A Brief Piece on Black Existentialism and Identity in Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’’s Introduction

Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’ presents itself as an example of American Modernist literature with a distinct display of style, diction, voice and other literary elements, all of which are structured to creatively convey meaning. Its narrative focuses on an unnamed African American narrator who experiences a series of obstacles and specific events, stemmed from his place of an ethnic minority in a white supremacist America. This grants the novel the classification of an archetypal piece of Black Existentialism literature, meaning it’s literary aspects are driven by the motive of serving as social commentary on the black experience in terms of empowerment and meaning. Ellison’s text grounds itself on placing spectators in the position of the narrator as an attempt to conduct empathy and understanding from the reader, all while conveying the experience of oppression his character resides in through the use of perspective and voice.

One must immediately take consideration into how Ellison’s choice of narration in terms of which type of character is granted this method of articulation is essential in spectator’s understanding of the text and its historical context. To elaborate, Ellison’s way of communicating the plot using the role of a first person narrator, consisting of the personal pronoun of ‘I’ articulated by the narration voice, is a key vehicle in creating literary impact and fulfilling the objectives of Black Existentialism with relation to commentary and experience. The narrator in question is the only source of informative and emotive exposition for the spectators and is consistent in vocalising both of these forms of language. As a result of this, any statement given by the narrator, whether it be grounded in fact or sensation, is buried in exclusive and intimate perspective stemmed from his identity as a black man in America. As a result, the language displayed in the text resides on top of a subtext of personal black experience which has conceived a specific set of opinions and outlooks, which spectators must reflect back to when inspecting the narrative.

This can be used as an analytical appliance when observing the statement of ‘My hole is warm and full of light. Yes, full of light. I doubt there is a brighter spot in all of New York than this hole of mine’. The style and language of this informative declaration prove to be direct and prideful in tone with an absence of a sophisticated or convoluted semantic field, thus, establishing the narrator’s characterised style of verbal communication. He is underlining his exterior environment which he deems his home using subtle imagery which depends on immediate association in order to generate an image for spectators. His diction of ‘hole’ and ‘light’ is the only literary displays of adjectives and nouns given to conjuring images of where the narrator lives, highlight his elementary level in description while simultaneously evoking a wide field of coupled ideas caused by the associations given. When spectators read the narrator using ‘hole’ as a source of imagery, they correlate it with impressions of being unpleasant due to an alienating size and lack of light, as a result perceive his exterior state to be unappealing. The narrator works to contrast this with the use of ‘light’ and thus, laces this idea with juxtaposition when connecting the choice of colloquy with warmth and a sense of safety which clearly clashes with the previous associations, granting the description to gain an interesting tone from the contrast. Spectators can gain a more detailed understanding of this choice of language with relation to black experience when reflecting back to the relation of a hole symbolising a state of alienation due to size because a sense of said estrangement is a vital aspect of existing as a black individual in a white supremacist America. This relates to the previous claim that there is a heavy subtext to the narrator’s choice of diction in terms of how the black community existed during a time of heavy oppression stemmed from a racist ideology as a dominant outlook on groups of people. By stating he resides in a hole, the narrator is demonstrating faint yet important articulations of black existence by underlying how he is cast aside from the majority and has been reduced to living in what only can be explained as a hole. This demonstrates the text serving as Black Existentialism by planting early ideas on how black individuals are forced to live in a country where one race is favoured over another.

However, he parallels any negative ideas associated with this by commenting on how his ‘hole’ is still the brightest place in New York, even more so than major city landmarks such as ‘the Empire State Building on a photographer’s dream night’ which serves as a tourist attraction with its own metaphorical spotlight. This allows the prideful tone previously mentioned to layer the claim as well as exemplifying the narrator’s statement to hold connections to the distinct identities of ‘Black’ and ‘American’. This is an aspect to Black Existentialism philosophy known as ‘Double Consciousness’ which relates to the internal conflict Black Americans experience when attempting to decipher their identity in terms of nationality. The narrator is showing how he recognises and can communicate how he exists in the city of New York; a staple in Modern American iconography, after mentioning the alienating environment he is forced into as a black man. There is a severe and significant absence of a connection between the identities of ‘Black’ and ‘American’ when observing how the narrator is implying a competitive state here. To elaborate, he is pitting his personal environment against the public state of New York City as an attempt to measure his own worth. This said measurement acts as a vital element to Double Consciousness and Black Existentialism as many black individuals fall victim to this measurement of self-value with American pride, manifested as landmarks in this example, being placed as the standard to do so. This creates a tone which separates the two identities examined and can even go so far as to establish them as enemies since there is a sense of one needing to be perceived as more pleasant than the other. This is accentuated to an effective level by Ellison’s choice of a first-person narrator because of how the text is allowed to be communicated and read with a deep level of personality and emotive opinions, therefore, summarising how the narrator works in this text to convey the black experience in America during the time.

