Underestimation is a Factor of Invisibility

    Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is a feverish tale following a young man's progression through his adolescence and early adulthood whilst encountering crude examples of racism throughout. As the book advances, readers notice the narrator developing senses of self and societal awareness through his thought processes. Contrary to Native Son, the main character in Invisible Man has a conscience, and he grows increasingly disdained at his social and economic disadvantages due to his race. Invisible man displays the fallacious ways adopted by society in both the Northern and Southern regions of America in terms of the treatment of African Americans. In a poetic manner, the novel shows how no matter what your actions may be- good or bad- there will always be a pre-existing opinion of you based on assumption and stereotype by those around you. None of your achievements or contributions to society would be valued, because your personality and livelihood are invisible. Ralph Ellison provides many examples of this attribute-of-invisibility-due-to-race throughout the text.

    Perhaps one of the more predominant examples of a literal invisible man is found within the first chapter. Whilst the narrator is attending a nightmarish circus of a graduation, he is ultimately excited to deliver his speech in front of the audience and his classmates. The speech delivered by the narrator is comprised of large sections of the "Atlanta Exposition Address" written by Booker T. Washington. While the narrator is delivering the speech, the audience are impudently teasing the narrator by expressing doubt that he may comprehend the meanings of the words he recites:

"A small dry mustached man in the front row blared out, “Say that slowly, son! 

"What, sir?" 

"What you just said!" 

"Social responsibility, sir,” I said. 

"You weren't being smart, were you boy?" he said, not unkindly. "No, Sir!" "You sure that about 'equality' was a mistake?" 

"Oh, yes, Sir," I said. "I was swallowing blood." 

"Well, you had better speak more slowly so we can understand. We mean to do right by you, but you've got to know your place at all times. All right, now, go on with your speech." (Ellison 11). 

From the quote one may infer how abhorrently underestimated the narrator is seen as through the eyes of the drunk men in the audience. His intelligence is overwhelmingly undermined. Additionally, his speech is interrupted by a man who is intimidated by a young black boy's comprehension of "social responsibility", and finds the boy's passion within his speech, amusing. No matter what the narrator said in his speech, the audience and their pre-existing view of the narrator would be solely based off of his race and gender. They would act in accordance to these beliefs, which in this case, was impertinent amusement. The narrator is invisible, because his personality, aspirations and desires would never be taken into account. In the eyes of the audience, the narrator is a shell of a human.

    An additional element I wanted to highlight is how in the narrator's speech, the real author (to which the narrator verbatim quotes) is never credited. As mentioned earlier, the narrator takes excerpts from Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta Exposition Address", yet Booker T. Washington is never mentioned. I believe this was intentionally done by Ralph Ellison. Ellison wanted to convey the message of invisibility through lack of detail. Booker T. Washington is never credited for the inspiring speech he creates, yet it would never have mattered that he had contributed it to the society he lived in. To the majority white population, he would just be another black man on the planet with access to a dictionary, incapable of accomplishments. Thus, many would use race as the principal element in basing assumptions off an individual. Ellison is driving home the racism behind the thought process that high intelligence is determined by race (a belief that is unfortunately still common today). I believe invisibility is manifest through the lack of credit shown towards Booker T. Washington in the book. Perhaps, this introduction to the factors causing invisibility is Ellison's way of foreshadowing the later events of the book coming towards the narrator.