Ralph Ellisons The Invisible Man - Essay Example

The Invisible Man Betrayal is one of the most common issues in the society that is often demonstrated in various literary works. In Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man, the author illustrates how one’s betrayal to his own people is a way to get through the horrible influences of racism. The main character in Ellison’s novel is invisible because it is the only way he knows how to survive the battle against racism. It is in his invisibility that he finds refuge, as well as the power to become whoever he wishes himself to be in a society that is ruled by white people. Betrayal within races was presented in various ways in the novel. However, it was after the main character in the novel had made mistake of bringing the trustee in his college to a remote area where black people lived and “dragged the entire race into the slime!” (Ellison 144). The confrontation that happened between Dr. A. Herbert Bledsoe and the main character in Ellison’s novel proved how ambition could be blinding for people of the same race that one would rather ignore and waste the dreams of the other than allow him to remain in school and threaten the power he claimed he has had over the white people who founded the school. Throwing a young man out of college is robbing him off of the opportunity to prove himself worthy of existence in the society where not even his own kind believes he would make it through to achieving his own dreams. Dr. Bledsoe cannot believe the young man could not lie to the school trustee that eventually led the latter to being mugged because he had wanted to see the real lives of the black people in the community. The young man’s inability to lie to one of the founders of the school has made Dr. Bledsoe furious. As a result, he expelled the young man from the college instead of respecting him of his innocence, honesty, and, nonetheless, his loyalty. As the altercation between the main character and Dr. Bledsoe kept on, the old man started using words that were no longer pleasing to the ear. “Nigger, this isn't the time to lie. I’m no white man. Tell me the truth!” (Ellison 147). The main character in the story could not believe himself when Dr. Bledsoe called him such a despicable name. Although a black man himself, the college president hid nothing further. This in itself is a betrayal of his own people, for the old man obviously does not regard himself as one of their own. When the old man said “I had to act the nigger!” (Ellison, 148), he meant nothing but separate his past from his present, from his being one of the Negros to being a white-manipulating man who knows his way around to keep his position in the college. Dr. Bledsoe makes it clear to the young man who is filled with too much ideals about his black race that the former was once like him. On the other hand, these ideals changed through time for in order to get to where he is now, he must learn how to practice “good judgment.” Unlike the other black men who stick to their ideals, Dr. Bledsoe was not afraid of betraying his own race in order to get what he wants and to keep it as long as he wants. He admits that “It's a nasty deal and I don't always like it myself. But you listen to me: I didn't make it, and I know that I can't change it. But I've made my place in it and I'll have every Negro in the country hanging on tree limbs by morning if it means staying where I am” (Ellison 146). Undeniably, during the entire confrontation and discussion, what transpired has initiated the young man to start feeling dispirited towards the man he thought was honorable enough for achieving such a position in school given his color. How would a young man full of dreams feel if he found out the man he looks up to is the same man who will simply make his world torn into pieces? One of the worst forms of betrayal is making you believe of your potentials, yet shut you out and stabbing you behind you back telling your likely employees the opposite. Hopes and dreams filled the young character’s heart in the novel as he went up to New York to do as he was told so that soon he will realize his dreams. At the back of his mind, he thought he would be able to get back to his college and graduate. Believing he has his future written in the seven envelopes he had with him, he dreamed of nothing but return to school and “remain at the college as a teacher, or as a member of the administrative staff” (Ellison 184). Oblivious of what was exactly written in the letters that Dr. Bledsoe gave him as “recommendation” to the people he knew would give him a job, the young man even hopes “to become Dr. Bledsoe’s assistant…” (Ellison 184) after graduating from college. However, fate is somehow on his side when one of the secretaries in the companies he applied for a job showed him what exactly was the content of the letter that Dr. Bledsoe gave to him. Deceived by someone of his own race is painful, and the most significant revelation in the life of the main character in the story. There was too much of Dr. Bledsoe’s character revealed in this part of the novel. At the same time, the emotional shifts in the characters as the confrontation progresses clearly identify the differences between them, their principles and the sacrifices they are both willing to make in order to obtain what they hope to achieve. The rage that the old man showed the young projects how much pain he had gone through in the past to get to where he is at now. Respected by his fellow black men and women, like the young man who is also the narrator of the story, Dr. Bledsoe is no different from others who would not mind stepping onto other people just to obtain what they thought they deserve. Even though this may mean deceiving others and betraying those who trust him and believes in him, there is no stopping people like Dr. Bledsoe. Denying his own race is the prize he has to pay in order to protect the place he had won in the battle between the blacks and the whites. Apparently, in this part of the novel, the author hopes to establish how interracial discrimination among people could be challenging that it could either be beneficial of detrimental to a person psychological and emotional being. Racism already poses a threat to individuals in a group, though being betrayed by one of your own is far more embarrassing and dreadful, yet a common means of survival of few people. Works Cited Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, 1980. Print. Read More