Authors tend to share their messages to the reader through symbols. A symbol is an object that represents something else, given it a different meaning that is more significant. Symbols add deeper meanings that can represent a person, object, or action in a story. In The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the author incorporates numerous symbols, each supporting the Invisible Man’s race, identity, and invisibility.
Ralph Ellison creates meaning throughout the novel by using symbols to stirred the reader’s emotions. The reader uses its imagination to gather their thoughts about what the symbols represent in the story. Race, identity, and invisibility play an important role in understanding the Invisible Man. Racism is shown in symbols such as the …show more content…
The Invisible Man gets into an accident and the doctor tries to cure him. The Invisible Man does not remember who he is. When the doctor and his assistants ask him questions such as what his name is and who his mother is, the Invisible Man does not remember his identity. Once the doctor is finish asking the Invisible Man questions, the Invisible Man takes notice of his smiling face. “Yet as my eye focused upon Old Friendly Face he seemed, please. I couldn’t understand it, but there he was, smiling and leaving with the new assistant” (Ellison 242). It seems that the doctor is pleased that the Invisible Man does not remember his identity. The doctor seems to represent the control that the White community has on the Black people. By giving the Invisible Man a new identity, the doctor is placing him under their control since he cannot remember his old identity. When the Invisible Man leaves the hospital he feels like a completely different person. “I had the feeling that I had been talking beyond myself, had used words and expressed attitudes not my own, that I was in the grip of some alien personality lodged deep within me” (Ellison 249). When the Invisible Man is told that he cannot work anymore, at the Liberty Paints factory because the work is too rigorous for him, he asks the man releasing him “But how shall I live?” (Ellison 246). The factory is firing the Invisible Man because they do not want him to succeed. They do not want the Invisible Man to become a skilled worker or be any competition for the White workers. Since the Invisible Man cannot remember anything, he has a new identity that the Liberty Paints factory workers are trying to alter and make him obey them to get an “easier” job elsewhere because he is not ready for hard work. The scene in the hospital symbolizes the idea of identity in the novel. The identity of the Invisible Man is altered by the
Ralph Ellison creates meaning throughout the novel by using symbols to stirred the reader’s emotions. The reader uses its imagination to gather their thoughts about what the symbols represent in the story. Race, identity, and invisibility play an important role in understanding the Invisible Man. Racism is shown in symbols such as the …show more content…
The Invisible Man gets into an accident and the doctor tries to cure him. The Invisible Man does not remember who he is. When the doctor and his assistants ask him questions such as what his name is and who his mother is, the Invisible Man does not remember his identity. Once the doctor is finish asking the Invisible Man questions, the Invisible Man takes notice of his smiling face. “Yet as my eye focused upon Old Friendly Face he seemed, please. I couldn’t understand it, but there he was, smiling and leaving with the new assistant” (Ellison 242). It seems that the doctor is pleased that the Invisible Man does not remember his identity. The doctor seems to represent the control that the White community has on the Black people. By giving the Invisible Man a new identity, the doctor is placing him under their control since he cannot remember his old identity. When the Invisible Man leaves the hospital he feels like a completely different person. “I had the feeling that I had been talking beyond myself, had used words and expressed attitudes not my own, that I was in the grip of some alien personality lodged deep within me” (Ellison 249). When the Invisible Man is told that he cannot work anymore, at the Liberty Paints factory because the work is too rigorous for him, he asks the man releasing him “But how shall I live?” (Ellison 246). The factory is firing the Invisible Man because they do not want him to succeed. They do not want the Invisible Man to become a skilled worker or be any competition for the White workers. Since the Invisible Man cannot remember anything, he has a new identity that the Liberty Paints factory workers are trying to alter and make him obey them to get an “easier” job elsewhere because he is not ready for hard work. The scene in the hospital symbolizes the idea of identity in the novel. The identity of the Invisible Man is altered by the