The Not So Young Adult

To simply say Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is a novel about race would be an injustice. To misinterpret the complexities of complexion as being as black and white as the pages the novel was written on would be doing a grave disservice to, not only the author but also the audience for whom it is written. What one is willing to take away from the novel amounts only to what is willing to accept and see of themselves and the world around them and that is precisely what the author intended. Ellison has written a novel, so rich in texture, so bold in tone, and so deep in thought that is supersedes color. Invisible Man reaches into the core of human existence by allowing the reader to follow the maze of life, and while reading, select the path of least resistance, or travel down the darkest corners of their subconscious. On the surface, Invisible Man reads like a novel about the African American male identity. If you explore the subversive demons that haunt the narrator, you begin to unwind the purpose of the novel. In a darkly twisted landscape of the post-Jim Crow United States, the Invisible Man must piece together the puzzle of his life to see things the way they are. The core of Invisible Man, upon close inspection, reveals the misdirection of the negro, denial of cultural identity, and isolation of the black male. The novel forces its reader to accept the fact that regardless of how hard you try to ignore the truth, its ugly reflection will always be your shadow.

 
 As we the reader begin our journey with the narrator, we are given a glimpse into his naive state of mind as the Invisible Man, the narrator, suffers from his first example of misdirection as a young man. We are forewarned about the lessons that lie ahead in the form of a vision: a dream about an academic achievement sets the course for the narrator. His struggle to be seen and heard starts in a Battle Royal, where he must compete aimlessly against his peers. It is here where the narrator experiences his first of many blind searches for acceptance. At no point during this scene does he seem comfortable with the arena in which he is to compete, and the viewing audience of white men seem to celebrate the destruction and vicious behaviors of the young men. They applaud the savagery and encourage the young men to fight to the death. The young men, in turn, aim to destroy one another for sport as instructed by the white men. Though this is only a dream, the reader is lead to believe that the events that unfold are a foreshadowing of things to come. The narrator succeeds in the battle and is awarded the letter is a briefcase that the other young black men fought to the assumed death for only to open it and read “To Whom It May Concern, Keep This Nigger-Boy Running.” (Ellison, 1952 p. 33) And run he would do. He would run to college with the haunting mystery of what the dream could mean to him. 

 Upon entering college, the narrator is again misled by those who encourage his drive to succeed. In the scene where he must drive one of the University donors, Mr. Norton, the narrator is told that his success in life is important. However, the importance of his education is solely to make Mr. Norton's life have meaning. Mr. Norton feels as though his life would be a failure if the narrator's life fails. Implicitly, this revelation stands to convey the mistake of having faith in the possibility that Blacks could contribute to society. Mr. Norton has donated money to the All Negro University, and for him, his money and his belief that blacks are capable weigh in the balance. Only if the narrator succeeds can Mr. Norton's reputation matter after he has passed away. Once again, the white man's opinion of success is the only thing a black man can offer him. And what is that measured by? Who must a black man succeed over to have a worthy enough life to the rest of the white world? This echoes back to the Battle Royale in that Mr. Norton implies black men need to triumph over others for the happiness of white America. 

In following Mr. Norton's directions to drive into the old slave quarters behind the University, he shed a light on the taboo lifestyle that was perpetrated by a member of the community who had been ostracized by the surrounding black community. This image of exposing darkness hidden in a shadow world will reappear later in the novel, but in this section, it acts to expose how white men give directions to black men that are harmful to them out of selfishness and greed. Mr. Norton so desperately wanted to revel in a story of incest and deviant sexual behavior of savage black manliness that he carelessly put the academic success of another black man at risk. It is in this act of misdirection that we see once again how white men find joy in the pain they inflict on and witness from the suffering of black men. Mr. Norton reminds the narrator that he must continue to climb out of the depths of black despair and succeed so that he can be a success. The only direction he must go in life is up, and this idea continues once the Dean of the University, Dr. Bledsoe, instructs the narrator to travel North to redeem himself for showing Mr. Norton a side of Black America that was not to be seen. Anger and shame propel Dr. Bledsoe to send the narrator away with a false promise that he will be able to return after he proves himself worthy. He is banished and sent on what the reader later discovers is a wild goose chase that will ultimately lead him to self-destruction before bringing him to self-discovery. 

