Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the narrator goes through many hardships that make him who he is. He experiences being discouraged and unlucky many different times throughout the novel. However, there are three major times that the narrator goes through these hardships. He is mistreated for his race, especially in the beginning of the novel. He is discouraged by the president of his college when he is expelled. He is also taken down when he finds out that the Brotherhood is not who he thought they were. In Ellison’s Invisible Man, the narrator is degraded and humiliated three major times throughout the novel.

In the beginning of the novel, it becomes known that the narrator is a black boy living in the south. He is discriminated against by everybody around him. He is seen as nothing. The narrator is chosen to take part in the Battle Royal, which is a fight between ten black boys used to entertain the white men of the town. The narrator describes this experience by saying “But now I felt a sudden fit of blind terror. I was unused to darkness. It was as though I had suddenly found myself in a dark room filled with poisonous cottonmouths. I could hear the bleary voices yelling insistently for the battle royal to begin” (21). This quote explains that the narrator is being put in a position that he does not want to be in. He is being treated like he is less than all of the men gathered to watch the fight. Once the fight begins, the narrator also explains “Blindfolded, I could no longer control my motions. I had no dignity. I stumbled about like a baby or a drunken man” (22). This quote states that the narrator feels humiliated. He is being treated like he is nothing. The fight is discouraging and humiliating for the narrator to ha...

... middle of paper ...

...r has all been a lie. He has been clueless the whole time. This is the third major time that the narrator feels discouraged and humiliated throughout the novel.

Throughout Invisible Man, the narrator goes through many tough times. He experiences humiliation and embarrassment. In the beginning, he is degraded for being less than others due to his race when he is forced to fight in the Battle Royal. He is later humiliated by Dr. Bledsoe by being expelled from college and given letters that were far from recommendations. In the end, the narrator is left out from everything that he has worked for in the Brotherhood. It seems that everything he does comes back to haunt him. In Ellison’s Invisible Man, the narrator is degraded and humiliated three major times throughout the novel.

Works Cited

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage-Random House, 1995. Print.