Invisible Man - Characterization

Invisible Man Essay - Characterization

Ralph Ellison's novel, The Invisible Man, depicts an epic of racial change and bitter race relations in America; yet, it was not meant to describe the struggle of black, white, or yellow people, but to illustrate how a man's experiences through human error shape his being and his reality. The narrator in this story, who remains unnamed, builds up to a conclusive invisibility through the knowledge that many different people he meets along his journey pass down to him. His character in the end and the reality in which he lives in had all built up with the help of the little invisible characters mentioned in the story. As the story moves along, the narrator encounters Emerson, a man mentioned as both an author and a businessman, Mary Rambo, a woman that leads the narrator out of a world filled with society's machinations whom he considers a motherly figure, and lastly Brother Hambro whose narrow mind and thoughts are unable to satisfy the narrator's thirst for a more conclusive explanation about society. Emerson, Mary, and Brockway all contribute in the narrator's identification of himself as an invisible man through Emerson's race, Mary's protection, and Brockway's forcefulness.

Emerson is first introduced to the story as a man named Ralph Waldo Emerson who was a writer and poet; a write literary figure in the black community whom the narrator was recommended to study and idolize though it would have had no impact on him whatsoever. It wasn't until one of the college's trustees, Mr. Norton, mentioned the name of Emerson did the narrator actually know about the man. According to Mr. Norton, Emerson was "important to [the narrator's] people. He had a hand in [the narrator's] destiny" (41). In actuality, Ralph Waldo Emerson was a white man who spoke out against slavery. By telling the narrator to idolize Emerson, he is subtly implying that a superior white man standing up for the black race should be more important to the community than an inferior black man standing up for himself. If Emerson had a "hand" in the narrator's "destiny," then that show that the black race is controlled and molded together by the hands of the superior whites.

The name Emerson is later reintroduced as the Liberty Paints business tycoon whose son feels a connection with the narrator and disillusions him to Bledsoe's treacherous ways. When the narrator tries to request a job interview with Mr. Emerson, he is instead greeted by his son. During the conversation with the young Mr. Emerson, the narrator tries to defend his positions and his opinions about his old university by bringing up Dr. Bledsoe's support of him and proof of his identity, the young Emerson replies with, "identity! My God! Who has any identity anymore anyway?" (187). The last potential employer whom the narrator has a letter to give from Dr. Bledsoe, Emerson is scheduled to meet with the narrator about a job. Upon arrival at the office, the narrator is intercepted by Emerson's son who reads the letter to uncover the cruel trick which Bledsoe has organized: the letter says not to hire the narrator. Disillusioned by its contents, the son tries to talk the narrator into going to another college but only frustrates him. Finally, he shows the narrator the letter. The son feels his position is worse than the narrator's however, since Emerson is his father.

Brockway is the most volatile character in the story and fits the stereotypical image of a black man and helps the narrator recognize the control that white men in power have over the black community.