Upon getting to New York, the narrator must travel by foot to various, seemingly important white men in the city. As instructed by his Dean, these men are to be delivered sealed letters that the narrator must not see. He is told, in essence, to remain blind to his fate, and place it in the hands of white men who will determine his future. There is a moment, during this quest where the reader gets a glimpse into the level of interest black men play in the lives of white men, as well as the lack of knowledge these presumably powerful and influential men play in the lives of black men. While dropping off one of these important letters in the office of Mr. Emerson, the narrator notices a book of anthropological studies from Sigmund Freud. 
, a collection of essays that studied primitive cultures, lies open and exposed on a desk within Mr. Emerson's office. The subject matter within the essays revolves around magic, emotional ambivalence, and incest. The inclusion of this book is not an accident. Ellison uses this reference to infer the idea that white men were engrossed in the grossness of cultures they were unfamiliar with in a taboo and culturally irresponsible degree. Throughout the novel, these topics are touched upon, and it is in this very instant that the reader can begin to understand that the message of the novel is in and of itself an anthropological experiment with white America as told through the eyes of a black male. At this moment, and the interactions that follow, there is a shift in the direction of the novel. In the proceeding moments of the novel, the narrator begins to understand that he has been sent on a journey that was intended to be a dead end. He is allowed to read one of the letters he was not to read, and within each letter, the recipient is instructed, in so many words, to “keep this nigger-boy running”. He begins to see black men as the force that seeks to destroy him. His view of blackness becomes tainted, often referring to inanimate objects that represent blackness as “ugly” or “dark”, admitting, at one point, that all around him, “meanings were lost in vast whiteness in which I myself was lost”. (Ellison, pg 238). 

One of the most profound moments of disillusion employing dissolution occurs in the paint factory in which the narrator was employed. There is something symbolic in the fact that the brightest of white paint can only be created by adding the blackest of black led to the base of the paint solution. This formula is by no means an accident. What Ellison has done at this point in the novel is to emphasize very plainly that the only way for white Americans to be their best and brightest is by absorbing the light and energy of blackness. Though the meaning is not lost on the reader, the symbolic statement goes unnoticed by the narrator who embraces the opportunity to be the black torch for a white organization, referred to as The Brotherhood, who seeks to use his race to further their cause. Striping him of his name and supplying him with a new identity, they begin to puppeteer him for the greater good of all black men. Hoping that he can unite the blacks in his community to believe in a cause created by white men with little regard or concern for the actual needs, wants, or thoughts of black Americans. By denying his identity, he begins to form alliances with men who, ultimately seek to systematically destroy the black race from the inside out. This division of blacks within the black community is an exact recreation of the events that played out in the Battle Royal.

 There is a definite wedge that The Brotherhood seems to create in Harlem at the hands of the narrator. In his journey to escape persecution by whites and blacks towards the end of the novel, the narrator puts on a literal disguise, not unlike the figurative disguise he has been wearing throughout his time in New York. In donning this costume, he is continuously mistaken for other men. Black men who all are stereotypical caricatures of black American men. White America has used him as a child would use a Sambo doll; tugging at his strings and giving him life at their hands. As the narrator attempts to escape the maze of the world around him, he is thrust into a riot in Harlem. The Brotherhood created a wedge in black Harlem, and, after they lose hope for the black cause, they abandon their work and leave Harlem to burn. The White Brotherhood, having no more need of the narrator, leaves him to run for his life in the final Battle Royal they have staged in the novel. White America, once again creates a battleground where black Americans must destroy themselves in and Darwinian and barbaric survival of the fittest, again proving that black Americans are nothing more than an experiment and means of entertainment who are easily disposable.

Lost in identity that was not his own, and running away from the man he has become, the narrator begins to fully understand that he is invisible in the whiteness of the world surrounding him. He is the black lead that has been used to brighten their whiteness and make it stronger. He is the hope of white success by his playing the role they need him to play for the advancement of their agenda. He is the image and representation of blackness that the white man has created and convinced black Americans to see of themselves. He is the black American man, and he, like the rest of black America is under the illusion of inclusion that has them blinded by their uniqueness and individuality. That has black Americans assuming qualities and personalities created to marginalize them to nothing more than a stereotypical image of themselves; washed away in negative, sexualized, and deviousness, and whose only recourse lies in the hands and power of the white establishment that, in its path to creating assimilation, devolves the culture into madness and destruction. 
What Ellison did in Invisible Man is nothing short of genius. If one is comfortable going beyond skin deep of the novel to expose the more complex message of the novel, they will discover the truth. By definition, if one is invisible than one is “incapable by nature of being seen” (Webster, ). There is a natural defect in human consciousness that prevents us from wanting to expand on ideas that may be hard to see and digest. The novel makes itself difficult to navigate, just as white Americans have historically made life in America difficult to navigate for blacks and other minority groups. The reader, therefore, must assume a double consciousness that black Americans assume every day, and be aware of what Ellison sees of white America and their role in and reaction to that truth. Then and only then, in my opinion, can a reader fully grasp what Invisible Man naturally makes capable of being seen.

Bibliography
 Ellison, R. (1995). 
. New York: Vintage International. 

 (n.d.). Retrieved February 28, 2016, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/invisible