Advantage of the Invisibility of Elisions Narrator in Invisible Man - Book Report/Review Example

Advantage of the Invisibility of Elision’s Narrator in “Invisible Man A Sarcastic Irony Introduction In Ralph Elision’s novel, “Invisible Man”, when the narrator says that “it is sometimes advantageous to be unseen”, he, in fact, refers to a symbiotic relationship between his self-awareness and his awareness of the white society’s reluctance to acknowledge his individual identity. He feels that he exists physically and, even sometimes, spiritually; but the society in which he lives does not want to see him. Therefore, he describes and manipulates his ‘invisibility’ both ironically and sarcastically to exhume the underlying irony and self-contradiction of the white society. He says that being invisible is both advantageous and oppressive. One of the advantages which he notes is that being invisible gives him a power which he can exert on the world and a type of freedom which he can enjoy without suffering the consequences. Obviously, there is a glaring sarcasm in the narrator’s comment. Whereas the American society, the champion of freedom, will not allow him to exist or to be in the way he wants, he rather grows and cherishes his freedom behind the eyesight of this society. When the narrator’s invisibility is advantageous to him, it is harmful to the dominant white society because it endows the narrator with an antagonistic self-perception, more specifically with a hostile self-identity which teaches him to spit hatred and antagonism at the whites. In fact, the narrator does not directly acknowledge his antagonism against the whites; instead, he seems to say that this antagonism is essentially the projection of the dominant white society’s reluctance to acknowledge his existence. Identity Crisis and Invisibility as a Result of the White Society’s Reluctance to Acknowledge the Narrator’s Existence Elision’s novel tells about the identity crisis of an anonymous black man who struggle hard to ‘exist’ or to be in the dominant white society. From a first person-perspective, the story is told by an anonymous narrator. Even he does not reveal his names what he received from his school, the factory hospital, and the Brotherhood. This anonymity of the narrator is symbolic of his invisibility in the society. Throughout the novel, he appears as a voice or a ghostly character that yearns to be recognized (Stolyarov pars. 1). Furthermore, he exists as a form of consciousness that yearns to be acknowledged by the people in his surroundings in his society. But since the society refuses to recognize what he wants to be and wants to impose a stereotypical identity upon him, he feels that he lives an ‘invisible’ life in it, as he says, “I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me” (Elision 2). By keeping the narrator nameless, Elision rather wants to tell his readers about the identity crisis which every African-American black usually suffers from in the color-conscious society. In an article, Carol Fosse points out this everyman-status (universal status which can be applied to every black individual) of Elision’s narrator in the following manner: “Rich in symbolism…Invisible Mans 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” (pars. 1). This invisibility is symbiotically conjoined with the narrator’s self-awareness. The more the white society refuses to acknowledge what he wants to be, the more he becomes self-aware and rebellious against the society. Therefore, he thinks that his invisibility is advantageous to him, as he says, “it is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves” (Elision 3). Here, the narrator comment is quite ironic. It is ironic in the sense that what the narrator considers as advantageous is dangerous to the society. But more ironically, the society itself, being careless about the dangers, desires for these dangers by imposing an identity, upon the Blacks, which unashamedly provokes them to be destructive to the society. The self-contradiction of the white society’s tendency to establish a multicultural identity is: on one hand, people like Mr. Norton and Mr. Emerson want him to be ‘purely black’ and on the other hand, they are driven by several stereotypes of the black people. They believe that the blacks should be stereotypically criminals, sexual offenders, uncouth, uncivilized, ill-mannered, etc. In contrast to their intention, the narrator wants to come out of these stereotypes and to be treated like any other tax-paying citizen. But he fails to achieve it because he fails to follow his grandfather’s advice to satisfy the white people all the way to “death and destruction” (Ellison 16). Unlike the narrator, Trueblood has been successful to grab the attention of the white society by his story of incest with his daughter. In contrast with the narrator’s failure to be noticed by the white society, Trueblood’s social recognition as a criminal reveals much about the white tendency to see the black as uncouth and uncivilized. The white society cannot perceive that their failure to come out of the stereotypical notion about the black minority may be self-destructive, because it may serve as a provocation for them to explore that dark reality to which they are supposed to belong. Advantages of Invisibility and its Inherent Threats to the Society The narrator sometimes describes the advantages of his invisibility sarcastically to refer to the underlying ironies of the white society’s color-conscious policies to establish a diverse and multicultural American identity. He says that because of the society’s tendency to impose an identity, upon him, what he does not want, his own ‘self’ has been forced to take shelter in an underground place where he can possess enormous power to exert and freedom to be to the fullest without suffering the consequences of his actions. After he feels that he is invisible, he does not feel the sense of responsibility to the society anymore, as he says, “[i]rresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?” (14) In this regard, Yildiray Cevik notes that in the novel, invisibility seems to be a “position from which one may safely exert power over others, or at least undermine others’ power, without being caught” (8). But the question that arises here is whether this unbridled power and freedom which stay at the outskirt of the society’s control are dangerous or advantageous. It is remarkable that the narrator considers it as advantageous because it gives him