It was an era of racism, segregation and inequality during which Ralph Ellison and Malcolm X lived. Lacking equal protections in law comparable to Whites, African Americans endured second-class citizen status in American society during the first half of the twentieth century. Often subjected to prejudice and violence, African Americans like Ellison and Malcolm X formulated political ideologies to counteract the negative impact of such forces on African American identity and development. EllisonÆs ideology encourages a newfound awareness of Black identity that will enable to African American to emerge from his or her hibernation toward White injustice. Malcolm XÆs separatism eventually gave way toward Black unity and cooperation among races to end racism in American society, but for most of his life he encouraged any means necessary to combat White injustice. This analysis will compare and contrast the different political ideologies expressed in Invisible Man and The Autobiography of Malcolm X.
In both Invisible Man and The Autobiography of Malcolm X, we see that one of the biggest challenges for African Americans living in a racist society dominated by Whites is the struggle to define identity. In Invisible Man, we see that narrator initially adopts an identity forged by Southern Whites. Later in the novel we see him identity with and then reject the ideology of the Black Nationalist Group in Harlem. However, despite the optimism this membership initially offers him, the narrator ultimately rejects this identity. He discovers his identity has often been forced upon him, which makes him equally invisible to Blacks and Whites. As the narrator informs us near the end of the work, ôI was simply a material, a natural resource to be used. I had switched from the arrogant absurdity of Norton and Emerson to that of Jack and the Brotherhood, and it all came out the sameùexcept I now recognized my invisibilityö (Ellison 508)...