The essay Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson is extremely popular and has influenced many 20th century authors. Named after Emerson, Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man has many references to other authors’ ideas, including Emerson. Emerson was most popular for his belief in self-reliance and in theory, self-reliance is a very useful and beneficial ideology, but in reality, it’s especially difficult for an individual to live by it in society. Ellison presents the idea of self-reliance through the narrator’s character to exhibit how Americans, especially black Americans, have difficulty identifying with the ideal of self-reliance in American society. In his novel, Ellison includes Ralph Waldo Emerson's philosophy of self-reliance. Emerson
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After he learns the dynamics of the city, though, he never seems to get a break in New York and is constantly confronted with one problem after another. Although he is still naive, he has become a little bit more aware of his reality. The narrator’s character really turns when he witnesses an eviction of an old black couple. While watching this happen he thinks, “What and how much had I lost trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do? [...]...there would be some things that could cause quite a bit of trouble, simply because I had never formed a personal attitude toward so much. I has accepted the attitudes and it had made life seem simple…’(266-267). Invisible Man is starting to recognize how other people have highly influenced his thinking and opinions instead of himself; he realizes that all of his attitudes on things have been someone else’s, not his own. He has always lived under authority, and especially in the South, he had certain expectations to follow as a black man. And while these things do not necessarily change in the North, the society in which he lives in is less constraining and, therefore, he is able to recognize these things. Later on when he tries to assert his own ideas, he is seldom recognized as serious or intelligent because of his race. Invisible Man attempts to be self-reliant, but he struggles with the previously established perception of his race. While the idea of self-reliance is great, Ellison proves that there are still social constructs and constraints that prevent one from achieving a lifestyle based on that
After he learns the dynamics of the city, though, he never seems to get a break in New York and is constantly confronted with one problem after another. Although he is still naive, he has become a little bit more aware of his reality. The narrator’s character really turns when he witnesses an eviction of an old black couple. While watching this happen he thinks, “What and how much had I lost trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do? [...]...there would be some things that could cause quite a bit of trouble, simply because I had never formed a personal attitude toward so much. I has accepted the attitudes and it had made life seem simple…’(266-267). Invisible Man is starting to recognize how other people have highly influenced his thinking and opinions instead of himself; he realizes that all of his attitudes on things have been someone else’s, not his own. He has always lived under authority, and especially in the South, he had certain expectations to follow as a black man. And while these things do not necessarily change in the North, the society in which he lives in is less constraining and, therefore, he is able to recognize these things. Later on when he tries to assert his own ideas, he is seldom recognized as serious or intelligent because of his race. Invisible Man attempts to be self-reliant, but he struggles with the previously established perception of his race. While the idea of self-reliance is great, Ellison proves that there are still social constructs and constraints that prevent one from achieving a lifestyle based on that