看不见的人-Invisible-Man.docx

毕业论文

题 目 The Pathetic Negro — Analysis of
Protagonist’s Mentality in Invisible Man
专 业 英语语言文学___年级 2011级 _
学生姓名 Hyleehom
学 号 20103705 __
指导教师 周 云 川 　

2013-12

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可怜的黑人
——《看不见的人》中主人公的心理分析
专业：英语语言文学 姓名：hyleehom
指导教师：周云川

摘要：
美国黑人作家拉尔夫·艾里森的小说《看不见的人》出版于1952年，它讲述了一位在白人主宰的社会里,没有任何的社会地位，没有人承认他的存在的黑人青年，在自我探索的过程中遭遇各种挫折的悲惨故事。本文以黑人时代的背景和小说《看不见的人》的创作背景为前提，将主人公自我探索的心理状态分为积极、挣扎和绝望三个阶段，通过分析每个阶段主人公成长经历中的心理状态的表现，以及主人公对于自我认识的阶段性心理变化的原因，揭露出当时社会，黑人境况的困惑与命运的悲哀。

关键字：
《看不见的人》，黑人，困境，自我，探索

The Pathetic Negro
—— Analysis of Protagonist’s Mentality in Invisible Man

Major: English Language and Literature Name: hyleehom
Supervisor: Zhou Yunchuan

Abstract:
American Negro writer, Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man, published in 1952, tells a story that a black youngster, who is ignored by society in the white-dominated society, searches for who he is. And in his self-exploring, he encounters so many troubles. This paper, premised on Negro background and creating background of the novel, divides the process of the protagonist’s mentality into 3 stages — hope, struggle and desperation, and then analyzes the protagonist’s mental behaviors in his growing experiences and reasons why he shows the mental behaviors so as to draw a conclusion about the plight of Negro and the misery of their fate.

Key words:
Invisible Man; Negro; Plight; Self; Exploration

CONTENTS

Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………1
Chapter 1 Background……………………………………………………………………... …..2
1.1 Introduction of Negro 2
1.2 Creation Background of the Novel 2
Chapter 2 Stage with Hope……………………………………………………...................4
2.1 Behaviors with Hope 4
2.2 Reasons for His Behaviors 5
2.3 Conclusion of This Stage 6
Chapter 3 Stage in Struggle …….……………………………………………………………….8
3.1 Struggling Behaviors 8
3.2 Reasons for His Behaviors 9
3.2.1 Social Phenomenon 9
3.2.2 The Efforts and the Result 9
Chapter 4 Stage in Desperation ………………….…………………………………………….11
4.1 Desperate Behaviors 11
4.2 Reasons for His Behaviors 12
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………14

iii
The Pathetic Negro
—— Analysis of Protagonist’s Mentality in Invisible Man

Introduction
Ralph Ellison (1914 - 1994), is known as one of the most distinguished Black writers in the history of American literature. He is among the list of the most influential and successful writers, in the contemporary United States of America. In 1992, Ellison was awarded a special achievement award from the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. Ellison was also an accomplished sculptor, musician, photographer and college professor. He taught at Bard College, Rutgers University, the University of Chicago, and New York University. Ellison was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. Professor Margolies considers Invisible Man a recapitulation of the entire history of the Negro, presenting a view of life described by Ellison himself as blues. [1]
Invisible Man is a novel by Ralph Ellison, published by Random House in 1952. It addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing African-Americans early in the twentieth century, including black nationalism, the relationship between black identity and Marxism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T. Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity. Invisible Man won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction in 1953. [2] In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Invisible Man nineteenth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.[3]Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. [4]
This paper will analyze the protagonist’s mentality in self-exploring to discuss the main reasons why the Negro is pathetic.