power to fight with his adversaries: I remember that I am invisible and walk softly so as not to awaken the Sleeping ones…Sometimes it is best not to awaken them…I learned in time though that it is possible to carry on a fight against them without their realizing it. (Elision 5) The narrator does not tell about who his adversaries are. Instead, he simply refers to them as ‘sleeping ones’. In fact, the narrator’s use of the term, ‘sleeping ones’ metaphorically refers to the white people who seem to be ignorant of the adverse consequences of their reluctance to recognize the narrator. The narrator wants to “carry on a fight against them without their realizing it” (Elision 17). His ‘fight’ is endowed with two facets of meanings. First, his fight is both his self-exploration. “Without their realizing”, he can explore his self to the maximum. He can know what he is and what he wants to be. But it can be considered as his rebellion against the white society from a dark world where they will never be able to punish him because they cannot see him at all. He further acknowledges that “there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers” (Elision 16). It means that he refers to himself as dangerous to the ‘sleeping ones’ in other words, to the Americans who are oblivious to the consequences of their actions. They have pushed the narrator to the dark underground world where he exists with the full freedom and power which is out of the control of the society. One example of the dangers which the narrator’s invisibility poses to the society is how he shuns his duty of repaying the electricity company, named as “Monopolated Light & Power”. He stealthily uses its electricity; but he never cares about paying the bills: “I use their service and pay them nothing at all, and they dont know it. Oh, they suspect that power is being drained off, but they dont know where” (Elision 21). The narrator’s act of stealing the electricity is not to be considered as a mere act of theft; instead, with a metaphorical simplicity it tells that the black community who have, so far, been neglected by the white society has been pushed towards the dark-part of the society where they can suck its energy. In one sense, this act of ‘stealing energy or electricity’ refers to the limited scope, which the blacks are allowed to enjoy, of contributing to the society’s welfare. In another sense, it symbolizes the blacks’ antisocial, disruptive and anarchic activities which they commit because of the lack of care, which they are supposed to receive from the society. Advantages of Invisibility or Pity and Marcy of the White Society! The narrator’s notion of the advantages of invisibility also refers to the dominant white society’s carelessness towards the black minority. The narrator says, when he perceives that he is invisible in the eye of the white society, he gave up all the “the routine process of buying service and paying their outrageous rates” of electricity and started to “live rent-free in a building rented strictly to whites, in a section of the basement that was shut off and forgotten during the nineteenth century” (Elision 22). His invisibility allows him to enjoy these advantages of using electricity and living in costly apartments. But these advantages ironically reveal the impoverished condition of the narrator as well as of the black community. The narrator says that he gives up his duty to pay the electricity bills and house-rent. It necessarily indicates that he does not possess an identity which requires him to fulfill the duties of a citizen. Rather in the eye of his society, he belongs to those impoverished black people who walk along the streets of America, live on the sidewalks of the streets and in the basements of the rich white people’s buildings and live on their pity and mercy. Even if any of the people want to live decently in the society like a responsible and dutiful citizen, they are not considered more worthy than a street-beggar. The narrator shuns his duty to pay the electricity company because fulfillment of this duty cannot endow him with the identity what he really (Stolyarov pars. 2). Formerly, he would think that these duties make him ‘visible’ or gives him an identity in the society, as he says, “That way based upon the Fallacious assumption that I, like other men, was visible” (Elision 23). But now as he perceives that he is still invisible, he has given up all those duties and chosen to live on the mercy of the rich white people who feel more comfortable with seeing him in this way. Conclusion Elision shows that the dominant white society’s color-conscious affirmative policies, which are intended to support a diverse and multicultural American identity, are treacherous enough to steal away a black individual’s freedom to be or exists in the way how he wishes to be. It will impose an identity which will continually remind him that he belongs to a particular community and that, therefore, he must behave in a particular way which represents him as a member of that particular community. The narrator of the novel recognizes this tendency as an invisible totalitarianism on the society’s part. Ironically, he tells his readers that his invisibility is advantageous to him. His comment is ironical because the advantages which his invisibility gives him are those which an impoverished man receives from the rich. Moreover, these are the advantages of a thief or a criminal to exert his freedom and power to do whatever he wants. The narrator feels that he possesses enormous power and freedom behind the eye of the society, because he can do anything without suffering the consequences of his actions. But at the same time, he insinuates that these advantages of having power and freedom at the outskirt of the society’s control are harmful for the society. Works Cited Cevik, Yildiray. “The Motifs of Blindness and Invisibility within the Influence of Postwar Existentialism as Reflected in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison”, Athens: ATINERS Conference Paper Series, 2012. No: LIT2012-0278. web. 13 November 2013. Available at Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: The Modern Library, 1994. Fosse, Carol. “Racism in Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man.” n.d. web. 13 November 2013. Available at Stolyarov, George. “The Meaning of Invisibility in Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man”, Yahoo Contributor Network Jul 2, 2007. web. 13 November 2013. Available at Read More