Invisible Man Raplh Ellison- Invisible Term Paper

How will it end?

Ain't got a friend.

My only sinIs in my skin

What did I do

To be so black and blue?

Ethnicity is thus seen as a force which could both annihilate and empower a person. While it gave one a sense of belonging, it can also cause distinctions between people residing in his geographical location and sharing a common national identity. The protagonist realizes that in order to develop a more expansive sense of self, it was important to shrink the gap between ethnic identities by relinquishing personal boundaries.

There's a stench in the air, which, from this distance underground, might be the smell either of death or of spring - I hope of spring. But don't let me trick you, there is a death in the smell of spring and in the smell of thee as in the smell of me. And if nothing more, invisibility has taught my nose to classify the stenches of death.(468)

Letting go of personal boundaries was the best way to create a larger, more authentic and more expansive idea of self. To give up egoistic desire of having a separate identity, man needs vision- a vision that helps him see what he could gain by losing an exclusive identity. Ethnicity was thus a potent force-whichever direction it takes. It was thus important to utilize it for loftier purposes like the protagonist does so an entire generation can benefit from it.

References

Bone, Robert. Ralph Ellison and the uses of the Imagination." Ralph Ellison: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. John Hersey. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. 1952. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987.

Hersey, John, ed. Ralph Ellison: A Collection….....