Visible Failure In Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison is one of the most important novelists after World War II. His famous novel Invisible Man has a firm position in the American literary canon of the twentieth century. It is widely perceived that deeply rooted in African American culture and experience, Invisible Man is not just representative of African America and of America, but also a highly pertinent commentary on the human condition in the twentieth century and beyond.This thesis is meant to adopt Marxist's theories of communication, alienation, ideology in analyzing the failed communication of invisible man in the white-dominated capitalist society, and to reveal the protagonist's psychological passage from innocence to enlightenment.This thesis consists of five parts. Chapter One presents a brief introduction to Ellison's life and literary career, and gives a brief summary of Invisible Man. Also this chapter gives a literature review of this novel. Chapter Two deals with protagonist's failure in individual-individual communication with Dr. Bledsoe and Mr. Norton, so as to reveal the invisible man's attempt to establish good relations with white men by automation conforming to the white men, which ends up being frustrated by Whites. Chapter Three examines protagonist's failure in individual-community communication with white community, thus conveying the invisible man's inevitable failure by relying on more powerful white community. Chapter Four is devoted to protagonist's failure in the"self communication", which inwardly records how he struggles between submission and resistance.The analysis of narrator's visible failure in communication in White-dominated world can logically lead to the conclusion that the individual's failure is caused by his personal false concept about his own social being, as well as the defects of the white-dominated capitalist society. The fact that the writer does not touch upon the communication with his own black community suggests that the invisible man's efforts to communicate with whites are Ellison's humanistic message, that is, the white and the black should and can integrate by means of effective communication.