Chapter 1
Background
1.1 Introduction of Negro
Since the 16th century, blacks had been sold as commodity from Africa to America and treated as slaves, which treaded their rights underfoot and was also a sad tragedy to all human. The blacks are considered as poor, lazy, dirty criminals and violent in the white’s eyes. And they are enslaved, oppressed and discriminated in the society. Firstly, the majority of blacks are deprived of the right to vote. Besides, they have to be normally engaged in the heavy and the most despised job, while their average wage is only one third or half of the white’s and they have the highest unemployment rate. In many states, they can not study in the same school with the white, not have meals in the same table with the white and not travel by the same bus or train. Moreover, the United States government, the Ku Klux Klan and other racists often arrest, torture and kill the blacks at will. There, the eleven states in southern United States, gathers about fifty percent blacks and their life being discriminated and persecuted is particularly appalling.
Invisible Man is just one of the black classic literatures in contemporary American which reflects the Negro issues.
1.2 Creation Background of the Novel
Published in 1952, Invisible Man explores the theme of man's search for his identity and place in society, as seen from the perspective of an unnamed black man in the New York City of the 1930s. In contrast to his contemporaries such as Richard Wright and James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison created characters that are dispassionate, educated, articulate, and self-aware. Through the protagonist, Ralph Ellison explores the contrasts between the Northern and Southern varieties of racism and their alienating effect. The narrator is "invisible" in a figurative sense, in that "people refuse to see" him, and also experiences a kind of dissociation. The novel, with its treatment of taboo issues such as incest and the controversial subject of communism, won the 1953 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction. [1]
Ralph Ellison says in his introduction to the 30th Anniversary Edition, that he started to write what would eventually become Invisible Man in a barn in Waitsfield, Vermont in the summer of 1945 while on sick leave from the Merchant Marine. The letters he wrote to fellow novelist Richard Wright as he started working on the novel provide evidence for its political context: the disillusion with the Communist Party that he and Wright shared. In a letter to Wright August 18, 1945, Ellison poured out his anger toward party leaders for betraying African Americans and Marxist class politics during the war years. "If they want to play ball with the bourgeoisie they needn't think they can get away with it.... Maybe we can't smash the atom, but we can, with a few well chosen, well written words, smash all that crummy filth to hell." [5] In the wake of this disillusion, Ellison began writing Invisible Man, a novel that was, in part, his response to the party's betrayal.

