Personal and Community Identity

In Invisible Man, we see the narrator navigating between his personal identity and his community identity. The narrator doesn't really start with an identity, but as he goes through the college, Harlem,  and the Brotherhood, he ultimately has to face his invisibility and ask himself who he really is. His solution is to stay in solitude and have some deep self-reflection before going back out into the world, apart from society. But can we develop our own identities within society?
In a way, identity is based on society. We say that we are "conservative" or "liberal" in relation to what people assume as conservative or liberal. We say we are "introverts" or "extroverts" based on how we interact with people around us. We define ourselves by using society's dictionary. Our identity is very much shaped by society, yet we often have to question ourselves. "Who am I?"
What the narrator did is what many of us may do, although to a much larger extent. We can't afford to live in a hole for years, stealing electricity and writing a book on our life. But we can afford some quiet time and self-reflection, which I think is very important. To take a breather from your friends and family and just take some time every once in a while to gather your thoughts can really go a long way. The narrator disconnects himself from society in order to analyze and understand it so he can navigate his invisibility and reconcile between who the community thinks he is and how he personally understands himself. I think Ellison brings up a great point in this novel; not just how we can understand our invisibility, but how important it is to give ourselves that time to just reflect apart from the world around us.

Comments

  1. Emma H.October 14, 2018 at 3:51 PM

    I like the points you make, especially that identity is based on society. I think it's easier to see how we compare to others instead of really digging into ourselves to see who we are. And who we are is an important question, especially with college apps coming up (ugh). Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nina GalvezOctober 23, 2018 at 8:25 PM

    I love this post! I am a huge advocate of "self time" and think that it is a healthy thing to add to your life style. I also agree that a very common question is "who am I" even though our society has shaped the person we have become. When describing purely yourself, you probably shouldn't use words like liberal/conservative or introvert/extrovert because those are societal labels that are in some way up to opinion. Good post!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The "Progressive" Woman...? Ew and ugh why did you do this Ellison. Or is there an underlying message here?

Similar to Native Son 's depiction of women characters and their roles in the main character's life, Ellison portrays women as sexual objects who are (to say the least) not as smart as the men and who are needy. Their characters are created in relation to the main male character, or another male character. We only hear of Sybil when the narrator is trying to get some more information about the Brotherhood from the married woman, and of course, it turns into drinking and physical intimacy because she's a woman. We also see this when the narrator goes to talk about the "woman" question in Harlem, even though he doesn't even really know what he's talking about. He ends up having an affair with one of the women when she seductively asks him some rather vague questions and pretends to be interested. Even in a small encounter, when a woman thought the narrator was Rhinehart, she grabbed his arm as if she were his partner and was described as smelling a lot like
Read more

The Global Masquerade Ball

In Invisible Man , we see the concept of the mask constantly coming in the story. Bledsoe kindly supporting and agreeing to his white partners while in reality running the show, Grandpas hardwork ethic and humble living while he keeps a guarded mind and heart against the system, the director handing over compensation money for the narrators injuries in a civil manner while really just doing his job and getting it over with. There are tons of examples of the mask, which made me wonder; do we have masks? And if so, when do we take them off? On the political scale, prime ministers, presidents, dictators, kings and queens, and all types of rulers often have wear the mask, in public speeches and in private meetings. Many affairs and scandals have occurred behind the scenes, such that the public wouldn’t know about it, and many secrets have been kept even until death. For example, the majority of the public in America had no idea that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in a wheelchair and suffered f
Read more

Racism: It Runs Deep

I really enjoyed reading Beatty's The White Boy Shuffle , especially the middle of the book as Gunnar is coming of age. Mr.Mitchell warned us that the book would continue to take a darker turn, but as I was reading I almost forgot how the narrator I had enjoyed listening to and reading, Gunnar, was going to end up leading a mass suicide. But when suicide became more and more of a theme in the novel, and especially when Scoby killed himself, I was still laughing, but it didn't feel right. Gunnar's approach to racism is darkly humorous and very pessimistic. The idea that the only way to end racism and to stop the suffering of black people in America is to have all of them commit suicide seems crazy, but the way Gunnar puts it, it sounds like the only effective solution. Its simple; the problem just goes away. I don't think Beatty actually believes this is the right way, but he's making a very good point. Centuries have passed and racism is still among us. So many peo
Read more