Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is a remarkable work that has been widely acknowledged for its ruthless exposure of the American Dream as a myth. However, while Ellison may have used American history and culture as the backdrop for his novel, focusing on his expose of the American Dream alone may actually be a far too restrictive assessment of his work. For, the fact is that Ellison's main purpose in the novel seems to have been to question the fundamental worth of the universally characteristic human quest for social success. Ellison achieves this through highlighting the fact that social success is usually built and maintained through the use of hypocrisy, deceit, sycophancy and power plays. Thus, Ellison's Invisible Man is a novel, which establishes the hollowness of social success when measured against the loss of individual values, dignity, and freedom. In fact, it is the loss of individuality that is…...

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Works Cited

Ellison, R. "Invisible Man." New York: Random House, 1995.

How will it end?

Ain't got a friend.

My only sinIs in my skin

What did I do

To be so black and blue?

Ethnicity is thus seen as a force which could both annihilate and empower a person. While it gave one a sense of belonging, it can also cause distinctions between people residing in his geographical location and sharing a common national identity. The protagonist realizes that in order to develop a more expansive sense of self, it was important to shrink the gap between ethnic identities by relinquishing personal boundaries.

There's a stench in the air, which, from this distance underground, might be the smell either of death or of spring - I hope of spring. But don't let me trick you, there is a death in the smell of spring and in the smell of thee as in the smell of me. And if nothing more, invisibility has taught my nose to…...

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References

Bone, Robert. Ralph Ellison and the uses of the Imagination." Ralph Ellison: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. John Hersey. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1974.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. 1952. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987.

Hersey, John, ed. Ralph Ellison: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1974.

You sure that about 'equality' was a mistake?"

Oh, yes, sir," I said. "I was swallowing blood."

The hero's complicity in the rendering of his own invisibility comes full force at the end. The imagery of the hero swallowing blood mirrors how the narrator, a black man, chose to swallow his own anger and shame. The hero was fully aware that he was nothing more than another black man to these drunken white people, an object of entertainment. However, instead of pummeling the nearest drunk, the narrator decides to swallow his rage, because the townspeople offer him a scholarship to the "state college for Negroes."

Another image that has greater social relevance is the gathering at the ballroom. This gathering serves as a microcosm of a town whose class structure is delineated by race. The white people in the room, the town's important citizens were all white (and male). The black men were…...

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Works Cited

Ellison Ralph. "From Invisible Man." Nina Baym, General Editor. The Norton Anthology of American Literature

Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison's prologue to Invisible Man explains his perception that he is invisible because of ethnicity. The white population only sees African-American men as stereotypes and if they were viewed by whites at all it is through the lens of their racism. In the United States, the majority of the population since the founding has been white men and women. Consequently, anyone who does not belong to that racial category is considered a racial minority. The American record against African-American people has been particularly heinous, given the history of black slavery, then segregation and Jim Crow laws in the American south, only to name a few of the myriad of prejudicial policies which have affected that part of society. The narrator's invisibility, he acknowledges has all to do with the social indoctrination of the Caucasian population against the African-American community. The entirety of the narrator's life would be based…...

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Works Cited:

Ellison, Ralph. "From Invisible Man." 1952. 2298-2314. Print.

And E-sharps, form the main part of the piece. At the end of it all comes a dramatically violent, sharp and steep-rising crescendo followed by a clear, calm and measured finally that is flat: so flat, in fact, as to thud percussively and at once to the earth and after it fall wobblingly below it.
Ralph Ellison thus orchestrates the unpredictable actions and tone changes and of this novel with the skill of a maestro: from the narrator's grandfather's bassoon-like deathbed warning, to the fateful chance meeting with Norris to the expulsion from school to the narrator's discovery of the true content of the seven reference letters he has so industrially distributed, the parts of the story are as tightly controlled, juxtaposed, varied, blended, surprising, and climactic as a symphonic masterpiece. Ellison, through the voice of his unnamed narrator, "conducts" cadence, pace, rhythm of the main action, and even perhaps…...

