An Inward Growth: Study Of Ellison’s Invisible Man From The Perspective Of Bildungsroman

As one of the most prestigious African-American writers since 1950 s, Ralph Ellison gains his fame mostly from his only novel Invisible Man which is considered as the milestone that depicts the life of the modern black. Ellison uses his extraordinary writing skills and literary intelligence to narrate the growth of a young black from innocence to awakening, from blindness to perception. It corresponds to the main growing patterns in the genre of Bildungsroman.As a literary genre which is widely used by the writers, Bildungsroman mainly deals with the idea of Bildung, or formation, shaping of a single main character. It’s a story of a young protagonist who experiences a significant change of knowledge about the world or himself, or a change from innocence to awakening or maturity.Through the main structure and features of this genre, the task of the study is to explore the nameless protagonist’s painful and zigzag growth pattern from innocence to self-awakening. This thesis falls into three main parts with an introduction and a conclusion. The main parts of the study probe into the inward growth of the protagonist. In chapter two, the protagonist separates from his familiar surroundings and takes on his journey by his own. He is innocent and blindfolded. The third chapter mainly focuses on the transformation of the protagonist from innocence to awakening. Experiencing “death” in the explosion in the Liberty Plant and “rebirth” from the Brother, he grows up with totters and setbacks. After witnessing the death of Tod Clifton, the protagonist gets self-awakening eventually. In chapter four, by breaking from the past and embracing and internalizing his black root, he finally finds himself in hibernation. The young black protagonist pays high price to grow up in a white-dominated society. The pilgrimage journey of the protagonist is not only an individual adventure and growth, but also a journey full of inspiration and enlightenment for all of us. Growth is tangible, but invisible as well. After all, it is an eternal problem and matters to all human beings.