Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison
1. Exposition: The novel opens with our nameless protagonist recounting his experiences twenty years back and starting with his grandfather's dying words, words that would continue to haunt him throughout the whole novel." I want you to overcome 'em with yesses, undermine 'em with grins..." Then he continues to describe what occurred when he gave a speech at a town gathering of white male citizens, where many young African Americans (including him) were forced to blindly fight and humiliate one another.
Inciting Incident: The one event which serves as a catalyst is the expulsion from college Dr. Bledsoe administers to our protagonist and his forced move up north, where Bledsoe supposedly will have employment waiting for him. In reality Bledsoe does not intend on helping him at all and actually has no intentions of allowing him to return to college, he simply wants to put distance between them.
Conflict: The main conflict in the novel is the lack of identity and the invisibility of our protagonist and his futile attempts to conform to society. The lack of his own name portrays the lack of his identity.
Rising Action: Our protagonist delivers his first speech in defense of his people from dispossession and draws the attention of the Brotherhood. He is recruited, introduced to much knowledge, and experiences the great power of words and emotions. However, he soon discovers that his ideas clash with those of the Brotherhood, Tod Clifton is murdered, and the tensions in Harlem begin to rise.
Climax: The climax occurs with the riots of Harlem, where the African American people took to the streets and revolted. This is when our protagonist realizes that this was exactly what the whites wanted, to have an excuse to slaughter as many black lives as possible. They were no match for them.
Falling Action: Our protagonist falls into a deep, dark hole and remains here for an indefinite amount of time, "... and I slept on and on until finally I was aroused by hunger." His hopes of reaching Mary have vanished and he lets the darkness consume him.
Resolution: After his period of "hibernation" he comes to accept the fact that to others he is a "transparent as air" and that he must learn to live with it. However he also admits that we are all lost in this world with no direction and no identity. This does not stop him from continuing to love, hate, denounce and defend and he decides to become a new man, and although he knows he will continue to be invisible he still has a role to play in society.
2. There are various themes embedded in this novel: living
with no identity, ideology versus emotion, shame and guilt, invisibility, etc.
Throughout the entire novel our nameless protagonist struggles with his
identity, or lack of one, and is often in a state of confusion. He is trained by the Brotherhood to utilize ideology when speaking to his people so
that he may organize them effectively, however he finds that this is in constant
conflict with what he is truly feeling and often his ideology is powerless
against his true emotions. Many times throughout this novel certain smells of
yams, cabbage, and carbolic acid transport him back to his past, which at first
he despised remembering for he would feel shame, but as he began to lose this
shame he was overcome with guilt for suppressing his childhood and true self.
And the biggest theme of all is his invisibility, which he comes to realize and
accept in the closing of the book. He realizes that all his life he was only being utilized for
others needs and selfish wants and that even when they showed interest for him,
they didn't truly see him, they only looked past him.
3. The tone established in this novel is a surreal and
sardonic tone. The nameless protagonist seems to constantly observe situations
in which he is part of, from the outside, as if he himself were not truly
living in that moment. He is also always awakening from a dreamlike state only
to face a horrific reality. Some excerpts which illustrate this point would be, “… I was understanding
something fully and trying again to answer but seemed to sink to the center of
a lake of heavy water…”pg 230; “… I had the feeling that I had been talking
beyond myself, had used words and expresses attitudes not my own, that I was in
the grip of some alien personality…” pg 249; “Now it was as though I had
suddenly awakened from a deep sleep.” pg 422.
4. Literary Elements/ Techniques
Gradation
“He was standing and he fell. He fell and he kneeled. He
kneeled and he bled. He bled and he died.” Pg 456
“…recording the crowd swerving around me: legs, feet, eyes,
hands, bent knees, scuffed shoes, teethy eyed excitement; and some moving on
unhalting.” pg 251
Antithesis
“I’m in New York, but New York ain’t in me, understand what
I mean?” pg 255
“”…They’re living, but dead. Dead-in-living…”” pg 290
Metonymy
“…without church or congregation, without bread or wine...”
pg 256
Symbolism
“He frowned and I laughed. “They picked poor Robin clean,” I
said.” pg 248
“The odor of Mary’s cabbage changed my mind.” Pg 296
“”That is your new name,” Brother Jack said.” Pg 309
Paradox
“…that frozen virtue, that freezing vice.” pg 259
“… men and horses of flesh imitating men and horses of
stone.” Pg 460
Anaphora
““Meaning HOPE!
