Passage Essay: Ellison

UnJi Nam

Mrs. Elliott

AP English Lit

22 March 2009

Passage Essay: Invisible Man

In the novel Invisible Man, Ellison delves into the complex issue of individual identity, analyzing how it is repressed, molded, and exploited by others and by even oneself in society. The author explores the various methods of control and also concrete examples of repression of individuals, such as racism and self-serving philanthropism that paralyzes men into positions of benevolence and gratitude. A particular tie-in of how individual identity and lives are stifled by forces beyond them can be found in the passage before the battle royale scene, where the nameless protagonist encounters a dancer. This scene deftly shows by symbolism in the dancer the allure of the American dream—riches, opportunities, and ideals—and how she is used to mollify and scare the lower echelons of society into behaving for those men in power. With use of imagery the reader find hints of Ellison’s tone, an author who looks with disgust at the scene of men lusting after the symbolic dancer, but also at the same time sympathy for the basic desire for better things that drive men witless. One can also detect satire of this bundle of dreams and ideals that is the cornerstone of American idealism that is depicted as little better than a cheap whore to all. With this passage, Ellison does not only introduce the start of the dissolution of the narrator’s idealistic Washingtonian dreams of social value with hard work and virtue. The author also explores deeper into how individual identity is oppressed by both outside forces and with the consent of the individual themselves, how the seemingly virtuous and admirable in society is not always the good it promises. The individual identity is constantly preyed and manipulated by forces, be it good or bad, from others or even oneself in society.
Symbolism in the passage adds greatly to the theme of how identity is encroached by outside forces; in the passage, the dancer is quite crudely tied to American ideas and systems by the flag tattooed on her belly. The colors red, white and blue that are associated with her reinforces her ties to American ideals. “The face heavily powdered and rouged, the pink and erected nipples…the eyes hollow and smeared a cool blue, the color of a baboon’s butt.” It is interesting to note how American ideals are personified in this woman, cheapened and made sluttish for the masses that do not respect or uphold what she stands for. She is basely lusted after by white men, and manhandled by them as well as little better than entertainment. “They caught her just as she reached a door, raised her from the floor, and tossed her…I saw the terror and disgust in her eyes.” But yet this toy of powerful men is still dangled in front of the black boys as unattainable, the white woman and the freedoms and opportunities of America in one, both upheld as too pure and good for the unworthy lower classes. This dancer is the prize for the boys—she represents the economic opportunities, full breadth of civil rights, and social acceptance that they so badly desire, as shown by their lust. Men would become little better than animals to win her, giving up their high ideals and philanthropy. One can see how this pursuit of the American dream of betterment for the individual ultimately cheapens people to little more than characters, and in doing so lose their individual self.
Imagery in the passage is used to develop the author’s attitude towards this small playacting of American society at large. The woman who represents the chase of material goods and freedoms is cheapened by descriptions such as “the color of a baboon’s butt” and “yellow like that of a circus kewpie doll”, showing how the narrator can recognize the woman’s essential cheapness to the individual. And yet with the description of her physical body, which can tie into the desire for the solid and physical things of the world such as economic opportunities and civil rights, the narrator betrays his lust as well. With description of the somewhat obscene desires that the narrator undergoes, Ellison shows his own disgusted but sympathetic stance towards the pursuit of happiness and especially those who undertake it. Both can recognize how the pursuit of property and happiness is used by society to control the lower masses to servility and powerlessness. “On my right I saw one boy faint…his head hung and moans issued from his thick bluish lips. Another boy began to plead to go home. He tried to hide himself with his boxing gloves.” But both can also recognize the legitimate human need for such things. With the continuance of the cold-blooded dance of the woman, and the rush of the powerful for her, Ellison portrays the chaos of the scene and how human ideals break down in the face of animal wants. The whole scene is barbaric and pitiful for all involved at the same time. No man, whether rich or poor, white or black, escapes the woman’s effects. All have subscribed to the cheap pursuit of her, forsaking the growth of higher and more enlightened purposes. While author, narrator and reader may be disgusted by this animalistic chase, one realizes that this is part of human nature. As the story progresses, Ellison directs both his character and the audience to the realization that to blind oneself to the reality of base human wants is to blind oneself to the truth. To assume that ideals of virtue, sacrifice or the righteousness of rage can define everything about a human being is to not know the truth, to order the world according to lines that do not exist. And as a member of the lower echelons of society, the narrator as a poor black man often bears the brunt of such dehumanizing ideals of others that would force him to be something other than what he truly is. Whether he is seen as a hard worker, criminal, motivational speaker or scapegoat, none of them can truly define what he is. And the truth of one’s own identity is arguably the most important thing a person has. It has been called the last freedom, the soul, and the one thing that is carried with a person beyond death. One’s choice to react to circumstances as they see fit, one’s own truthful wants and opinions. Things that are all ruthlessly stripped away by others, and one such way to do so is by the dangling of the carrot known as the American dream. With it, men swallow blood and speak irony; for it, they would betray their own; for it, they would deny themselves and their true colors.
In the end, Ellison was not advocating the removal of the American dream from society, or the downfall of society at large that oppressed individuals to fit into a scheme like machine parts. What Ellison called for was simple knowledge of the fact of how the American dream was used, both to oppress and to integrate people to be the same. And also, for his readers to follow the actions of the invisible narrator and try to effect change in society. Change as that society could function together without having to lose one’s own soul for betterment in life, change as so others could recognize and accept both the idealistic and the base in humanity without rejecting both the ugly and the people associated with it in the world.