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The second, and core "movement" (see Heise, 2003) of the story takes place upon the narrator's arrival to New York, with no job, money, or friends. The letters from Dr. Bledsoe provide security but also happen to lead him to Emerson's son. Next is the Brotherhood; here the narrator begins his real education. Ironically, his goal to be an "educator" changes to one of wishing to inspire others by making rousing public speeches for the Brotherhood. After his first speech, however, they say it was too emotional.

Continuing, one Brotherhood member states "It was a most unsatisfactory beginning" (p. 341). When pressed, this Brother continues (p. 342): "In my opinion, the speech was wild, hysterical, politically irresponsible, and dangerous... incorrect [emphasis not added]!" (pp. 341-342). Another adds "I think the speech was backward and reactionary." Still, later when alone, the narrator begins to feel a greater sense of his self, and in ways he would not have predicted earlier: For the first time, lying in the dark, I could glimpse the possibility of being more than a member of a race. It was no dream, the possibility existed. I had only to work and learn and survive... Sure, I'd study with Hambro. I'd learn what he had to teach and a lot more. Let tomorrow come. (Ellison, Invisible Man, pp. 347-348)

His next moment of self-revealing truth occurs after Tod Clifton's murder by a street cop. Clifton has, unknown to other Brothers, actually abandoned the Brotherhood by that point, and, in what would be to them an outrageous betrayal, now even sells little Sambo-like obscene African-American-like dolls on the street that dance obscenely to a song whose words degrades blacks. The narrator speaks at Clifton's Brotherhood-sponsored funeral, however, saying nothing of what he saw Clifton selling today.

Ellison Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison's novel, Invisible Man depicts women as marginalized either as maternal or sexual figures. The stripper, Edna, Hester, Sybil, Emma, the rich woman, and Mattie Lou Trueblood are seen largely as sexual objects. In contrast, Mary Rambo is a maternal figure who cares for the narrator. Overall, the female characters are seen as secondary, with little character development in comparison to the male characters. This treatment of women in Invisible Man as primarily sexual or maternal objects largely reflects the traditional views of women's roles in society during the 1950s.

omen are often seen as sexual objects within Ellison's Invisible Man. The most obvious examples of this sexual identification of women is seen the characters of Hester and Edna. Edna and Hester are both black prostitutes at the Golden Day. Hester hates white men, while Edna is convinced that white men make better sexual partners. In either case,…...

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Works Cited

Ellison, Ralph. 1995. Invisible Man.

Vintage Books USA.

Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison.
Dividing people by race. Five quoted passages. Five outside sources.

Annotated Bibliography

Invisible Man"

Invisibility. ho has not felt invisible at one time or another in their lives? However, for many groups within society, invisibility is not a phrase, it is a day-to-day reality. Its roots are planted deep in prejudices, stereotyping, and basic intolerance and ignorance of cultural diversity. That American society was and is founded on immigrant cultures may be common knowledge, however, it is not commonly accepted. Although, all are American, society has labeled certain groups according to their ethnic backgrounds. These labels are stigmas that are not easily shaken off or dispelled. Stigmas are like brands that signify differences placed on the group as a whole, not the individual. hen an individual is seen only in the context of his or her ethnic group, only in terms of the stereotypical persona that has been…...

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Works Cited

Edgerton, Gary; Jackson, Kathy Merlock. "Redesigning Pocahontas: Disney, the "white man's Indian," and the marketing of dreams." Journal of Popular Film and Television. Volume 24. June 01, 1996; pp 90.

This article was beneficial for it help to establish the negative images of Native Americans that have been created for decades within the film industry. It showed that even as the industry approached the new millennium it refused to acknowledge fact over fiction. This source was important in establishing how the media helps perpetuate a stereotype for profit, ignoring the individual as well as the group as a whole.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man.Vintage Books. 1995; pp 14, 94, 143, 168, 577.

This book was the basis for the research paper. It established the existence of the invisible man that can be found in all races and cultures of society.

