Searching For Identity

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man was acclaimed as a great work in American literature when it was just published because both readers and critics read in it not only the presentation of depth of the black people's life experience, their sorrow over their loss of identity and their efforts in questing for their identity, but also such a dilemma of everyman in the story of the unnamed protagonist. The paper intends to use textual analysis method and from the perspective of postcolonialism to analyze the novel. The paper uses the predominant theme of the protagonist's quest for his black identity through the analysis of invisible man's invisibility and visibility to analyze how the blacks get their identity in the white-dominated society and how to establish their real identity after their efforts failed.The blacks who survive in the white-dominated society try to assimilate into the society but they are always in the marginalized position because of the material conditions and living background. They cannot get real equal treatment in the society and miserably they ask "who are we?" In the search of his identity, the narrator in Invisible Man falls into puzzlement and disturbance and constantly asks "who am I?" The invisible man is the representation of the marginalized group. At first, the young hero lacks a correct understanding of his "self", the pursuit of life, and does not have independent human dignity. Under the great impact of American white culture, he moulds himself completely according to the white culture and education. The result of his blind obedience and complete self-loss drive him to abandon the black tradition. In the face of cruel reality, it seems that everyone sets himself against the hero, whites or blacks, at the factory or in the hospital, in the Brotherhood or in Harlem. People always impose various identities on him, try their best to manipulate and take advantage of him, and make him a "tool" to be used at will. The narrator does not know who he really is, American or African? After the painful experience the narrator finds out his invisibility and he is an invisible man, then he decides to abandon all the false identities that are imposed on him. At the same time he begins to cherish his culture and history because during his search for his identity, his unconscious dependence on the black's history is expressed by means of blues and black folktales. It is in them that the narrator derives strength and courage to overcome confusion and frustration during his search. It is in Armstrong's blues that the narrator finally realizes his visibility. That is, accept themselves, cultivate the appropriate attitude to their race's history and cherish their culture. The invisible man's self-awakening and his acceptance of the traditional culture indicate his turn from invisibility to visibility.