Invisible Man Essay

1977- A vitrines attempt to recapture or to reject the past is important in many plays, novels, and poems. Choose a literary work in which a character views the past with such feelings as ralwaysence, bitterness, or longing. Show with clear evidence from the work how the characters view of the past is used to develop a al-Qaeda in the work.Ones past can be a frightening thing and for some is totally a memory to be distanced. For the fabricator in Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man, past serves as a connection to his mistakes, his grandfather, and his racial roots. except when he begins to call natural York his home, these argon ties he is non certain he wants to keep. At times, he wants to collapse and forget all of it as soon as possible. At some other times, he longs for the familiarity of his past, whatever it may encompass. Things that might erst have piqued his touch now seem nonhing but a stereotype. However, maven cannot equal in the present with disclose having come from somewhere past and for this reason, his attempts to have less(prenominal) of a past, only further his progress toward invisibility. As an outstanding savant at the premier Negro college in the south, the narrator is given the hazard and the honor of chauffeuring one of the visiting board members around the town for an afternoon. But when he has a badly-timed lapse in judgment and agrees to show Norton the close unsophisticated regions of the town, he is expelled and sent to New York to work and gain monetary resource for tuition, but in reality this is the last he will ever see of the college.However, for the narrator, out of sight doesnt necessarily mean out of mind as he finds himself often comparing his current carriage to his days at the college and reflecting upon those fateful hours spent with Norton. Though he once bragged about his college education, he comes to realize its insignificance in his city brio. The mistake resulting in his expulsion is at first a typ esetters case he feels quite bitter towards, but as time progresses, it is one he no longer holds contemptible. When he loses his status as a college student, he gains some degree of mediocrity. It is all too easy to fashion invisible when you appear to be no different than the crowd skirt you. This is what happened to the narrator when he rejected his past at the college. When the narrators grandfather is on the verge of death, he leaves some ambiguous and haunt last words that confuse and occasionally torment the narrator for the close of the book.Though, he does not express this inner-turmoil to anyone, it is always there to serve as unpleasant and disconcerting reminder of what was. At college, and later in New York, he often thinks of these words, or rather commands, trying unsuccessfully to project meaning from them. This mystery is one he never solves and as he comes to know quite well, it is difficult to live with unresolved and incomplete instructions. When he cant fol low through on these instructions meant to be paramount in his life, he finds it easier to be invisible than to live with this discrepancy, this prickle in his side. The narrators favorite food is yams. Thats not to say he doesnt enjoy a sports stadium-full of grits or a table of fried chicken, but yams are a sweet, treacly reminder of home for him.When he is in New York and is offered a bowl of grits by a white seller, he becomes offended, seeing the lead as nothing but a racial stereotype. He is not one to be associated with such southern black food and hell have everyone know it. When, some months later, a Negro street vendor offers him a hot and delicious yam, he first denies it under the like premise, but walks back when the smell and nostalgia become too powerful, perhaps only accepting because of the skin color of the vendor. But even when the vendor addresses the narrator as brother he becomes offended saying Im no brother of yours. In an attempt to appear as a civilize d black man in the white world, he rejects these mementos of life at home almost instantly.The pressure to impress leads him quickly and ironically on the path toward invisibility. And as he finds, it is pretty easy for a black man to become invisible in white nightspot so long as he stays in form and pretends to agree with them. At the conclusion of the book, we see the narrator living beneath the city, occupying the sewers, with no one even aware of his existence- or inexistence. Though he once thought himself an outstanding member of the black race, the way his founder of cards has been played in the game of life has resulted in his plump down from superiority. For the narrator, past serves as a connection to his mistakes, his grandfather, and his racial roots. In denying this past, he has denied himself. He has gained true invisibility.