Betrayal In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

Improved Essays
Betrayal is a common experience for the narrator in Invisible Man. The narrator feels betrayed by his superiors on multiple occasions. Towards the end of the novel, Ellison reveals that the narrator feels that he betrayed the people of Harlem. One of the first instances of betrayal is when Bledsoe gave him letters of “recommendation” in order to find a job. When the narrator did not receive a response from any of the employers to whom he sent them, the narrator delivers a letter himself. When Emerson, the interviewer, read the letter he immediately told the narrator that he is not going to offer him a job. This is when the narrator discovers that he has been expelled from the college and that the letters were damaging to his reputation. After

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