Chapter 2
Stage with Hope
2.1 Behaviors with Hope
The protagonist, a docile slave, has neither the name nor the identity at that time, because he is an American Negro. At the beginning, he is seventeen or eighteen years old. And for his successfully speech at high school’s commencement, the protagonist is invited to attend to prominent figures party. In fact, it is the informal men’s social assembly. To grab the chance to have a speech again, the protagonist joins in a Negro’s game — he and other Negro kids have to fight with each other. Putting up with the sufferings, he wins a briefcase as a prize. After that, he takes pride in the game. Furthermore, he believes he can succeed as long as he is hard-working. “I wanted to deliver my speech more than anything else in the world, because I felt that only these men could judge truly my ability, and now this stupid clown was ruining my chances.”[6] Obviously, his behavior tells that his ignorant hope comes from what he believes — obedience to the white.
When entering the Negro college, the protagonist wins recognition from Bledsoe, the headmaster, which seems perfect as he wishes. One day, the protagonist drives a car to Black area with a member of the white board of trustees of the college. On the way to the Black of the slave-quarter section, the protagonist takes the guest to a bar, where there is full of prostitutes and madmen. Owing to the ignominious side in Black of the slave-quarter section to be seen by the respected guest, unfortunately, the protagonist is expelled for disobeying school rules. Before Bledsoe expels him, the protagonist believes in the principles of the Founder with all his heart and soul, and that he believes in Bledsoe’s goodness and kindness in extending the hand of benevolence to helping poor, ignorant people out of the mire and darkness.[7] Bledsoe persuades him to find a job in North and writes a recommendation for him. And the protagonist appreciates what Bledsoe does for him. He even gives himself a reason that he should be punished to comfort himself. Then the protagonist does all what Bledsoe tells him. However, all he gets is the rejection. When he knows the fact of the recommendation letter in which Bledsoe writes — not to give the Negro any chance to get a job, he is fully confused and hurt. In short, his obedience to White and his humility show his ignorant hope; he sees the good in people and has too beautiful and unreal dream.
2.2 Reasons for His Behaviors
In Invisible Man，the American Dream has been a crucial factor leading to the protagonist’s psychological conflicts and his initiation．Although the blacks’ actual social status is low and living conditions are miserable, after they have been announced to be free, most of the African Americans still hold that they can rank among the mainstream society through their humiliation and diligence.[8]
As an intelligent, deeply introspective and highly gifted young man, the protagonist, without exception, surely has his own ideals and ambitions — he wants to be another“ Booker T．Washington” in the educational circle. He has been occupied with the dream throughout every stage of his initiation. Thus, all his behaviors and efforts are aiming at this target, which leads up to his habitual thinking and final disillusionment. At the beginning of the story, he and other black children are stripped their coats and blindfolded, picking up the coins in an electrified blanket. Thereafter, he will get a scholarship to a black school. As he imagines that his humility and hard-working will make him stand out in the crowd，he seems to have deeply devoted himself to a myth or a fairy tale. So he just obeys the rules the white set for his American dream.
The Negro's grandfather is a former slave, usually with humility and obedience. And his grandfather is respected by the black and appreciated by the white. The protagonist is also affected by his grandfather. At first, he wins the so-called “success” through his humility and obedience. After a series of events, he is always lost in thought about himself admitting his original nature and his grandfather’s last words about silent enduring. Besides, the cruelty of the reality prompts him to remember his grandfather’s admonition. Though he does not know the real intention of his grandfather, he decides to take some actions and test his advice. “ I’d overcome them with yeses, undermine them with grins. I’d agree them to death and destruction…I would hide my anger and lull them to sleep; assure them that the community was in full agreement with their program…”[6]
2.3 Conclusion of This Stage
As a black man, it is the invisible man who has been thinking about the problem how to find his own identity in the white dominated society. As the offspring of the former slaves，when he begins to relate his story, the protagonist concludes: “ I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed.’’[6] Obviously, the protagonist has realized the importance of his race and its tradition after he has experienced so much. As early as those pre-invisible days, the protagonist has visualized himself as a potential Booker T. Washington, so unconsciously he is ashamed of his race and the past. There is no doubt that in the Battle Royal episode, he “felt superior to them(other Black boys) in my way, and I didn’t like the manner in which we were all crowded together into the servants’ elevator.” [6]
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist even has no independent personality. His confusions are caused by his naive and ignorance. Under the influence of the White’s education, he always considers to cater for the White’s taste. Besides, he rejects to his own national culture. In the southern United States, at that time, the protagonist resigns himself to adversity. He accepts all insults and humiliations silently, in order to find a space for one person living in the existing social. The protagonist says:“ I was naive. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appear to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself”[6] Since suffering from much pain, he has to initiate to consider his own fate. Why is he who has such a terrible life? When he knows who Bledsoe really is, he makes a decision that he no longer depends on anybody. He feels the whole world neglect him and his life is filled with lies. This stage is his first step to his self-searching — he makes a decision that he will prove himself in his future job on his own.

Chapter 3
Stage in Struggle
3.1 Struggling Behaviors
Fortunately, the protagonist finds his first job in a paint factory by using another one’s name. There he is sent to make the paint whiter by putting ten drops of ‘black drop’ into white paint. However, the protagonist makes a mistake by adding the wrong black liquid. It is in the factory that the protagonist has learnt something about the reality:“ I had a feeling that something had gone wrong…either I had played a trick on Kimbro, my boss or he, like the trustees and Bledsoe, was playing one on me…”[6] It all goes to show that the invisible man is not ready to fight against the society, for he has not been awakened completely yet. After that, he goes to the furnace room. There he is wrongly guided for some reason, which leads to a boiler explosion. Later, the protagonist is sent to a hospital and a doctor carries an operation on his brain, which marks a turning point actually. When he wakes up, he remembers nothing. Moreover, he does not know who he is.
While the protagonist recovers from his operation, he lodges in a friendly Negro lady Mary’s home. The lady lives in New York, however, s