Quest of the Spirit: From Suffering to Acceptance

2.4 Invisibility, Then and Today: Ellison, Baldwin, Malcolm X, August Wilson!

         For minorities, the quest for identity in early and mid-twentieth century America poses a series of difficulties, particularly in lieu of the ethnic cleansing and brutal executions conducted throughout the world today. For most, one must initially break all ties with tradition. Discovering a means of preserving one's own racial heritage while effectively assimilating into a predominantly Caucasian society creates additional tensions .  As Rose tells Cory in August Wilson's Fences,  "You can't be nobody but who you are, Cory. That shadow wasn't nothing but you growing into yourself. You either got to grow into it or cut it down to fit you. But that's all you got to make life with. That's all you got to measure yourself against the world out there" (Wilson 2.5). Just as the historian must separate  fact from fiction in applying deterministic approaches to psychology, religion, and politics, so must the individual discern  appearance from reality in the motives of those attempting so solicit his support. The problem of invisibility has long plagued the black race in America. Writing in his Autobiography, Malcolm X writes, "But it has historically been the case with white people in their regard for black people, that even though we might be with them, we weren't considered of them. Even though they appeared to have opened the door, it was still closed. Thus they never did really see me" (Malcolm X 28).  In Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man, an Afro-American faces a similar challenge in that he must reach an understanding of his true nature, and in the process, recognize the fallacies in the arguments  of those desiring to manipulate him or the members of his race for their own material or political purposes. An archetypal approach to The Invisible Man enhances an understanding of the novel

              "I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me . . . When they approach me, they see only my surroundings themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed everything and anything except me." This passage from Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man suggests a tone of tragic loss, as the archetypal hero, an unnamed American Negro, commences his quest to establish an existential identity in an Anglo-dominated society. The author uses the themes of irony, appearance versus reality, and death-and-rebirth to reflect the character's coming of age, as he transforms from a state of innocence to awareness. Thus, in the tradition of the Bildungsroman, this picaresque hero encounters numerous conflicts which persuade him  that being black is not merely a "biochemical accident to [his] epidermis" but rather a ticket to being ignored and denied the right of personal autonomy.  Consequently, being black means being invisible, particularly in twentieth-century America. In essence, Ellison's theme and tone parallel James Baldwin's novel, Nobody Knows My Name.

             Using flashbacks and first-person narrator point of view, Ellison's persona, a Negro Everyman, recalls the previous twenty years of his life and his ultimate realization of the black man's plight as a non-entity. The hero, or anti-hero, learns that possessing the appearance of a black identity in a white culture involves more than merely sacrificing one's integrity for acceptance or profit. In this respect, Ellison's hero realizes the futility of the black man's dilemma,  which requires an internal discernment, in other words,  a subjective process from which  his own self- worth derives from his mental perception of himself, not from the misplaced values of society , or the external environment. As the archetypal protagonist  suggests, "All my life I had been looking for something and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was.  I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone else except myself questions which I , and only I, could answer" (15). Consequently, this black Archetypal Adam's quest demands his differentiating between the appearance of seemingly prominent individuals whom he has earlier emulated and the reality of these distinguished citizens who have relinquished their Negro heritage for white values.