Invisible Man Essay: Self-Identity in Invisible Man -- Invisible Man E

Self-Identity in covert Man In the novel, Invisible Man, the main graphic symbol carries around a briefcase throughout the entire story. All of the possessions that he carries in that briefcase are mementos from learning experiences. Throughout the novel, the Invisible Man is searching for his personal identity and later disc everywheres that his identity is in those items. As the narrator is leaving Marys sign of the zodiac for the Brotherhood, he sees a Negro- dolly bank in his room. He is angry that the doll is holding a sign that read, Feed me. For a second I stopped, feeling hate charging up within me, then dashed over and grabbed it, suddenly as enraged by the tolerance of lack of discrimination, or whatever, that allowed Mary to keep such a self-mocking image around (Ellison 319). The shatter of the bank by the narrator symbolizes that he is rejecting the views of the old Negro and pickings his own views on the accede. Part of his views is the conviction that colore d people do not need to rely on whites for their survival. Often times unrivalled does not know his own viewpoint on a subject until he wad reject one view. Another item that is stored in his briefcase is the broken chain link that Brother Tarp gave to him. I uncomplete wanted it nor knew what to do with it although there was no question of keeping it if no other reason than that I felt that Brother Tarps gesture in offering it was of some deeply felt significance which I was compelled to regard (Ellison 389). Although the narrator does not want to keep the link, he feels compelled to do so because the chain gang is part of his heritage. One often feels that he can not ignore to his past, as does the Invisible Man. Even at the discontinue of the novel when he is b... ... part of his true identity. Works Cited Bone, Robert. Ralph Ellison and the Uses of Imagination. Modern coloured Novelists A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. M. G. Cooke. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice-H all, Inc., 1971. 45-63. Brennan, Timothy. Ellison and Ellison The Solipsism of Invisible Man. CLA Journal XXV (Dec 1981) 162-81. Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York The Modern Library, 1994. Holland, Laurence B. Ellison in Black and White Confession, Violence and Klein, Marcus. Ralph Ellison. afterward Alienation American Novels in Mid-Century. Cleveland World Pub., 1964. 71-146. Langman, F.H. Reconsidering Invisible Man. The Critical Review. 18 (1976) 114-27. Lieber, Todd M. Ralph Ellison and the Metaphor of Invisibility in Black Literary Tradition. American Quarterly. Mar. 1972 86-100.