Identity is defined as “the qualities, beliefs, etc., that make a particular person or group different from others.” Knowing and understanding one’s identity is something has been denied to African-Americans throughout the entire history of the United States, and is essentially the purpose of the Invisible Man’s journey in Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man. A lack of understanding of one’s identity is synonymous with not knowing who you truly are, and therefore do not have the ability to form opinions, perspectives or a place in which a sense of belonging is felt. Ellison communicates the instability of the Invisible Man’s identity through changing states of water, and adjectives of water alike.
Ellison communicates Invisible Man’s initial …show more content…
‘Watery’, which means weak and faint as well, is not only how his legs feel, but how his identity feels to him at this point of internal turmoil. Invisible Man then experiences the “soft cool splash of sleep” (253) immediately after meeting Mary Rambo, the generous woman that allows Invisible Man a place to stay when he cannot stay at the Men's House any longer. Splash, meaning stain and discolor also, is exactly what Mary encourages Invisible Man to not allow to happen to his identity, as she speaks extendedly about racial uplift and benefit, as well as the importance of preventing himself from becoming corrupted. Fluid water is one of the easiest states of water to dirty, or ‘corrupt’. Invisible Man was lost in dreams and believing that he was who other people told him he was, as opposed to knowing who he actually was, as he admitted when he said “I now felt a contempt such as only a disillusioned dreamer feels for those still unaware that they dream” (256). Here, he admits that he is a dreamer, a person who lacks a real understanding of the world around them, but rather an impractical one. These people, ‘those still …show more content…
This is conveyed when Invisible Man says, “Somewhere beneath the load of emotion-freezing ice which my life had conditioned my brain to produce” (259). The ‘load’ that Invisible Man is referencing is the former identity that he has shed, the conformed alien that had taken over his body. Although not his true identity, he was unaware of the falsehood of his identity at the time, and because of his ignorance, he felt secure. He admitted that “Coming to New York had perhaps been an an unconscious attempt to keep the old freezing unit going, but it hadn’t worked; hot water had gotten into its coils” (259). Here Ellison almost explicitly states the representation of identity by water, as while the state of the water inside Invisible Man changes, his understanding and knowledge of his identity is shifting as well. Invisible Man felt a catalyst to question his identity and search for greater understanding of himself, and the ice started to melt. Unconsciously he attempted to ‘keep the old freezing unit going,’ maintain the false identity that he portrayed, but he could not for when the ice started to melt, it caused a flood. This is made clear when Invisible Man says “while the ice was melting to form a flood in which I threatened to drown” (260). Invisible Man could not ignore this ‘flood’, Invisible Man’s “obsession with [his] identity,” “who [he] was, and how [he] had come
Ellison communicates Invisible Man’s initial …show more content…
‘Watery’, which means weak and faint as well, is not only how his legs feel, but how his identity feels to him at this point of internal turmoil. Invisible Man then experiences the “soft cool splash of sleep” (253) immediately after meeting Mary Rambo, the generous woman that allows Invisible Man a place to stay when he cannot stay at the Men's House any longer. Splash, meaning stain and discolor also, is exactly what Mary encourages Invisible Man to not allow to happen to his identity, as she speaks extendedly about racial uplift and benefit, as well as the importance of preventing himself from becoming corrupted. Fluid water is one of the easiest states of water to dirty, or ‘corrupt’. Invisible Man was lost in dreams and believing that he was who other people told him he was, as opposed to knowing who he actually was, as he admitted when he said “I now felt a contempt such as only a disillusioned dreamer feels for those still unaware that they dream” (256). Here, he admits that he is a dreamer, a person who lacks a real understanding of the world around them, but rather an impractical one. These people, ‘those still …show more content…
This is conveyed when Invisible Man says, “Somewhere beneath the load of emotion-freezing ice which my life had conditioned my brain to produce” (259). The ‘load’ that Invisible Man is referencing is the former identity that he has shed, the conformed alien that had taken over his body. Although not his true identity, he was unaware of the falsehood of his identity at the time, and because of his ignorance, he felt secure. He admitted that “Coming to New York had perhaps been an an unconscious attempt to keep the old freezing unit going, but it hadn’t worked; hot water had gotten into its coils” (259). Here Ellison almost explicitly states the representation of identity by water, as while the state of the water inside Invisible Man changes, his understanding and knowledge of his identity is shifting as well. Invisible Man felt a catalyst to question his identity and search for greater understanding of himself, and the ice started to melt. Unconsciously he attempted to ‘keep the old freezing unit going,’ maintain the false identity that he portrayed, but he could not for when the ice started to melt, it caused a flood. This is made clear when Invisible Man says “while the ice was melting to form a flood in which I threatened to drown” (260). Invisible Man could not ignore this ‘flood’, Invisible Man’s “obsession with [his] identity,” “who [he] was, and how [he] had come