The Symbolic Briefcase in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
The narrator of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man is the victim of his own naiveté. Throughout the novel he trusts that various people and groups are helping him when in reality they are using him for their own benefit. They give him the illusion that he is useful and important, all the while running him in circles. Ellison uses much symbolism in his book, some blatant and some hard to perceive, but nothing embodies the oppression and deception of the white hierarchy surrounding him better than his treasured briefcase, one of the most important symbols in the book.
The briefcase is introduced in the very first chapter. The narrator receives it after giving a speech endorsing Booker T. Washington’s philosophy of black subservience in front of his hometown’s leading white citizens (and after being forced to fight like an animal for their entertainment in the “battle royal”). Wrapped in white tissue paper symbolizing the skin color and mistrustful nature of the gift’s givers, the calfskin brief case is awarded to him by his school’s superintendent. Inside is a scholarship to an all-black college. The superintendent, who moments before watched him attempt to pluck coins from an electrified rug, says to him, “Boy, take this prize and keep it well. Consider it a badge of office” (32). The irony is that the only “badge of office” it signifies is that of good slave. He also says, “Someday it will be filled with important papers” (32). This is especially ironic considering what happens to those “important papers” at the end of the novel.
The night after his speech the narrator has a dream in which his grandfather tells him to look inside his briefcase. Inside he finds a note ...
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...othing more than faceless “Sambos” to be used to serve the organization’s needs.
These are not the only objects of importance the narrator stores in his beloved briefcase, but they are the most encompassing of his story. In the novel’s final chapter, when the narrator is trapped in the dark sewer and must burn the papers from his briefcase to see his way, everything goes. First his high school diploma, then the Sambo doll, followed by a threatening anonymous note. Everything he burns from the briefcase—the “important papers” the superintendent spoke of in Chapter one—is a symbol of the narrator’s plight as the forces pulling his strings run him around.
Not until this cleansing of his prized briefcase, can he be free from the people who wanted to “Keep This Nigger-Boy Running.”
WORKS CITED
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
In this biographical paper, I will be exploring the history of Juan Cortina, a man who is a hero or bandit depending on who you ask, his historical significance, and then exploring what we know of Juan and what we can deduce about his personality.
Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca. "The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca" University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
Sante, L. (1991). Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York. New York: Vintage Books.
Upon opening Ralph Waldo Ellison’s book The “Invisible Man”, one will discover the shocking story of an unnamed African American and his lifelong struggle to find a place in the world. Recognizing the truth within this fiction leads one to a fork in its reality; One road stating the narrators isolation is a product of his own actions, the other naming the discriminatory views of the society as the perpetrating force infringing upon his freedom. Constantly revolving around his own self-destruction, the narrator often settles in various locations that are less than strategic for a man of African-American background. To further address the question of the narrator’s invisibility, it is important not only to analyze what he sees in himself, but more importantly if the reflection (or lack of reflection for that matter) that he sees is equal to that of which society sees. The reality that exists is that the narrator exhibits problematic levels of naivety and gullibility. These flaws of ignorance however stems from a chivalrous attempt to be a colorblind man in a world founded in inequality. Unfortunately, in spite of the black and white line of warnings drawn by his Grandfather, the narrator continues to operate on a lost cause, leaving him just as lost as the cause itself. With this grade of functioning, the narrator continually finds himself running back and forth between situations of instability, ultimately leading him to the self-discovery of failure, and with this self-discovery his reasoning to claim invisibility.
The narrator’s briefcase itself is perhaps the most important of Ellison’s inanimate objects. While the influence of the briefcase is not in its being an overtly crude representation of an oppressive society such as, for instance, Mary’s bank, the briefcase nonetheless plays an important role in constructing the pillars of the narrator’s superimposed identity. After the Battle Royale scene, the narrator is finally allowed to make the speech he has prepared. During his speech, he makes the ‘mistake’ of using the phrase ‘social equality’ in place of the much more ambiguous term, ‘social responsibility.’ The narrator corrects himself amidst the jeers of the almost entirely white audience. He then continues with his speech, lauding the importance of friendship, extoling the necessity of docile mutual existence to the “thunderous applause” (31) of the audience. Pleased with the narrator’s attitude of implied submissiveness, the superintendent “come[s] forth with a package wrapped in white tissue paper” (32). He presents this mysterious ...
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The most important binary operation in Faulkner's masterpiece is the projected idea of the rich versus the stark reality of the poor. Throughout the entire work, the scenes of the Snopes family are constantly described in detail and compared to the richness that appears abundant around them. For example, at the very beginning of the story, the young Colonel Sartoris Snopes is described as "small and wiry like his father" wearing "patched and faded jeans" which are later described as too small (Faulkner 1555). This poor child, with his tattered clothing, bare feet, and scared-to-the-bone look is juxtaposed against the wealth of the Justice of the Peace's borrowed courtroom--its "close-packed" shelves filled with cans of food, aromatic cheese, and "the silver curve of fish"--th...
Mintz, Jerome R. The anarchists of Casas Viejas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982. Print.
Throughout Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man, the main character dealt with collisions and contradictions, which at first glance presented as negative influences, but in retrospect, they positively influenced his life, ultimately resulting in the narrator developing a sense of independence. The narrator, invisible man, began the novel as gullible, dependent, and self-centered. During the course of the book, he developed into a self-determining and assured character. The characters and circumstances invisible man came across allowed for this growth.
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man depicts a realistic society where white people act as if black people are less than human. Ellison uses papers and letters to show the narrator’s poor position in this society.
To understand the narrator of the story, one must first explore Ralph Ellison. Ellison grew up during the mid 1900’s in a poverty-stricken household (“Ralph Ellison”). Ellison attended an all black school in which he discovered the beauty of the written word (“Ralph Ellison”). As an African American in a predominantly white country, Ellison began to take an interest in the “black experience” (“Ralph Ellison”). His writings express a pride in the African American race. His work, The Invisible Man, won much critical acclaim from various sources. Ellison’s novel was considered the “most distinguished novel published by an American during the previous twenty years” according to a Book Week poll (“Ralph Ellison”). One may conclude that the Invisible Man is, in a way, the quintessence Ralph Ellison. The Invisible Man has difficulty fitting into a world that does not want to see him for who he is. M...
de la Cruz, Juana Ines. "Hombres Necios." A Sor Juana Anthology. Ed.Alan S. Trueblood. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard UP, 1988.
Ralph Ellison uses several symbols to emphasize the narrator’s attempt to escape from stereotypes and his theme of racial inequalities in his novel, Invisible Man. In particular, the symbolism of the cast-iron is one that haunts the narrator throughout the book. Ellison’s character discovers a small, cast-iron bank that implies the derogatory stereotypes of a black man in society at the time. From its “wide-mouthed, red-lipped, and very black” features, to its suggestion of a black man entertaining for trivial rewards, this ignites anger in Ellison’s narrator. The cast-iron bank represents the continuous struggle with the power of stereotypes, which is a significant theme throughout the novel.1 The bank plays a significant role in the book by aiding to the author’s message of stereotypes, the narrator’s search for an individual identity, and his languished desire for equality.
Wilkie, Brian, and James Hurt. Literature of the Western World. 2nd edition. In Galloway, Stan. "The House of Bernarda Alba." http://www.bridgewater.edu/~sgallowa/203/alba-notes.htm, April 26, 1999.
The Langman, F. H. & Co., Inc. The "Reconsidering Invisible Man" The Critical Review. 18 (1976) 114-27. Lieber, Todd M. "Ralph Ellison and the Metaphor of Invisibility in Black Literary Tradition." American Quarterly.