In Ralph Ellison (10) account of oppression and racism directed at African Americans in U.S. society in Invisible Man, the author tells us in an opening dream sequence, "I too have become acquainted with ambivalence," but in the epilogue he concludes he will "denounce and defends...condemn and affirmed, say no and say yes, say yes and say no...and hate and love" (579-580). The invisible man narrator adopts an ambivalent attitude toward many aspects of society, from separatism and communism to racism and institutes for blacks. The driving force of the narrator's ambivalence is that as a black man in a dominant white and racist culture, he remains a non-entity to most, including blacks and whites. As the narrator explains, "I am an invisible man" (Ellison 3). Living in a society that promotes equality and freedom during the Jim Crow era and other social hypocrisies leads to the narrator's ambivalent attitude toward everything from religion to protest. He finds Harlem merely a northern form of segregation, while striving to maintain his own code of virtues is what keeps him capable of both hate and love. This analysis will discuss the ambivalent attitude of the narrator in Invisible Man, showing the form and object of his ambivalence as he comes to understand his place as a black man in racist American society. A conclusion will address the significant of Ellison's work in modern times, in light of the recent election of the first African American President in U.S. history.
We see that the narrator in Invisible Man has suffered any manner of abuses due to living in a racist society where African Americans by law and in attitude are considered inferior or somehow not equal to whites. We see that the narrator has been so knocked around by these forces that it has made him ambivalent to what he finds as the hypocritical society he lives in and its institutions. The narrator tells us his "hole," his word for his r...