator’s true identity was hidden by society, and eventually himself, because they already determined it for him once they saw his race. The narrator’s desire to break free of these expectations caused him to follow his grandfather’s advice constantly. However, he also wished to break black people as a whole free from these expectations, causing him to want to speak out against these racial and societal injustices. These two desires completely conflicted with each other because he could not speak out while also constantly agreeing with white people and organizations, and in the unrewarding search to fulfill both of these desires, the narrator completely lost any sense of his own identity; he was defined solely by how society perceived him and could not escape from the identity that was created for him until he escaped from the society that created it.