Understanding Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man Paper Example

Introduction

The literature work goes beyond the ordinary; it surpasses the Hollywood version of invisibility. The invisibility arises from the perception that people hold towards him. The inability of the people to recognize him for whom he makes him conclude the narration be describing himself as invisible (Ellison, 93). The text gives a summary of the main prompts including queer theory and invisibility, then goes ahead to analyze gender and female characterization as an idea of bringing about invisibility in the novel.

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Prompts Developing the Narration

Gender Criticism

It is evident that there is a clear distinct between the genders, the power, and roles that each of the genders plays. Roles are distinct from each other, and they help shape the gender ideology and the central theme of invisibility. Unlike the traditional scenario where there are males and females, four classes of gender exist, the white males, the black males, the white females, and the black females. The ranking is done based on the powers that the genders posses and their mention in the novel. From it, white males have the highest authority; the blacks help push the central theme; the white ladies are present in fulfilling the central theme while the mention of the black ladies is limited.

The number of females characters in the novel is quite low; the roles and their mentions are limited to where they are used to supplement the roles of the male players. The white females are shown to be parallel to the black males in the novel. For instance, at the beginning of the narration, the narrator explains how they had to work hand in hand with a female stripper to fulfill the queer interest of their male counterparts. It is evident that the society was male-dominated. The utter disrespect to females is evident through the creation of classes, where the white males take the top tier, and black females are at the bottom, to reveal this, the black females are entirely left out of the novel.

Abuse of male masculinity is evident throughout the text; this may have been the norm at the time when the story was written. At the beginning of the book, the prominent white males are seen gathered in a private hall where they are entertained by people who are viewed to be of lower calibers. For them, Human can be used as objects or sources of entertainment. Moreover, they are in a position to dictate what happens and how it happens. They are influential in ensuring that the narrator is allocated a slot in a prestigious black college, even though they do this under the influence of drugs.

White male ego has come at a high cost to another gender, at the end of the narrator college days; he had to beg Mr. Norton, an influential white male to change his fate. When taking Mr. Norton for a ride, he made a mistake and thus forced to beg the master so as not to get expelled, the narrator fears are seen through the excerpt, "...to beg his pardon for what he had seen; to plead and show him tears, unashamed tears like those of a child before his parent..." (Ellison 78). Male masculinity is evident, and people of the lower gender have to beg to be heard.

The expulsion of the narrator from college is driven by the male ego. The principle, to emulate the white masters and please them expels the narrator without following the due course. Even with Mr. Norton insistence that the boy had done no wrong, his plea fell on deaf ears. Dr. Bledsoe can turn things around in favor of the male chauvinist rules; he says, "An accident to a guest of this college, while he is in charge of a student, is without question the student's fault." (Ellison 78) The narrator feels that what was done was not fair, but he is no position to defend himself since the system is prone to abuse.

The mentality that black males are a rapist is well instilled in the novel; there are various instances where the narrator explains the desire of the white ladies to have sex with him. It is pretty obvious that there had been instances of rape that had led to the prejudice that black men cannot be trusted around white ladies. At the beginning of the narration, the black boys were teased about looking at the white lady. The lady also goes ahead to entice the boys to create an erection. Even though it is evident that they are uncomfortable, they had to do it, "it's what they did best."

The novel creates the roles that individual genders play. From it, it is evident that the male is the dominant gender, well; this can be understood since the setting is done at a time when males were the decision makers in society. The females are seen to be quite invisible to a point the narrator seduces a white lady so as he could reveal the secrets of the dominant husband, anyway, he was taking advantage of the fact that black males were sex dominant and white ladies always fantasized having sex with them. The distinct roles that the characters played shows that genders were unequal, males being dominant while females were in the subordinate roles such as a receptionist. On the other hand, the black males were the assistants to the white male masters. Through the gender identities, it is evident that the central theme of invisibility is enhanced; the white males are the only ones visible and influential in the novel.

Female characterization is based on the need of the royal men to satisfy their male ego. The royal battle where the black males pleased the while male with wrestling matches is a clear display of the extent that male masculinity manifests in the story. Toxic masculinity is evident where the influential men in the society gather to watch the poor folks battle out. To them, pleasure is derived by the suffering of others, the rewards are shown to be prestigious, but in reality, it adds little value to the winner. The conditions under which the blacks are exposed to acts to worsen the condition, the narrator states that he felt weak and desired to leave, but he could not. The gathering is shown to give the men an opportunity to do what is usually restrained by societal norms.