Furthermore, the execution of meaning in the text is progressed by Ellison’s use of metaphorical language in which the narrator uses to vocalise his perspective of life. He expresses how ‘…the world moves: Not like an arrow, but a boomerang’, which serves as a distinct metaphor for how he perceives the world to not move forward at all times as aimed toward a target, such as an arrow. Instead, he perceives anything he gives out to just come back to him and be the same as before, likewise to a boomerang and this viewpoint has been a consistent part of his life because he points out how he has ‘been boomeranged across my [his] head so much’. This underlines the motive of Black Existentialism literature to serve as a commentary on the socio-political elements which play a part of constructing black experience. Ellison is using metaphorical language as a literary element as a device to demonstrate aspects of existing as a black individual to his spectators, conveyed through the personal voice of the narrator as a vessel for doing so. The metaphor used presents the idea that there is no progression for the black community in life but instead a cycle of receptiveness and oppression, a lifestyle of which they are forced to become accustomed to and generates effects with relation to perceptions held.

The narrator goes onto outline an example of said perceptions when he states how being ‘boomeranged across my [his] head so much that I [he] can see the darkness of lightness’. Here, Ellison is demonstrating ideas revolving around binaries and differences in exterior states such as light and dark in a metaphorical sense as a way of further establishing the identity and state of his narrator. To elaborate, the outer existence and events of the world around the narrator have caused his perception on his interior state to form in a way which implies he can now recognise the more negative aspects of what is seemingly good. This is manifested in the phrasing of ‘darkness of lightness’, standing as a use of language which relies on its two polarising displays of syntax in light and dark to create meaning. The narrator is expressing himself to be a self aware individual in claiming that he can now identify a balance between the two states in that despite being in the light. he can still recognise the critical aspects of it. This alludes to the experience of the black individual in America in terms of how they are not oblivious to the hardships of life, even when they are masked by the seemingly positive exterior, as they are not allowed to due to their oppression. Furthermore, it is this self awareness which is a consistent display of characteristic to American Modernist literature because of how texts written during this time demonstrated this example of consciousness in a slightly pessimistic manner.

In addition to this, the narrator remains with this semantic field consisting of states of light and dark when describing his own state in the world. In his statement of ‘I love light. Perhaps you’ll think its strange that an invisible man should need light…But maybe that is exactly because I am invisible’, the narrator is exemplifying an incredibly personal viewpoint of his own being with relation to his requirements in life. He is communicating how he relies on light to feel alive since he feels that he is invisible as a result of his race, illustrating the emotional effects racism creates in ethnic minorities and this is made effective in the first-person narration’s intimacy. Ellison strengthens this further by steering his narrator to declare ‘Light confirms my reality, gives birth to my form…Without light I am not only invisible but formless as well and to be unaware of one’s form is to live a death’. This is a more emotive declaration made by the narrator, contrasting with his prior informative ones of describing his outer environment as it is articulating his inner one and is thus, much more sentimental. It suspends the prior consistency of a convolutedly phrased description that the spectators have been observing for the most part, since the syntax reveals it to hold purposeful weight with relation to the presence of a poignant effect. That effect stemming from how the narrator is broadcasting his need for light in order to feel validated as a being as opposed to feeling close to death. This declaration refers to the narrator’s deepest sentiments and executes them using the transmission of language in terms of the meaning the semantic field possesses, such as ‘light’ and ‘death’, in that it is light which keeps the narrator away from the harrowing state of feeling as if he is dead. This emphasis on the individual in a crucial aspect to American Modernist literature and is blended with Black Existentialism’s objective of commenting on the emotions surrounding black experience, conceiving a piece of text which positions itself articulate a distinct perspective during a literary and artistic movement.

To conclude, Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’ stands as successful Black Existentialism literature in addition to American Modernist literature through its use of voice, language and the subtext of which is uses as a foundation for ideas. The narrator in the text effectively vocalises his thoughts and feelings derived from living as an African American during the fifties, relying on the choice of syntax to generate understanding of perspective in spectators to whatever extent he can. The text possesses a varied amount of ideas relating to identity in both an exterior and interior manner, as well as a communication of one’s deepest emotions.