On The Quest For Individual Identity In Invisible Man

In the black and white "cultural hybridity" of the racist Americansociety after the Civil War, especially during the mid and the second halfof the 20th century, the white culture is still the mainstream, while theblack culture is dominated and marginalized by the white culturebecause of the white people's cultural hegemony. As one of the minoritycultures, the black culture is also in the danger of being assimilated. Theblack Americans are taken as a whole and abstract community with acertain stereotype, instead of as complex individuals. Against thisbackground, how this minority culture can survive and how the blackAmericans can preserve the integrity of their culture and how they canrealize and develop themselves have become inevitable issues. As aresult, the problem of individual identity has come into being. As a blackwriter, Ralph Ellison knows well about this and explores this situationexactly and quests for the individual identity of the black Americans aswell in his masterpiece Invisible Man, which, in the form ofbildungsroman, tells how the narrator, a nameless young black man,experiences a series of adventures and searches for his own identity.From the perspective of post-colonialism, this thesis is going todeal with how the narrator tries to define himself after going a longjourney and experiencing many identities. Firstly, by way of analyzing the social context of individual identity, the thesis is mainly intended toexplore how the narrator loses his own identity and quests for hisindividual identity in a complex and racist society of America. Havingno identity of himself from the beginning, the nameless narratorstruggles hard to quest for it, but he realizes that his efforts gain noresults, just because of the fact that he is a black man living in a racistAmerican society. Throughout the novel, the narrator finds himselfpassing through a series of communities, from "the town to the College,then to the Liberty Paints Plant, and later to the Brotherhood," with eachmicrocosm endorsing a different idea of how blacks should behave insociety. As the narrator attempts to define himself through the Values andexpectations imposed on him, he finds that, in each case, the prescribedrole limits his complexity as an individual and his ability to act, and thusforces him to play an inauthentic part.Secondly, the thesis focuses on the obstacle—racism, the mainreason why the narrator can't find his individual identity. Here it isbecause of racism that blacks can't see through, the hypocritical veil ofwhites. As a result, blacks can't find their real individual identity andsocial status as well.Lastly, by way of analyzing the narrator's new life in the basement,.the thesis focuses on how the black Americans can realize theirindividual identity in the America social reality of "cultural hybrity." Therefore, in the status of subculture, if the black Americans want torealize their own individual identity, first of all, they should split themysterious veil of racism into pieces and be father of their own, theyshould claim for their own cultural identity and social equality clearly.Then, they should try to deconstruct the cultural hegemony of the whiteand decentralize the status of the white culture as well. As a result, theycan do realize their individual identity and move ahead as a whole. Thiswill also shed new light on how the multi-cultures could get along wellwith one another in the "global cultural hybridity."...