The Identity of an Invisible Man

A major theme of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is the narrator’s identity. In the story, his self perception drastically evolves through the events and circumstances he faces. Initially, the narrator tries to hide his true feelings and opinions, and expresses his identity solely based on how he wants others, specifically white people, to perceive him. He aims to please, and he doesn’t question his identity and the treatment he receives from white people. After Bledsoe’s betrayal in Chapter 9, the narrator realizes his previous role in society was as a subservient pawn, and resolves to get revenge and trek his own path. However, when he joins the Brotherhood, the narrator once again has to assume an alternate identity and exist as simply a cog in the Brotherhood, despite its progressive ideology. At this point of the novel, though the narrator has escaped the South, he has not escaped his invisibility.

At the beginning of Invisible Man, the narrator doesn’t fully understand the oppression and objectification he faces as a black man. He endures nightmarish situations, and never shows any sign of resistance or rebellion. He accepts that he has to keep a certain identity to please white people, as he thinks that is the only way for him to succeed in life. This mindset is shown in the Battle Royale, where though the narrator is put through a horrible and demeaning experience by wealthy white men, the only thing he cares about is performing his speech in front of them, despite their obvious disinterest and hostility towards him. When he arrives in New York, he still wants to follow in Mr. Bledsoe’s footsteps and create an outward identity similar to his, so he puts on a front, suppressing his true feelings and wishes. In the diner scene, the narrator refuses the breakfast “special” he actually wants to eat (pork chops, grits, one egg, hot biscuits and coffee), and instead orders orange juice, toast and coffee, showing that the narrator will deny himself the things and experiences he actually wants in order to keep up his “identity,” which is separated from the narrator’s actual consciousness.

After he discovers that he cannot return to the college, the narrator gains perspective of his identity, and how he has let other people determine his outward personality for many years in order to become “successful.” When he realizes that success is unattainable, he starts to allow himself to accept his true desires and experiences, and goes on a quest of self discovery, actively trying to be his own person rather than behaving a certain way to please others. He embraces his childhood roots by buying baked Carolina yams from a street vendor and openly enjoying them, whereas in the past, he would never let himself indulge in something so “southern.” However, as the narrator seems to finally be freeing himself of societal expectations and accepting his own identity, he gets recruited by the Brotherhood. Though the Brotherhood appears to be a progressive organization that advocates for diversity and rights for oppressed groups, they still force a new identity on the narrator by giving him a new name and home, and use him for their own purposes and motivations. After the narrator's first speech at an event for the Brotherhood, in which he expresses a moment of clarity with his identity, the Brotherhood members deeply disapprove of its contents, criticizing its “individualistic” nature, The Brotherhood squanders the narrator’s own identity by discouraging singularity and grooming him to only think of himself and society through a strictly ideological lens. Though the narrator has grown from his time at his southern college, he still does not have his own identity in the Brotherhood, and in a sense, he is still invisible.