The Role Of White Men In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

"Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste (…)? If history and reason give any distinct answer to these questions, it is an emphatic No"(Du Bois 889). Du Bois argues that blacks cannot climb the economic ladder without equal rights. He claims that blacks are being treated as servants because they do not have equal rights and opportunities as white men. In Ralph Ellison 's Invisible Man, Ellison seems to be making a similar argument. Ellison believes that black men cannot economically advance without equal rights by showing throughout "Invisible Man" that white men are blocking the narrator 's advancement up the economic …show more content…
One of the primary objects that white men use, in "Invisible Man," to manipulate black people is money. This act of manipulation is repeated throughout the book. One of the first scenes showing this theme is The Royal Battle, where the narrator is forced to 1) physically fight other black students for the entertainment of white men with the promise of money afterwards, and 2) grab money off a an electrified carpet. In this scene it is quite obvious that these black men are being controlled by money. The white men are using money to turn the black students against each other because they (white men) know that these students are desperate for any money and will do anything for even for a little bit. "I (the narrator) would throw my body against the boys nearest me to black them from the gold"(Ellison 26).This sentence can be interpreted in two ways. One, (which is a shallow interpretation) the narrator is so wound up over the money on the carpet that he is willing to further hurt himself to make sure that no one else will be able to grab the gold coins which proves that black people (in this time period) were willing to do just about anything to get their hands on money. The second interpretation focuses more on the second part of the sentence, "block them from the gold" (Ellison 26). The word block is defined as something that makes it difficult or impossible to move around. In a way, he is describing how the white men are puppeteering …show more content…
The scene addresses more than just money. It also addresses why whites want to keep blacks at the bottom of society. Mr. Kimbro remarks that the sample paint is "as white as George Washington 's Sunday go-to-meetin ' wig and as sound as the almighty dollar" (Ellison 202). This simile seems only as if it is representing how patriotic it is to buy Liberty paints optic white paint but under it all it represents much more. Kimbro is comparing white paint to a white, rich founding father suggesting that many Americans are white rich and part of high society. The second part of the simile suggests that white men control the money in America. The narrator later goes to work for Lucius Brockway, a black man who maintains the factory 's boiler room. Lucius later tells the narrator, "They thinks 'cause everything down here is done by machinery, that 's all there is to it. They crazy! Ain 't a continental thing that happens down here that ain 't as iffen I done put my black hands into it" (Ellison 218). In this quote, Lucius implies that black men in America are the machinery and that white men underestimate, first blacks ' labors and second how much whites rely on black people 's labor. Lucius asserts this implication in his second statement, saying that he has put his "black hands into everything in the boiler room meaning that the whole factory is using Brockway 's labor in order to