Infinite Impossibilities and the Narrator of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

 

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Other essays and articles in the Literature Archives related to this topic include : “Overcome ‘em With Yeses”: Advice and Self-Realization in Ellison’s Invisible Man

 

In the novel Invisible Man, Ellison indicates that one of the big problems with American society of his time is its refusal to see African-Americans as individuals, but instead see them as political pawns to be educated and seem more acceptable in white society or manipulated by Communists who wish to sacrifice groups of people for historical purposes. Through the final sentence in Invisible Man, Ellison--“…I speak for you”--implies that one significant way in which society can break out of racial and political identity and look towards individual identity is to make people see things universally. You can’t relate to people through group identity because everyone’s perspective is different.

 

When the narrator directs his attention to the reader and you get the feeling that Ellison intended the narrator’s memoirs to be a sort of universal appeal for the reader to realize that although they may or may not be socially equal, they are on some level the same kind of human being with a desire to find out who they are as individuals -- “Weren’t we part of them as well as apart from them and subject to die when they died?….none of us seem to know where he is or where he’s going” (562, 564). “Infinite possibilities” not only relies on the narrator’s state of mind but also the reader; it also relies on the reader to be open to the possibilities seen in the narrator’s mind.

 

For the narrator of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the outcome of telling his tale is self-discovery. With narration comes self-reflection as the Narrator realizes all his roles have been created by society. Throughout his story, he has no sense of self-awareness, only the roles that others have thrust upon him. His idea of himself is based upon the opinions of others. As he puts it: “my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone’s way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself” (560). But by the end, he finally understands the fact that American life consists of an immensely unequal division between two colors; he is still invisible, but he is no longer blind. His new insight shows him that he and is obligated to return to society “since there’s possibility that even an invisible man has a socially responsible role to play” (568).

 

Even though he knows there will always be a division, he sees that the possibility for improvement will always exist. From the Brotherhood’s planned riot, the Narrator has learned that the “overcome ’em with yeses” approach encouraged by Rinehart and his grandfather is unsuccessful--“By pretending to agree, I had indeed agreed, had made myself responsible” (530). The underground Narrator--who unlike his former self is perceptive, composed and understands the facts of American life--now knows that he must "say yes and say no" to the roles that society throws him, to accept certain boundaries but also strive to look beyond them and gradually push them back, gradually reach social visibility. He is now ready to leave the “skin” of his old self in the hole.

 

In Invisible Man, Ellison implies that before the Narrator can return to society, the world outside his hole, he must realize that his “world has become one of infinite possibilities” because “damn it, there’s the mind, the mind” (563, 560). The self that the mind creates emerges as an entity separate from social constructs; it has no limitations and thus it is “infinite” (in a way, it goes back to what Dickinson implies in “The Brain is wider than the sky”). The mind is the only place where he can discover or in this case create his true self and test his own potential. It’s only with the knowledge that his individuality exists is the narrator able to come to the conclusion that he has “overstayed [his] hibernation.”

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