Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Book Analysis

There are few novels that accentuate the potential for diversity to be manipulated better than Invisible Man, a novel that was written by Ralph Ellison, and published on April 14, 1952. Since its original publication, it has been critically lauded and was included on TIME Magazine’s list of 100 best English-language novels published from 1923 to 2005. Invisible Man explores many dense themes, such as black nationalism, social issues faced by African Americans, and, in particular, individuality. Diversity and unity, when introduced in extreme amounts, can lead to potential problems that negatively impact the various climates within society. These smaller climates can be abused by eventually attaining enough power to achieve a set of ambiguous goals, but not attempting to attain the goals themselves.

The hunger for power was not a trait that was exclusive to the Brotherhood; Dr. Bledsoe is the president at the narrator’s college. He is portrayed as extremely selfish and ambitious and pretends to be willing to serve white people. Talking to the Narrator, Dr. Bledsoe remarks, “I’s big and black and I say ‘Yes, suh’... but I’m still the king down here” (Ellison, 142). This shows that despite Dr. Bledsoe’s seemingly loyal attitude, he is more than willing to grasp as much power as he can for himself. With the guise of unity, groups of people can be easily manipulated into becoming subservient to another individual or group. In Ellison’s Invisible Man, the Brotherhood, an integral organization featured in the story, chooses to view history in a manner that neglects the idea of individualism, while completely endorsing collectivism. This perception of unity is not just exclusive to the world Ellison has written of in Invisible Man; it has, in fact, existed in various forms throughout history. For example, during the time of the German Reich beginning in 1933, Adolf Hitler used the guise of racial unity as a manner of ruling over his people. He had essentially scapegoated Jewish people, in order to unite the Germans against them.

Since most societies consist of a potpourri of people from many differing backgrounds, these people bring their various desires and needs with them. If an arbitrary society evolves such that the citizens become much too diverse, then there will be too many needs to be met, and their society would have to cater to each and every one of these needs. Even though some large cities in the real world (e.g Los Angeles, New York City) are simultaneously large and diverse, there are also countless smaller communities within these two cities. Satisfying the unique needs of too many of these microcosms is quite difficult, due to the broad interests and necessities that these bubbles must have. If some people within these societies desire their idealized microclimate to also be attainable, then they may also do nearly anything to be there. When Brother Jack first talks to the Narrator about the Brotherhood (Ellison, 292), he articulates that he needs someone to speak for the Brotherhood. The Narrator must change his name, move to an apartment provided by the Brotherhood, and disassociate himself from his past. He readily accepted the position.

To summarize, Invisible Man, a novel written by Ralph Ellison published in 1952, particularly highlights the theme of individuality; what it means to be oneself, to have one’s own identity, to be distinguishable from others. This romanticized standard of individuality can prove to be especially troublesome when the lens used to examine this predicament stretches to observe an entire society, as opposed to a single individual. With an increasingly diverse group of people comes an increasingly complex set of necessities and desires established by these people. These desires to have a distinguishable life, however, could prove troublesome, for when individualism is sacrificed for the ideology of collectivism, people can be easily manipulated into doing another’s bidding.