Modernism As A Theme Of Destruction In Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison

The major push for American Literature came with the effects of American Renaissance and Civil War which had realized around mid-19th and late 19th century. When we go back to American Revolution in the 18th cent. and have a glance at "the American Birth" we see "the founding fathers" rejected to carry on calling Britain as their homeland. They decided to give birth to a new man who will be called as "an American”. He was as Michel Crèvecoeur had defined was a new man who acts upon new principles. But in fact he turned out to be a monster who murdered natives, enslaved Africans, and degraded women and he was a premature born white-male who was racist and sexist. However he had a precious nature that is open to change and being reshaped. "American …show more content…
Modernism has brought not only technology or money, but also class diction, dehumanization and human struggle. American literature embracing modernist movement had an innovative approach for its fiction in terms of theme of destruction as it is considered in "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison. "Invisible Man" tells the struggles of a black man living in a racist American society to find his own identity. No matter how an educated and enlightened person he is, this black man is invisible because the society of the early 20th century he lived in ignored him. "I am an invisible man. [...] I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids [...] and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.” (Ralph "Invisible Man"). Unfortunately, this is racist effect of modern world. This black guy is forced to struggle with those people's prejudices. Another important social event which effected American Literature was Harlem Renaissance. In the following years of the Civil War and the WWI, many African Americans in search of new opportunities migrated from South to North. It was a cultural blast that took place in New York during the 1920s and '30s. The African Americans used their art to prove their humanity and demand for equality. One of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes. In his poem called …show more content…
They proclaimed feminism as a means for the destruction of the patriarchal hierarchy and domination in society. It is good to say that feminism is the belief that women and men should have equal political, economical and social rights, and also the same opportunities as men have. In the light of issue of feminism, American women poets of 1950s and their works such as Sylvia Plath’s "Daddy" and "Lady Lazarus", can be analyzed in terms of reflecting their need for self-affirmation and the position of women in the male dominated society and gender discrimination they faced. Plath’s "Lady Lazarus" shows that women are the victims of male dominated society and are regarded as an object rather than a human being: "I am your opus / I am your valuable / The pure gold baby / That melts to a shriek. / I turn and burn. / Do not think I underestimate your great concern. / Ash, ash / You poke and stir. / Flesh, bone, there is nothing there". She considers herself being burned to death like Jewish and the Nazis standing for the men tormenting them. Plath’s another work "Daddy” touches the issue of patriarchal society and illustrates the position of women as an inferior victim in the society: "You do not do, you do not do / Any more, black shoe / In which I have lived like a foot / For thirty years, poor and white, / Barely daring to breathe or Achoo.” It could be concluded that