In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Ellison uses description of decorations such as mirrors, portraits and signs to reflect and foreshadow Invisible Man’s struggle in defining himself, especially during the stages of perception and rebirth. Dubois’s philosophy of double consciousness suggests “a sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of other” and a feeling of “twoness.” At first, IM is forced to accept an identity and live a designated life when Mr. Norton claims that IM is his fate, or in other words, IM has to live for Mr. Norton rather than for himself. He has to live the way other people want him to live, and he sees himself as the one other people want him to see. Later, he begins to imagine being Booker T. Washington, or
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The “aviary of tropical birds”(181) sets near the windows in young Emerson’s office foreshadows and symbolizes IM’s being caged because he does not know that Bledsoe deceives him and lies in the letters. And later IM decides not to stand near the cage “for a better view”(181) implies that he is blinded from seeing his situation clearly, because he thinks that course of action will make him look “unbusinesslike.”(181) Then IM works at Literby Paint, he repeats the company’s slogan “If It’s Optic White, It’s the Right White.” and “suddenly has to repress a laugh as a childhood jingle rang through [his] mind,” and he mocks “If you’re white, you’re right.” (218) IM begins to realize the racial differences and social discrimination happening around him, and thus he starts to feel disgusted towards white people’s superiority and no longer admires their power. This revelation is the first step for IM to define himself as a member of a race and find his own identity. Later when he sees the eviction of the old black couple and notices the decorations such as “dusty lock of infant hair,” “a worn baby shoe," “ an ornate greeting card," and “FREE PAPERS”(272) scattered on the street, he thinks of his family and his own grandfather: he answers “Yes. We are all black” …show more content…
When IM is brought to the Battle Royal, he is led into a “big mirrored hall, which [he] enters looking cautiously.”(18) At that time, he is just a powerless, nameless black student who is indistinguishable from the rest of the crowd. He looks at his reflection but does not say anything, because he has no sense of self-recognition. As he goes up to New York, this attitude changes. He “goes to the mirror and gave [himself] an admiring smile as [he] spread the letters upon the dresser like a hand of high trump cards.”(163) He sees an idealized self in the mirror, being optimistic about his future. He regards himself in the mirror as a new version of self as he hopes to use this new identity to start a brand new life. Then it proves that this reflection is an illusion when he reads Bledsoe’s letter. Later he meets with Mrs. Hubert and there are two mirrors in her bedroom which his reflections “like a surge of sea tossed [their] images back and forth, back and forth, furiously multiplying the time and the place and the circumstance.”(416) IM’s image is blurred, multiplies and distorted by the reflective effects of two mirrors, but in his eyes he sees his identities overlapping in “the time and the place and the circumstance” and then, disappear. Then as IM discovers his invisibility, he reflects that he is the
The “aviary of tropical birds”(181) sets near the windows in young Emerson’s office foreshadows and symbolizes IM’s being caged because he does not know that Bledsoe deceives him and lies in the letters. And later IM decides not to stand near the cage “for a better view”(181) implies that he is blinded from seeing his situation clearly, because he thinks that course of action will make him look “unbusinesslike.”(181) Then IM works at Literby Paint, he repeats the company’s slogan “If It’s Optic White, It’s the Right White.” and “suddenly has to repress a laugh as a childhood jingle rang through [his] mind,” and he mocks “If you’re white, you’re right.” (218) IM begins to realize the racial differences and social discrimination happening around him, and thus he starts to feel disgusted towards white people’s superiority and no longer admires their power. This revelation is the first step for IM to define himself as a member of a race and find his own identity. Later when he sees the eviction of the old black couple and notices the decorations such as “dusty lock of infant hair,” “a worn baby shoe," “ an ornate greeting card," and “FREE PAPERS”(272) scattered on the street, he thinks of his family and his own grandfather: he answers “Yes. We are all black” …show more content…
When IM is brought to the Battle Royal, he is led into a “big mirrored hall, which [he] enters looking cautiously.”(18) At that time, he is just a powerless, nameless black student who is indistinguishable from the rest of the crowd. He looks at his reflection but does not say anything, because he has no sense of self-recognition. As he goes up to New York, this attitude changes. He “goes to the mirror and gave [himself] an admiring smile as [he] spread the letters upon the dresser like a hand of high trump cards.”(163) He sees an idealized self in the mirror, being optimistic about his future. He regards himself in the mirror as a new version of self as he hopes to use this new identity to start a brand new life. Then it proves that this reflection is an illusion when he reads Bledsoe’s letter. Later he meets with Mrs. Hubert and there are two mirrors in her bedroom which his reflections “like a surge of sea tossed [their] images back and forth, back and forth, furiously multiplying the time and the place and the circumstance.”(416) IM’s image is blurred, multiplies and distorted by the reflective effects of two mirrors, but in his eyes he sees his identities overlapping in “the time and the place and the circumstance” and then, disappear. Then as IM discovers his invisibility, he reflects that he is the