The Identity of Invisibility

Ralph Ellison’s novel begins with a simple statement, “I am an invisible man” (1). The narrator then goes on to describe his experience feeling literally invisible, his entire existence practically incomprehensible to anyone but himself. But a question arises when we see the slow onset of invisibility suddenly face a rapid progression in chapter 12 through a sickeningly intense electro-shock therapy session. As we see our narrator begin to lose himself and fall deeper and deeper into invisibility, does he lose his identity? Or does invisibility itself become his being?

Here, I’d like to argue that not only is invisibility a valid identity, but in fact, it is the only valid identity. Trapped on the operating table, our narrator thinks “I could no more escape than I could think of my identity. Perhaps, I thought, the two things are involved with each other. When I discover who I am, I’ll be free” (243). Our narrator is absolutely right at this moment. He finds his identity, through invisibility, and then he becomes free. Not only free physically, but over time, he will become free mentally too. Free from societal pressures and its identities, boxes that society shoves you into with little regard for proper fit. It is not invisibility then, but the societally defined identities that are false. Invisibility is the purest form of identity. It is the only way to completely define oneself, to understand oneself outside of the context of society. 

Even an aspect of identity as simple as a name ties down self-expression and existence. A name is, traditionally, given by parents and often follows societal trends. One child may grow up named, say, John Smith, and become attached to that name, hold a piece of their identity within it. But ultimately, that name is not self-expressed, it is an impure form of identity that has been forced upon the individual and it says absolutely nothing about them. There are millions of John Smiths in the world, they are all completely different, yet society can group them together on the basis of their names, a name is not an identity. We are never given a name for the narrator of Invisible Man. He forgets it in the paint factory accident and the ensuing experimentation on him in the hospital. By losing his name, the narrator of Invisible Man falls deeper into his invisibility, into an existence defined only by himself.

Comments

  1. MitchellSeptember 23, 2021 at 3:41 PM

    Given the narrator's "new identity" with the Brotherhood, which follows soon after this "loss of identity" in the hospital (where he literally can't remember his own name), I can't help but wonder what it means for identity when a name is *given* to someone, imposed on them. Is the Brotherhood handing the narrator a new identity? Does this name-change make him accountable to them in some way? Or can a "new" or imposed identity be a *real* identity?

    The discussion gets a little confusing when we consider the portrait of Douglass that Brother Tarp hangs in the narrator's office: as the narrator reflects, Douglass too came to the North (escaping slavery) and gave himself a new name. He was never known by his "slave name," and he's constructed a historically monumental identity for himself by renaming himself and reinventing himself as a free man and antislavery activist. The narrator, of course, doesn't rename *himself*, and maybe that's a significant difference. But we'd never want to say that Douglass's "slave name" was his *real* or authentic identity, and his new name is artificial or imposed. Like so much in this novel, it gets complicated!

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  2. Andy BSeptember 30, 2021 at 10:42 AM

    I definitely agree with your thoughts on the narrator feeling a sense of freedom when he is invisible. I also think embracing his invisibility allows him to greater develop a critical consciousness because he is better able to spectate situations and society without having to directly involve himself. Without all the pressures and ideas forced upon him by those who can see him, he's free to see for himself how society treats black people and him specifically. I think this goes along with your points on invisibility bein an identity, and finding who you truly are through invisibility.

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