Racism and the Identity Crisis of Ralph Elisions Protagonist in Invisible Man - Term Paper Example

Racism and the Identity Crisis of Ralph Elision’s Protagonist in “Invisible Man” Ralph Elision’s novel “Invisible Man” deals with the identity crisis of an unnamed black narrator who struggles hard to ‘be’ or ‘exist’ in a white-dominated society. The story, being narrated from a first person point of view, never reveals the real name of the narrator. Rather he does not mention the names what he received from his college, the factory hospital, and the Brotherhood. Throughout the whole novel, he remains a voice that wants to be heard, and a form of consciousness that wants to be acknowledged and recognized by others in his society. But being denied to be recognized by his society he remains ‘invisible’ in it. By keeping the narrator-protagonist nameless, Elision rather attempts to uphold the identity conundrum of everyman of his black community. In an article, “Racism in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man” Carol Fosse comments on this everyman status of Elision’s protagonist, as following: “Rich in symbolism…Invisible Man's linear plot structure, told from the first person, limited point of view, and framed by the Everyman protagonist from his subterranean home, follows the narrator in his search for identity in a color-conscious society” (3). Elision’s novel “Invisible Man” deals with what is essentially characterized as the postmodern destabilization of African-American identity in ways that also engages with debates in African-American literary studies that obviously influences author like Percival Everett profoundly. Like Elision’s protagonist, most of Everett’s protagonists’ race-based Negro identity appears to be in incessant destabilization that necessarily goes into conflicts with the dominant white culture’s race-based affirmation of the identity for the African-American minority. Like Elision’s novel, Percival Everett’s “Erasure” also deals the African-American identity-crisis through the interactions of the protagonist Elision Monk with his race and the white society. Monk wryly introduces himself, “I have dark brown skin, curly hair, a broad nose, some of my ancestors were slaves and I have been detained by pasty white policemen in New Hampshire, Arizona and Georgia and so the society in which I live tells me I am black; that is my race.” (Everett 4) His novel, primarily, reveals a major part of the dilemma of the black identity. On one hand, Everett cannot shake off the American dream of a heterogeneous but harmonious society; on the other hand, there are apparently perpetuating obstacles to the assimilation of the black community with the mainstream of the society. Everett’s protagonist, Monk’s, who represents the author himself, perception of his own identity as a black writer has always left him in a conundrum which is very much similar to that of Ralph Elision’s protagonist. Monk describes this problem of his black identity: While in college, I was a member of the Black Panther Party, defunct as it was, mainly because I felt I had to prove I was black enough. Some people in the society in which I live, describe as being black, tell me I am not enough. Some people, who the society calls white, tell me the same thing. (Everett 118) To be a successful black in the white society Monk has to be “black enough” (Everett 118). Being ‘black enough’ means reflecting brute aspects of the black culture enough. In order to win the scholarship in the college, Elision’s protagonist also has to be black enough by participating “battle royal” which reflects “the caste system of a Southern town” (Klein 113). The identity conundrum of the protagonists essentially evolves from the white society’s reluctance to acknowledge the individuality of an African American. Here Elision engages with the debate whether the Black community should retain its cultural and racial homogeneity or merge with the mainstream white society. He further argues that though color-aware affirmative-actions are supposed to build up a heterogeneous multicultural society, the glaring flaw of the color-aware policy of racial equality will continue to motivate the white-perspective to treat the black from a superior point of view. Ultimately the white superiority complex induced by the color-aware affirmative policy will continue to perpetuate the racial divide in the society. Obviously, Elision’s narrator-protagonist is the worst sufferer of this color-aware policy of the white society. In this society, he struggles hard to pursue his dream; but he is continually reminded that he is a black, so he is not suitable for it. Ultimately, he chooses to live invisible, as Carol Fosse notes, “the society’s constricting social and cultural bigotry produces an accelerated pattern of violence and oppression which attempts to efface the narrator of his individuality, thus assigning him an "invisible" non?identity within America.” (2) In the novel, conflicts between identities occur on two levels: first, the conflict occurs between the stereotype-based black identity that the dominant white culture is prone to assign with the African-American and the identity, based on the race, color, and ethnicity that is in the process of gradual disintegration in the postmodern context. It appears that the dominant white culture continuously reminds the oblivious African-American minority of the fact that their identity is black. Second, the conflict occurs between the moral obligations of a black and the obligation imposed by the dominant culture. Here what Elision means by identity of the African-Americans is in obvious contrast with what identity for Hughes is. If the African-American identity appears to be in the process of disintegration in the postmodern context, its reflection in the novel “Invisible” is certainly the assertion of the moral obligation of an African American to his society. When the dominant white society, to a great extent, fixes the premises of an African American identity, for Elision says that identity is what one wants to be. At the beginning of the novel, the narrator claims that