Invisible Race and Gender in Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison Essay

In Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the unnamed storyteller shows us through the use motifs and symbols how racism and sexism negatively affect the social mannequin and individual identity of the oppressed people. Throughout the novel, the African American narrator tells us the story of his journey to find success in manner which is sabotaged by the exsanguine-dominated society in which he lives in. Along his journey, we are excessively shown how the patriarchy oppresses all told of the wo custody in the novel through the narrators encounters with them. One of the major motifs in Invisible Man is blindness. The first period were shown blindness in the novel is at the difference royal. The blindfolds that all of the contestants wear symbolize how the black society is blind to the way washcloth society is still belittling them, despite the abolishment of slavery. When he arrives at the battle, the narrator says I was told that since I was to be there anyway I might as well take part in the battle royal to be fought by some of my schoolmates as part of the pleasure (Ellison 17). Although, the white men asked him to come to the battle royal in lodge to deliver his graduation speech, they force him to participate in the battle royal, where the white men make young black men fight distributively other as a form of entertainment for them. When the black men put their blindfolds on to fight in this battle, they are blind, both figuratively and literally. They cant mind the people they are fighting against, just as they cant see how the white men are exploiting them for their own pleasure. Shelly Jarenski claims the Battle Royal establishes the kinship between white power, male power, and (hetero)sexual power, the self-grounding presumptions of dominant subjectivity ... ... Jerilyn, and Ellen Silber. Women in lit Reading Through the Lens of a Gender. Westport, CT Greenwood, 2003. Print. Butler, Robert. Ralph Ellison A Biography. African American Review 42. 3/4 (2008) 759. Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson). Web. 27 Nov. 2015.Jarenski, Shelly. Invisibility Embraced The Abject As A Site Of Agency In Ellisons Invisible Man.. Melus 35.4 (2010) 85-109. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Nov. 2015. Johns, Gillian. Jim Trueblood And His Critic-Readers Ralph Ellisons Rhetoric Of Dramatic satire And Tall Humor In The Mid-Century American Literary Public Sphere. Texas Studies In Literature & Language 49.3 (2007) 230. Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson). Web. 27 Nov. 2015.Dickstein, Morris. Ralph Ellison, Race, And American Culture. Raritan 18.4 (1999) 30. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 27 Nov. 2015.