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Essay / Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison - 730
Invisible Man is a novel written by Ralph Ellison that delves into various intellectual and social issues facing African Americans in the mid-20th century. Throughout the novel, the main character struggles to discover who he is and his place in society. He undergoes various transformations, including his transformation of blindness and lack of understanding in society's perception (Ellison 34). To fully examine the narrator's journey of transformation, several factors must be examined, including the grandfather's message in the first chapter, the death of Tod Clifton, the narrator's expulsion from college, and the events that occurred at the factory and at the factory hospital (Ellison 11). All of these events contributed immensely to the narrator finding his true identity. The narrator's father, freed from slavery after the Civil War, leads a quiet life. On his deathbed, the narrator's bitter grandfather advises the narrator's father to undermine white people and "accept them for death and destruction" (Ellison 21). The old man considered gentleness a betrayal. Despite the old man's warnings, the narrator believes that true obedience can earn him respect and praise. However, this is not entirely true because, while the Whites reward him with a calfskin briefcase, he is tricked into engaging in a humiliating battle royal and the scramble for a gold coin imitated in an electrocuted carpet. The respected white people of his town also do not hesitate to angrily express their disgust towards him. The narrator often played roles he didn't know existed. When he enters college, he doesn't realize that people like Mr. Norton use students as a means to an end, but not as a need to empower them. He is also at the center of organizing the fall of Harlem orchestrated by people like Jack without realizing it. For Sylbi and the white woman he sleeps with, he is not aware of the role he plays; rather, he sees the relationship as a means of acquiring something. In this novel, Ralph Ellison developed a very strong idea through the main character, who struggles to search for his identity..