he is “invisible”. He does not mean it literally. Rather he is invisible because his society does not see him. What does this reluctance of the society to see him mean? Obviously this reluctance of the white society is its denial to grant the narrator a place where he wants to be placed. The white society embraces him while whispering in the ears that “I am embracing you. Don’t forget that you are a black.” (Klein 56) Indeed the narrator does not want to shy away from his black identity. But he defies the white-imposed identity since the ‘blackness’ functions as a metaphor for the superiority complex of the white society and for the inferiority of the entire black people. The narrator of the novel continually experiences the stereotypical black identity that is imposed by the white society. Because of his talent in delivering public-speech he is invited to deliver a speech in a meeting arranged by a group of white people. Being pleased with his speech, they rewarded him with a scholarship to a prestigious college. Even this scholarship also requires him to fight in a “battle royal”. “Battle royal” is significant for the narrator’s invisibility in two ways: first, it is emblematic of his culture. Therefore, the white society wants to keep it alive beneath cultural practices and tropes. But one of its effects is that it goes on feeding the racial segregation by reminding the black that they are black. Referring to the function of the “Battle Royal” as a catalyst of the racial divide, Fosse comments, “The battle royal reinforces "the caste system of a Southern town….The society is overt in its aim to maintain the caste system so the narrator is rewarded with a scholarship, courtesy of the town's leaders, to the state college for Negroes.” (2) In this way, such cultural tropes seem to continue a form of white superiority complex. Indeed this superiority is evident in the patrons of the “Battle Royal” as well as in Norton’s attitude. Mr. Norton, one of the founding fathers of the college, revels in True Blood’s story of incest. Though racism in Mr. Norton’s behavior is subtler than the patrons of the “Battle Royal”, his interest in Trueblood’s story reveals much of the superiority complex of the white society. Trueblood receives a reward of one hundred dollar as well as the attention of the white society. In contrast with the invisible narrator’s failure to be noticed by the white society, Trueblood’s social recognition as a criminal reveals much about the white tendency to the black as a brute. Critics like Busby view Trueblood as “a trickster who realizes that by becoming the white community’s stereotypical black, he fulfills their expectations and becomes a ‘true blood’ or pure stereotype” (Busby 48). Busby claims that Trueblood tells the story of his incest knowingly and purposefully. His story “to trick the surrounding white community, is essentially yessin’. . .‘em to death by giving whites the story they want” (Busby 48) But the narrator’s search for an identity ends in smoke because of his failure to follow his grandfather’s advice to satisfy the white people all the way to “death and destruction” (Ellison 16). The white society rigidly defines racial identities and expects that Elision’s and Everett’s protagonists must conform to them. It also raises barriers to the promising integration of the black community into the dominant society. The white frontiers of this society do not permit the black people to be what they want. Rather they force them to play according to their expectation. In “Invisible Man”, Trueblood has played fulfilling their expectation; thus in return, he has ensured his bread and butter. Elision’s protagonist tries in vain to have an identity by attempting to be a true black according to the white society’s will, as he says, And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone’s way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled. I am an invisible man. (Elision 97) Portraying Monk’s experiences in the American society that continually claims to be colorblind, Everett clearly points out the ironical freaks in it. Conflicts grow between the stereotypes of the dominant heterogeneous (advocated) culture and the perpetuating black stereotypes. If it is the deception on Monk’s part to write the parody of the black ghetto novel under a pseudonym, the frontiers of the dominant culture are to be alleged with the same deception. It is due to those frontiers that knowingly or unknowingly perpetuate the gap between the two cultures in the name of heterogeneity. Sean O’ Hagan summarizes this conflict in the following lines: “In despair, he churns out a rushed parody of the black ghetto novel, entitled My Pafology, under the pseudonym Stagg R Lee. “I tighten up my belt and then yank my pants down on my ass….so, why not me?”….when his agent sells it for a huge sum, Monk’s problems really begin.” (5) Indeed Both Ralph Elision and Percival Everett deal with the conflict between the identity that the white society imposes on his black ethnicity and the identity that their protagonists want to achieve. Whereas this conflict forces Everett’s protagonist to double his self in “Erasure”, Elision’s protagonist convinces himself enough to believe that he is invisible. But Everett’s hero Monk’s double-identities are not the final resort. It is evident that Monk does not succumb to his Pseudo identity that brings him huge success as a writer. In the same way, Elision’s protagonist ultimately is more aware of his invisible identity induced by implied racial negligence of his society. Works Cited Busby, Mark. Ralph Ellison. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1991. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: The Modern Library, 1994. Everett, Percival, Erasure, New York: Hyperion, 2001 Fosse, Carol. “Racism in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.” n.d. web. 23 November 2012 Klein, Marcus. "Ralph Ellison." After Alienation: American Novels in Mid-Century. Cleveland: World Pub., 1964. 71-146. Sean O’ Hagan, “Interview: Percival Everett”, The observer, 16 March 2003. Web. 23 November 2012                     Read More