Invisible Man Chapter 15 Analysis

Ralph Ellison via Invisible Man extraordinarily analyzes the ethics and ideologies human society once held. Chapter 15 of Invisible Man introduces a new notion of “gradual reformation”. As discussed in “The Modern Era”, transformations in the social system that individuals, such as Louis Armstrong, struggled for came very slowly. In the commencement of chapter 15, the narrator awakens to a deafening clanging sound. Aggravated by the thumping of the tubes, the narrator himself begins pounding the tubes. Looking for something with which to strike the tubes, he discovers a cast-iron coin bank in the figure of a distorted black person. If a person places a coin in the palm of the man, the bank “devours” the coin with a wide smirk. The coin bank refers the certain obsolete values that people like Mary advocate. Never appropriately educated, Mary does not necessarily see the underlying problem with possessing the bank. To the narrator, however, the iron figure evidently signifies a racist symbol. The narrator feels infuriated by Mary’s lack of progressiveness, and savagely decides to obliterate the bank. “‘Why don`t you act like responsible people living in the twentieth century?’ I yelled, aiming a blow at the …show more content…
However, after destroying the bank, the fragments remain and the narrator has no idea how to remove them. After multiple attempts of eradicating the broken pieces, it becomes clear that the narrator`s inability to discard the fragments of the bank demonstrates the difficulty of changing the views of society. Even though an accomplishment during this era may feel like a breakthrough, the leftover fragments can still hinder forward progress. This type of scenario prevailed during the Civil Rights period. The fight for social equality was obstructed with little mishaps here and there. Minority groups were forced to face slow, if any,