Free Essays on Invisible Man: Invisibility :: Invisible Man Essays

Invisibility in Invisible Man   Invisibility is usually taken to the extreme effect of truly being transp arent, unseen by anyone and is often depicted in society as the hero, going behind the enemys back to completed his mission. In Ralph Ellisons The Invisible Man this view of invisibility is turned around so that a man is in plain sight of everyone but do to a lack of observation nobody recognizes what he accomplishes. After beginning the novel as a man who stays quietly out of the musical mode by doing what he is told, he is forced to leave and mold his power into another use. This change puts him now into a position into which he most relates to societies ideal of invisibility, one who fights for fairer rights with still no one taking notice of him. Our nameless hero takes us on a journey that extends both concepts of an invisible dovish and aggressor.           The first form of our main character that we see is an anxious college stude nt who only wishes to please his superiors and do as they ask. Seemingly the perfect student, an incident occurs with a College Board member and involves the passive use of our narrators invisibility which infuriates the schools principal. The disagreement that followed included this statement Power doesnt have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it you know it which is verbalise by the schools Principal Dr. Bledsoe (Ellison 143). The first portion of the quote is Bledoes idea of invisibility and what the narrator will eventually learn which is that having power and invisibility can accede with each other. The continuation of the quote just continues to further extend on how one can be invisible and successful as long as they have these basic ideas like self-assurance and self-justification. This discussion with Bledsoe opens the narrators eyes to the real world and shows that being right doesnt mean you have power and without power you are nobody and remain invisible.           A changing point in the main characters eyes occurs when his moral uprightness takes a turn and he sees that in distinguish to succeed you may need to give up morals for support. After making an impassioned speech in front of a crowd, he is offered a job by communists to do the same for them but turns it down.