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Identity In Ralph Ellisons The Invisible Man Essay

The invisible man spends the whole book trying to come to terms with his identity, throughout the book he continues to learn who he is and discover who he is. Ellison uses IM’s briefcase as a symbol of oppression throughout the novel, while he uses the briefcase to contrast IM’s sense of selfempowerment and his actuality of being used and controlled. Right after the invisible man’s story starts he receives a briefcase after he is forced to be in a fight.

When he receives the briefcase his in a very uncomfortable situation for himself and desperately wants to leave the area and forget that he was forced to fight and then give a speech to privileged white people. He made a speech as a speech as a representative of the black community to give a good face to the race. This begins his characterization. The briefcase starts this journey of self discovery and self acceptance. “Boy” He said, addressing me, “take this prize and keep it well. Consider it a badge of office. Prize it.

Keep developing as you are and some day it will be filled with important papers that will help shape the destiny of your people. “‘ (32) When this briefcase is given to him it is described by using words like prize, badge of office, important, and destiny these all elevate the briefcase and look at it in such a high light. This is contrasted by the reality of the briefcase being meaningless and an ordinary object, this gift is very ironic and ordinary, yet he holds on to it for the rest of the book. By giving the invisible man this briefcase and telling him that the papers in it will lead to his destiny defines the whole book.

When he receives different papers and letters throughout the book, they all go into his briefcase shaping himself and farther into the book ‘shaping the destiny of his people’‘. The briefcase seems to represent and hold who IM is as a person. In this briefcase he keeps all of the papers and objects that he believes define him. This gives the briefcase meaning but because he got it out of a uncomfortable situation for himself and kept it to define his future and his identity almost starts off his self-discovery in a negative light.

The briefcase started a pattern of the Invisible man having supposed important roles in what he becomes a part of. When he goes to the college he leads a white trustee around, which seems like a big honor and he is the one that receives this. Which leads to him realizing that it was not about him, it was about making a good impression for the college. When he enters the brotherhood it’s not about him, the brotherhood uses him to wreck havoc. This is what his identity becomes based on starting with the briefcase and setting up how other people in the book use him throughout.

The briefcase sets up his future throughout the book. Similarly, later on in the book when he acquires the doll that Clifton was doing a puppet show with he keeps it, resulting in a further attachment to pieces that seem to give him significance or identity. This doll connects the invisible man to Clifton, one of his best friends from the brotherhood. When the IM gets the doll he sees Clifton performing with them after he left the brotherhood he goes to crush the doll because he is upset with what he has done but an old lady stops him and he takes the doll.

I dropped it in the pocket where I carried Brother Tarp’s chain link and started after the vanished crowd. ” (434) He takes the doll because it connected him to clifton, not necessarily in a positive light but it made him question all of his friends because clifton, his closest friend ended up leaving the brotherhood and performing on the streets with this puppet show. There is also huge significance with the invisible man putting the doll with the chain link because the chain link represents oppression and a rough past with slavery.

Putting the doll in the same pocket and then Clifton having the fate of being killed by the police connects the doll with oppression and being used by other people. The IM starts to inspect the doll and realizes there is a black thread controlled it. “There was a loop tied in the end. I slipped it over my finger and stood stretching it taught. And this time it danced. Clifton had been making it dance all the time and the black thread invisible. ” (446) This connects the invisible man to the idea of a puppet master, which he seems to have throughout the book with the authority white figures controlling his life and what he can and can’t do.

By saying the black thread was invisible further connects IM to his identity and finding who he is. Because he is the black thread and he is not seen as important to the actual puppet or doll because he is just being controlled. The puppetmaster idea connected with the doll shows that the Invisible Man is being controlled and used vet again, and the puppet string shows that while he is a big support for the white community at the end of the time they will treat him like he is invisible, like the college did, like the puppet shows and almost all of his encounters in the book express this idea in some form.

The last items of significance that contribute to the way the invisible man forms his identity is the anonymous letter and the slip of paper that says his new brotherhood name. When the invisible man receives his new name he has just joined the brotherhood and they don’t want him to have any connections to the outside world of who he used to be affiliated with. “‘This is your new identity. ” Brother Jack said. “Open it” Inside i found a name written on a slip of paper. “That is your new name,” Brother Jack said. and later on in the paragraph continues to say “You are to answer to no other, understand? ” This is another complete switch in who he sees himself as again, he has to become a new person, again. This further contributes to his build up of loss for self recognition and who he thinks that he is. Later on, the invisible man receives an anonymous letter.

This anonymous letter warns him to not go too fast or get too comfortable. “You are from the south and this is a white man’s world. ” This is a reminder and a threat regarding where his position is in the ‘white world and how he is gaining power and tion. The others in the brotherhood – where he suspe he received the letter from. He feels threatened with the success that he has created for himself. When he needs light and begins to burn the papers that he kept in the briefcase and he burns both of these papers but in doing so realizes that they are written in the same handwriting. “That he, or anyone at that late date, could have named me and sent me running and the same stroke of the pen was too much. ” This is the last time the Invisible man realises that he has been used, yet again.

He is so upset that he says he can’t handle it this shows that the Invisible Man finally has this recognition that he has been used again and again. The fact that this last time he thought that he was helping out and it ended up backfiring on him and that the brotherhood had used him almost as a distraction was the final point for him. He was done with other people trying to create his identity for him and mold the way he acted. This recognition leads to and stems from the burning of the items IM had in the briefcase.

In result of the invisible man burning all the objects in his suitcase he feels free and goes into a dreamlike state yelling or proving to the great white figures in his life that he was in control of himself, this was a big moment of acceptance and moving on for the Invisible Man. Right before the epilogue chapter the last line of the story he says “The end is the beginning” signifies that the end of other people telling him or leading and controlling who is supposed to be is the beginning of his own self-acceptance and self-created identity.

The IM holding on to a briefcase that he essentially got as a child, in the beginning of the book, really signifys the growth and change, when he finally is no longer attached to the briefcase he has developed a sense of self, is the final true rebirth and it cuts off all of his ties completely with any of the bad experiences that he has shown to have. The IM completly starts over here. The is his new form of identity and self and his recognition that he doesn’t need anyone else’s approval to be truly himself and if he is invisible to others it is no longer relevant because they don’t matter.

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