I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself" (496). He realizes that while he may feel invisible, he is not; he is a real man with real thoughts and opinions and he is finally beginning to understand what they are. For example, he finally comes to terms with being African-American and asks why he should "strive toward colorlessness" (499) in a world of individuals that want to be the same, which means they do not want to be themselves. He observes, "life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat" (499). He realizes that the best way to live to by living as one was born. Robert Lee observes, "what we are left with at the end of the novel is a man living in…...

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Works Cited

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Signet Books. 1952.

Lee, a. Robert. "Sight and Mask: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man." Negro American Literature Forum. 1970. JSTOR Resource Database. Information Retrieved November 10, 2008.  http://www.jstor.org 

John Stark. "Invisible Man: Ellison's Black Odyssey." Negro American Literature Forum. 1973. JSTOR Resource Database. Information Retrieved November 10, 2008.

person or separates him from the rest: it also s to associates him with his past, his accomplishments or his blunders. Furthermore, it colors and limits a person's entire personality and environment almost with finality, unless his name suddenly changes to alter the memory his name carries with it.
This was precisely what happened to the narrator in his own novel. One's name was so significantly indicative and judgmental upon one's person that he refused to name himself from beginning to end. It would be a betrayal if he gave his name or gave himself any. He was so important to himself that he could not allow a name to limit or smear or negate his identity. aand destiny.

The narrator cannot remember any time that a name ever gave him honor. And dignity. (Just) because he was black, his whole life to the present was a series of humiliations and…...

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bellow. S. (1952). Man Underground- a Review of Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man."

Commentary. http://www.english.upenn.edu/rafilreis/50s/bellow-on-ellision.html

Ellison, R.W. (1955). The Invisible Man. New York, USA and Canada. .Vintage Books

According to his benefactor his case, represents, my dear Mr. Emerson, one of the rare delicate instances in which one for whom we held great expectations has gone grievously astray, and who in his fall threatens to upset certain delicate relationships between certain interested individuals and the school. Thus, while the bearer is no longer a member of our scholastic family, it is highly important that his severance with the college be executed as painlessly as possible. I beg of you sir, to help him continue in the direction of that promise which, like the horizon, receded ever brightly and distantly beyond a hopeful traveler." (191)
As he was the inadvertent instigator of a white benefactor of his college being exposed to the ill temper of a black man who teaches there and is apparently capable of truth-telling, the invisible man is dismissed from his beloved school. The manner in…...

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Works Cited

Bloom, Harold Ed.. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.

Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man. New York, Vintage Books, 1995.

Invisible Man 1
Race is experienced in Invisible Man in a variety of ways. In the beginning of the book, the narrator describes himself as “invisible”—as being flesh and bone and yet going unseen by people. He goes unseen because he is a black man and people choose not to see the black man: they do not want to get involved in that world. Instead, they expect the black man to tread softly and to not make much noise—and so that is what the narrator does, though he has suffered from the occasional outburst of violence.
The narrator’s journey of identity is shaped from beginning to end as a result of race. Prior to going to the university, the narrator is forced to fight in a battle royal for the amusement of the white elites in the South. This is his first big step in his life’s journey towards isolation and invisibility; it…...

Malcolm X and Ellison
Interracial sexual desire is depicted both in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and The Autobiography of Malcolm X Extreme social stratification and inequalities in social power play an important role in the depiction of interracial sexual desire in both Ellison's book and Malcolm X's autobiography, and also play an important role in the repulsion/attraction dynamic seen between the races. Both of these books leave little hope for humanitarian, loving relationships between the races, as they both often demonize white society. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, white men who desire black women are clearly manipulative and often racists, while in Ellison's Invisible Man such men are often simply well-meaning but misguided. Malcolm X and Ellison both see white women who desire black men symbolize the white desire to "slum" and the attraction of the women to the stereotype of black men as powerful lovers, while the men who…...

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Works Cited

Ellison, Ralph. 1995. Invisible Man. Vintage; 2nd edition.