“Of hardship and pain:
“Meaning FAITH!
“Of humbleness and absurdity:
“Meaning ENDURANCE!
“Of ceaseless struggle in
darkness…” pg 125
Imagery
“A single wild rose tossed farewell, bursts slowly, its
petals drifting snowlike upon the reluctantly lowered coffin.” Pg 131
Repetition
“Black, black, black! Black people in blacker mourning…” pg
131
““We’re a law-abiding people and a slow to anger people.””
Pg 275
Enumeration
“… replacing the articles: a bent Masonic emblem, a set of
tarnished cuff links, three brass rings, a dime pierced with…” pg 272
“Maybe she wants to see me sweat coal, tar, ink, shoe
polish, graphite.” Pg 303
Allusion
“”… the old heroes are being called back to life- Jefferson,
Jackson, Pulaski, Garibaldi, Booker T. Washington…” pg 307
“You hear a lot of arguments about Booker T. Washington…” pg
306
Personification
“The clock ticked with empty urgency, as though trying to
catch up with the time.” Pg 317
Onomatopoeia
“… I could feel my eardrums throbbing with the old, hollow,
gut-vibrant Doom-Dong-Doom.” Pg 451
Foreshadowing
“”But don’t you think he should be a little blacker?”” pg
303
“Something was certain to happen tomorrow… I received a
letter from Mr. Emerson.” Pg 171
Bonus!!
Vocabulary #3
""This is an outrageous example of unconscious racial chauvinism!" Jack said." pg 312
"... independent objects that could of their own volition lead me to safety or danger." pg 335
CHARACTERIZATION
1. Direct characterization:
“A man of striking ugliness; fat, with a bullet-head set on
a short neck, with a nose much too wide for its face, upon which he wore
black-lensed glasses.” Pg 117
“… was small, wiry and very natty in his dirty overalls. And
as I approached him I saw his drawn face and the cottony white hair showing
behind…” pg 207
Indirect Characterization
“”But I’ve made my place in it and I’ll have every Negro in
the country hanging on tree limbs by the morning if it means staying where I
am.”” Pg 143
“… it ain’t costing
you a penny and I don’t want to git in your business, I just want you to lay
down till you rested and then you can go.” Pg 252-253
Ellison utilizes both direct and indirect characterization
in order to provide us readers with a better and complete understanding of the
characters. Direct characterization serves the purpose of directly shaping the
character with words and descriptions while through indirect characterization
we are exposed to the inner person of the character and are able to observe
their behaviors, thoughts, and responses. For example through Ellison’s
indirect characterization of Bledsoe, I learned his true traitorous self and
grew to despise him deeply.
2. Yes the diction does change and provides us with a range
of American language, from southern African American to northern white. For
example we are given dialogue from Trueblood in the beginning of the novel, “Seems
like I heard a whippoorwill callin’, and I thought to myself, Go on away from
here, we’ll whip ole Will when we find him.”, and this is in great contrast to
the dialogue we receive from the Brotherhood scientists, “A consummate example
of skilled theoretical Nijinskys leaping ahead of history.” However the author
alters the diction to give authenticity to the characters and to attempt to
make them realistic.
3. The protagonist is dynamic for he came a long way in this
novel. He began full of illusion and ignorance and as he lived through much disappointment
learned that he was only attempting to conform to a pattern and thus was truly
invisible. He was awakened from his dream and was reborn time and time again,
living through different identities but never finding his own.
4. I definitely felt as though I knew the protagonist and on
various occasions could identify bits and pieces of myself within him. I feel
as though I can relate some of my emotions with his, although on different
levels, and in certain occasions his own voice became mine. One specific characteristic which makes him realistic is the fact that
he remains blind until he experiences pain, defeat, humiliation. “They were me;
they defined me. I was my experiences and my experiences were me…” pg 508.
