In order to be a next Dr. Bledsoe, the narrator should slough off his Southern way of speech. He should deny his heritage. But he is expelled from college because of taking Mr. Norton to see the dark side of the black community
At the second stage of the narrator’s life, he leaves for the North to pursue his “American dream”. But he is still seen as an invisible man in the North. After the accident in the paint factory, the narrator is reborn from the machine of the hospital. Living in the Harlem community, the narrator is stimulated by the culture of Harlem. He begins to accept his black heritage and tries to find his way of establishing self-identity. One typical example is when the narrator is walking in the streets, he encounters a man selling the yams, he buys and eats one, and then shouts loudly: “They’re my birthmark…I yam what I am!” (Ellison 2005). The behavior of eating yams in public indicates that he has overcome his shame at being identified as a Southern Negro. This is the turning point in his realization of self-identity.
Later, the narrator joins in the brotherhood, a political organization that is dedicated to achieving the equality for all people. He 毕业论文http://www.751com.cn/what he is told to do. Later, he finds out that he is fooled by the brotherhood and decides to leaves the organization. What’s more, Brother Clifton’s death has a great impact on the narrator. The tragic death of his friend drives the narrator to examine the meaning of his own life.
At the end of the novel, the narrator establishes his identity and frees himself. He tries to study the lesson of his own life. Although the world around him has not changed significantly, the narrator’s attitude toward life and his behavior have changed dramatically.
“And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone’s way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled” (Ellison 2005).
This is the internal true self of the narrator. He becomes free. When the narrator accidentally meets Mr. Norton in subway, Norton asks him for directions but doesn’t recognize him as the young man he once identified as the keeper of his destiny. The narrator shares the life long search for his true identity of realization with Mr. Norton. That is “if you don’t know where you are, you probably don’t know who you are”(Ellison 2005).
In the bitter life of the narrator, the blues resound around the narrator. It reminds the narrator what he is and pushes the narrator to think of his past wrong. Why the narrator’s life is so black and blue? The reason is that people refuse to see him as human being, they ignore his existence. After all these painful experience, the narrator realizes the real situation and begins to rebel against this kind of racial discrimination. He accepts his black heritage and awakes to establish his self-identity as an Afro-American.
7. Conclusions
Invisible Man is an influential novel in Afro-American literature. Ralph Ellison mixes not only the features of the blues, but also the spirit of the blues in the novel. Reading Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man from the angle of the blues music, it is a challenging attempt to read music into literature. The spirit of the blues is fully embodied through the novel. It deepens and enlarges the meaning of the novel. In the path from ignorance to enlightenment, the blues music is the healing power for the narrator. Whenever he suffers pain, the blues music is heard around the narrator. It helps the narrator to have courage to face the suffering and awakes him to think of his destiny and drives him to find and establish his self-identity. From the painful experience of the narrator, the struggle and behavior of him represent the spirit of rebellion of the painful life and express his wish of liberation and freedom. The awareness of self-identity is a new stage for the narrator to start his new life.
Invisible Man is a record of Afro-American’s painful life. The experience of the narrator represents thousands of black people’s experience. In the white dominant environment, Afro-Americans have suffered oppression and discrimination for centuries. They are ignored by the white just because of their black skin color. Under this unfair system, Afro-American struggle to survive and pursue their rights and freedom. They establish self-identity and form their unique culture. Their spirit and culture enrich plenty of writers’ works. While writing Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison mixes the feature the blues and本文来自辣文论文网 the spirit of the blues to enrich the
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