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摘 要
拉尔夫•埃里森是美国小说家、散文家、评论家。他凭借一部长篇小说《看不见的人》一跃成为当代美国重要作家之一。这部小说一经问世就得到文学界、评论界及政界的广泛关注。埃里森是一位黑人作家，它的《看不见的人》成功的跳出了黑人抗议小说的窠臼，成为美国小说的一部杰作，也标志着美国黑人文学创作进入了一个新的时期。
《看不见的人》是以一个没有身份的黑人青年的生活经历为代表，深层次的展现和透析美国社会黑人寻找认同的艰辛历程。本文将从主人公的不可见在其三段主要的人生经历即大学生活、纽约生活、兄弟会中的体现，进而分析造成主人公不可见的根本原因即种族歧视、黑人的自我迷失以及资本主义经济发展的影响。本文意在使读者了解到资本主义社会中黑人的存在及其价值，进而阐明在社会中个人的尊严和自我追求的重要性。
关键词：《看不见的人》 ； 黑人 ；种族歧视 ； 不可见
The Analysis of Root Cause of the Invisibility in Invisible Man
Abstract
Ralph•Ellison is an American novelist, essayist, short story writer, and critic. He has come to be recognized as one of the most important contemporary writers in America with the publication of his well-known novel Invisible Man. Ellison is an American black writer. The Invisible Man has been a success in American black culture. It simples that the American black's culture entering a new age.
Invisible Man narrates the life experience of a non-identity black youth. It profoundly analyzes much of the hardship in modern men's quest for identity. This paper will analyze the invisibility in the hero's three main life phases such as in college life, in New York and in the Brotherhood. Then will analyze how the racial discrimination, the self-loss of the hero and the fast development of the American influenced the invisibility of the hero. This paper just wants to let the reader know the existence value of the black man in the American capitalist society. Then it will expound the importance of living dignity and self-pursuit.
Key words: Invisible Man; black; racial discrimination; invisibility
Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................1
Part I Introduction to Ralph•Ellison and Invisible Man....................................2
1.1 The brief introduction to Ralph•Ellison..............................................2
1.2 The contents of Invisible Man .....................................................3
Part II Invisibility Reflected in Three Main Life Phases of the Hero....................5
2.1 Invisibility in University Life...........................................................5
2.2 Invisibility in New York.............................................................6
2.3 Invisibility in Brotherhood.............................................................7
Part III Root Causes of Invisibility of the hero.................................................9
3.1 Racial discrimination..................................................................9
3.2 Self-Loss of the hero........................................................................10
3.3 Economic development of capitalism................................................12
Conclusion.........................................................................................14
Acknowledgements...............................................................................15
Notes................................................................................................16
Bibliography..........................................................................................17
Introduction
Ralph•Ellison is an American novelist, essayist, short story writer, and critic. He is regarded as one of the most influential and accomplished American authors for this highly acclaimed novel. He has come to be recognized as one of the most important contemporary writers in America. The novel not only brings Ellison great honors at home, but also abroad.
This novel is a story about an educated young southern Negro who tries his best to be excellent but never achieve the personal success. He tries to be an honest black to please the white American with humility. He tries his best to search for a space in American industry to be a suitable "gear" of the "machine". He joins the Brotherhood to find the true himself but never find who he is. No matter where he turns to, someone is trying to make him invisible and disappear. He comes to realize that he is an invisible man and is rejected by the racial American society. When his entire dreams end, he sets him in a hidden basement. In this novel, the hero attempt to get self-realization. And this process to get self-realization is the process of his self-discovery. This process made the hero moves from naïve faith to full awareness of himself and of the society.
Invisible Man has been a success in American literature. Many scholars at home and abroad have studied its theme, symbols and images. Different people shares different opinions. But only a few people have studied the causes of the hero's invisibility. This thesis will focus on it.
This thesis is divided into three parts. Part one will give a brief introduction to Ralph•Ellison and his popular work Invisible Man. Part two will deal with the invisibility reflected in the hero's three main life phases. That is in college life, in New York and in the Brotherhood. Part three is the main body of this thesis. It will mainly discuss the root causes of the invisibility of the hero. Racial discrimination and self-loss and the economic development of the capitalism are the main causes in this analysis. This thesis will give focus on the root cause of the invisibility of the hero and will analyze it in detail.
Part I Introduction to Ralph•Ellison and Invisible Man
Invisible Man, the most important work of Ralph Ellison, has been regarded as one of the American classics and an epic which reflects the modern African-American life. Because of its unique themes and special styles, the novel has attracted great attention in the field of literary culture. In this chapter, some reviews on the author of Invisible man and several opinions on Invisible man are represented. Though the novel has been considerably interpreted and criticized from different perspectives, the analysis of root cause of the invisibility in Invisible Man has been little explored so far.
1.1 The brief introduction to Ralph•Ellison
Ralph•Ellison was one of the most popular black writers in the history of American literature and he was considered the father of African-American modernism. He had made a great of contribution both to African-American literature and the whole American literary creation.
In 1914, Ralph•Ellison was born in a black family in Oklahoma which country was located in the middle south of American. His father was Lewis Alfred. He was a building worker and smaller retailer. He named his son Ralph Waldo Ellison with the hope of making Ellison the successful man in literary. This action was out of the renowned American poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th century. His mother was a domestic servant who also hoped her son to be a successful person. She used to bring books to her son from the family she worked for. So Ralph Ellison was lost in different kinds of books at the young age. He tried his best to be excellent in every aspect of his life. In 1933, he attended the Tuskegee Institution which was called Tuskegee University at the present. He studied very hard in this institution and won a lot of prize. In 1936, he went to New York City to study carving. At that time, New York City was the cultural and literary center of African-American. Here he made a lot of friends including Richard Wright who gave him a lot of help in his work creation. In 1937, encouraged by Richard Wright Ellison wrote a critical article. Then Ellison began his literary career.
During the years from 1939 to 1944, Ellison published eight short stories among which two excellent stories were Flying Home and King of Bingo. This made Ellison became very famous in literary. As a matter of fact, all of his early writings have paved the way for creation of his masterpiece-Invisible Man.
Ellison spent fives on composing the Invisible Man. At that time, WWⅡwas over with the Nazi. However, real freedom, democracy and happiness had never blessed the American people. It is impossible to eliminate the conflicts of American society. On the contrary, literature, art and mentality were greatly influenced by the violence of Nazi Concentration camp and the destructive damage of atomic bomb. And at that time racial conflicts which had been covered by WWⅡnow became exposed more clearly. In the year 1947, there were about 530 persecutions by private measures in America. A group of particularly sensitive intellects felt a sense of crisis which aroused their rethinking and exploration of humanity, its value and meaning. Under this situation, Ellison wrote the work Invisible Man. |
