The Idea Of Masking In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
Invisible Man Essay 1 – We Wear the Mask
Quite simply, everyone in the world wears a mask, and, in most cases, they wear multiple ones, switching between them freely, depending on their surroundings. It's needed in our day and age, just to survive. People, as a whole, as a society, will rip you to shreds if you happen to show yourself fully and openly, with absolutely no regard for the standards set by society. They stifle creativity, they smother originality, they crush anything that doesn't look, in the vaguest bit, like them. And, as such, you must mask yourself, your TRUE self, that is, from society, from all those you deem unable to see exactly who you are without judgment.
As this is true in our daily lives, it is also true in the literary world, one of the most profound examples of this truth being the very first chapter of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. In this chapter, the titular character finds that, because of his rather impressive speaking skills, (and because of the humbling content of his speech) …show more content…
Before the Battle Royale, the young teens are blindfolded by the white men, and then told to go and beat each other to a pulp. This sort of “mask” is used by Ellison as a metaphor, to represent the way that the white community “blindfolds” the African-American community, and manipulates them into doing what they want, be it with offers of reward, or with threats of violence, it is made quite clear that the white men of the town hold a sort of power over everyone else, as shown by their actions at the Battle Royale. Also, it is shown that by using these “masks,” the white men of the town are able to the African-American population down by promoting in-fighting. Once the teens are blindfolded, they strike, hit, and beat one another mercilessly, unable to see their actions, unable to see beyond the mask placed upon them to try and be a bigger
Quite simply, everyone in the world wears a mask, and, in most cases, they wear multiple ones, switching between them freely, depending on their surroundings. It's needed in our day and age, just to survive. People, as a whole, as a society, will rip you to shreds if you happen to show yourself fully and openly, with absolutely no regard for the standards set by society. They stifle creativity, they smother originality, they crush anything that doesn't look, in the vaguest bit, like them. And, as such, you must mask yourself, your TRUE self, that is, from society, from all those you deem unable to see exactly who you are without judgment.
As this is true in our daily lives, it is also true in the literary world, one of the most profound examples of this truth being the very first chapter of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. In this chapter, the titular character finds that, because of his rather impressive speaking skills, (and because of the humbling content of his speech) …show more content…
Before the Battle Royale, the young teens are blindfolded by the white men, and then told to go and beat each other to a pulp. This sort of “mask” is used by Ellison as a metaphor, to represent the way that the white community “blindfolds” the African-American community, and manipulates them into doing what they want, be it with offers of reward, or with threats of violence, it is made quite clear that the white men of the town hold a sort of power over everyone else, as shown by their actions at the Battle Royale. Also, it is shown that by using these “masks,” the white men of the town are able to the African-American population down by promoting in-fighting. Once the teens are blindfolded, they strike, hit, and beat one another mercilessly, unable to see their actions, unable to see beyond the mask placed upon them to try and be a bigger