Although the thirteenths amendment abolished slavery shortly after the American Civil War. However, there was still severe inequality between Blacks and Whites, a supreme court case, “Plessy vs. Ferguson” which stated that African-Americans are separate but equal. This led to a period of time known as segregation, an era where Blacks were constantly ostracized. Public facilities that were made for Blacks would be poorly kept, and Black schools would have oversized classrooms and horrendous conditions. The book, The Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, portrays the constant struggles that African- American people dealt with. Ralph Ellison writes the book in the eyes of the narrator, who is an unnamed social activist who fights for the rights of
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Because of the aforementioned stereotypes, the Narrator finds himself trying to break them, and not conform into them. He wants to show that not all Black people are the same, he wants to show that he is more than just a Black guy. We see many examples of this throughout the book, one example is when the Narrator is eating at a restaurant, “He leaned over the counter with a look that seemed to say, there that ought to excite you, boy. Could everyone see that I was Southern? ‘I’ll have orange juice, toast, and coffee.’” In this quote the waiter offers the Narrator the daily special, which was Pork Chops and grits, but the Narrator was so ashamed that the waiter assumed that he was southern that he chose something else even though he would have liked the grits and pork chops. In the end he realizes that that food was actually the morning special for everyone, however it shows that he is ashamed of who he was at the time. This changes later on when finds a baked yams street vendor. Eating a baked yam on the street reminds him of being back home, he proceeds to say, “Now that I no longer felt ashamed of the thing I had always loved, I probably could no longer digest very many of them,” This quote shows how the Narrator’s personality is changing and that he is now proud of being a southern black man rather than being ashamed of it. Ellison uses these quotes and other situations to show how the Narrators identity changes. However, what really changes the Narrator’s personality are all the powerful figures that he would work
Because of the aforementioned stereotypes, the Narrator finds himself trying to break them, and not conform into them. He wants to show that not all Black people are the same, he wants to show that he is more than just a Black guy. We see many examples of this throughout the book, one example is when the Narrator is eating at a restaurant, “He leaned over the counter with a look that seemed to say, there that ought to excite you, boy. Could everyone see that I was Southern? ‘I’ll have orange juice, toast, and coffee.’” In this quote the waiter offers the Narrator the daily special, which was Pork Chops and grits, but the Narrator was so ashamed that the waiter assumed that he was southern that he chose something else even though he would have liked the grits and pork chops. In the end he realizes that that food was actually the morning special for everyone, however it shows that he is ashamed of who he was at the time. This changes later on when finds a baked yams street vendor. Eating a baked yam on the street reminds him of being back home, he proceeds to say, “Now that I no longer felt ashamed of the thing I had always loved, I probably could no longer digest very many of them,” This quote shows how the Narrator’s personality is changing and that he is now proud of being a southern black man rather than being ashamed of it. Ellison uses these quotes and other situations to show how the Narrators identity changes. However, what really changes the Narrator’s personality are all the powerful figures that he would work