Malcolm X 1987. The Autobiography of Malcolm X African-American Images; Reissue edition.

Civil Rights historian Steve Estes adds: "the ever-present threat of lynching for supposed sexual improprieties meant that their [Black male] survival could depend on their ability to mask their masculinity" (Estes, 2005). Being able to express one's sexuality and desire in an open, healthy fashion and not feel in danger of persecution, in Estes' view, is a critical, but often unacknowledged part of being a man.
Closely guarding the rights to claim the status of man is not particular to America's racial history. "The early modern Spaniards...also assumed that manhood was revealed, in large part, through a person's behavior," through what today might be called "machismo" (Behrend-Martinez, 2005). To be a man in Spain, included "keeping one's word, supporting one's family, heading a patriarchal household, demonstrating sexual prowess, sobriety, maintaining one's independence of thought and action, and defending family and personal honor" (Behrend-Martinez, 2005). Stressing the ability to keep one's…...

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Works Cited

Estes, Steve. "Introduction." From I am a Man: Race, Manhood, and the Civil Rights

Movement. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. [22 Feb 2007] Excerpted at http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/estes_i.html

Behrend-Martinez, Edward. "Manhood and the neutered body in early modern Spain."

Journal of Social History. 22 Jun 2005. [22 Feb 2007]  http://www.encyclopedia.com/printable.aspx?id=1G1:133934746

So by embracing the underground, as the narrator eventually does, he is attempting to regain a sense of his own identity by remaining separate from the falseness of that which occurs above him. Clearly, it is significant that he spends his time stealing electricity, writing his story, and listening to Louis Armstrong's "hat Did I Do to Be So Black and Blue" on a phonograph. The first, obviously, is his attempt to subvert the works of mainstream society; but the second two stand as the symbol for what jazz represents in the American experience. Jazz is this sense of individuality; so much so, that the narrator is able to create his own identity through words as he listens to music. Today, the invisibility of jazz has been lifted, but its importance to the meaning of the words "America" and "democracy" remains the same as Ellison understood it to be.

orks Cited

De…...

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Works Cited

De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Random House, 1980.

Ostendorf, Berndt. "Ralph Waldo Ellison." New Essays on Invisible Man. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Peretti, Burton. "Speaking in the Groove: Oral History and Jazz." The Journal of American History, vol. 88, no. 2, September, 2001.

invisible cities all over the world like Ahwaz in south of Iran, that suffer through horrible tragedies and the world won't pay attention to. They are the real life invisible cities. Through literature one is able to empathize to people and situations that otherwise would never be seen or known. Calvino's Invisible City explores the imaginative world of Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.
The book discusses the descriptions of cities by an explorer, Marco Polo. The book is put together as a conversation between the aging and busy emperor Kublai Khan, a busy man with many emperors who talk to him about the state of his expanding and vast empire, and Polo, the boundless explorer. The largest percentage of the book is of short prose poems describing 55 cities, narrated by the explorer Marco Polo.

Every five to ten cities, there are small dialogues that act as transitions between the two…...

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References

Invisible cities cyclopedia of literary characters, revised third edition. (2012) . Retrieved from  http://www.enotes.com/invisible-cities-salem/invisible-cities 

Calvino, I. (1974). Invisible cities. New York: Harcourt.

(2009). Refugee review tribunal australia. DOI: www.mrt-rrt.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/89/irn35261.pdf.aspx

Common Man as Tragic Hero: Challenging Traditional Notions of Heroism

Traditionally, heroes in literature have been depicted as extraordinary individuals, embodying exceptional qualities of strength, courage, and virtue. However, in contemporary literature, there has been a shift towards portraying the common man as a tragic hero, challenging the traditional notions of heroism. By giving voice to the struggles, vulnerabilities, and resilience of ordinary people, these titles subvert the established heroism archetype, offering a complex and nuanced exploration of human nature.

1. Subverting the Idealized Hero:

Titles such as "Death of a Salesman" (Arthur Miller) and "The Catcher in the Rye" (J.D. Salinger) present....