The primary source of entertainment is the conditions that the boys are exposed to; first, they are led through a series of stairways with their eyes blindfolded. How they were dressed exposes the real purposes for which they were brought there in the first place. The narrator states that their upper bodies were bare and shiny. The school superintendent referred to them as the little shine "bring up the shines, gentlemen! Bring up the little shine!" (Ellison 15). The number of faces that were looking at them made the narrator almost wet his pants. Traditionally, the humans that were forced to entertain guest were usually slaves or people of a lower class.

On the stage, there is a naked lady who expresses sexual positions to entice the audience, the white men are interested in her, but they can hide their excitement through the use of the black men. The narrator gives an instance where a rich merchant followed the dancer hungrily even though he initially posed like he was interested in the shiny bodies. The town folks are not able to express their sexual desires, by exposing the black male bodies to the white lady; they are given a kind of body screen where they can idealize their images even more. The black boys are forced to keep looking, even when it is clear that they are distressed. Only when the black boys are fully erect and uncomfortable does the white men achieve sexual pleasure. The white men go ahead and fight over the white lady in an attempt to fulfill their desires, "...and tossed her as college boys are tossed at a hazing, and above her red, fixed-smiling lips I saw the terror and disgust in her eyes, almost like my terror and that which I saw in some of the other boys" (Ellison 17).

Norton desire to have her daughter sexually goes beyond the accepted societal norms. He is pleased with the person that impregnated the daughter and even has a relation with him. In a normal scenario, a black man impregnating a white lady would have brought some serious consequences. Not only was he pleased with the beauty of his daughter, but he also expressed incest interest. The description that Norton gives of her daughter reveals more to the father-daughter relation. Norton says, "She was a being more rare, more beautiful...I could never believe her to be my flesh and blood." (Ellison 34) The phrase that Norton could not believe it was her daughter shows the ulterior motives that he may have had.

The sexual disrespect given to the black men reveals the extent that they were willing to go to fulfill their sexual desires, Ras is angry at the white men for disrespecting the black men and demeaning their values. In Africa, he claims that most of them would be kings, in America; they are pushed to the lowest point of even raping dead white women. Ras states, "In Africa, this mahn be a chief, a black king! Here they say he rape them godahm women with no blood in their veins." (Ellison 288) Necrophilia emerges in the story showing how low the blacks are assumed to scoop.

White women are seen to view the narrator as a tool that can help fulfill their sexual desires. It is evident that black males are stereotyped to appear like sex predators. A scenario that is still common up to date. For instance, two female characters mentioned are shown to accept the narrator's approaches since he would fulfill their fantasies of being raped by a black man. The narrator explains a scene with a white lady, "...Don't worry, I said. I rapes real good when I'm drunk. She looked startled. Ooooh, then pour me another..." (Ellison 404) It is weird that just like their male counterparts; the females still view the black men as tools, an object that can be used to fulfill personal fantasies.

A single white figure that appears to the narrator is shown to be a minor character in the narration. Mary Rambo, a lady who was treating the narrator after the accident at the white paint factory, is shown to be of least importance (Kim). She was a mere janitor at the factory hospital, and she was there to help the narrator come back to his senses and save him from his situation. Even though Mary wishes to help the man, it is evident that he does not trust her. It takes much effort, giving irrelevant stories regarding his experiences with a white man that Mary believes him and she is in a position to help.

The narrator intends to create his identity and give subjective visibility outside the deliberately destroyed social roles in a white male-dominated society. The author juxtaposes the moments that the narrator is conscious of the illusory oppressive nature of the society by making use of the violence that is inflicted against women of both races. By the narrator recognizing the common impotence, he can make sense of how racism feminizes him (Veronica et al.) Even though the narrator can recognize women as the primary victims of circumstances, the author takes away the subjectivity and inferiority that the males are given.

Even though the issue may be sympathetic, the females are represented in a way that they end up being sacrificed for the narrator to realize his invisibility. It is through the females' characters like the stripper and Mattie Trueblood that enable the narrator to investigate his invisibility (Veronica et al.) Moreover, there is clear invisibility of the women figures in the narration, therefore, less exploration of the female subject. Even though the author makes attempts to construct text that convey sympathy for the female characters in the narration, the women are still reduced to abstractions.

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