Abstract

The inequality between white Americans and African-Americans has long been one of the major problems in America and it has obstructed the development of America. After World War Two, more people became aware of the inequality and many literature works concerned with it and its reason were published. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison was also one of them. The book exposed the inequality and its reason by showing the invisibility of African-Americans and an analysis to the reasons of their invisibility could help reveal the reasons of inequality. Different characters mentioned in the book represent different identities and through the exploration to some of the identities and their problems, reasons for why African-Americans were invisible could be found. This thesis aims to explore the reasons why African-Americans were invisible through analyzing different identities mentioned in the novel and exposing the problems in those identities. African-Americans were invisible because white Americans refused to see them and they failed to find the real identity that could make them visible: some of them were constrained by the previous slave identity and some possessed an incomplete identity. White Americans were too arrogant and prejudiced to see them; some African-Americans were oppressed because of their previous slave identity and lost the ability or courage to fight for the equal real identity while some of them stuck to the slave identity and accepted inequality and invisibility willingly; other African-Americans abandoned important part of their real identity and lost the chance of being equal and visible. 

Keywords: reason; invisible; identity; African-American

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1. Introduction-1

1.1 Historical Background-1

1.2 Practical significance-1

1.3 Literature review-2

2. The Prejudiced White Americans-4

2.1-Arrogant white Americans-4

2.2-Hypocritical white Americans-4

3. Constrained African-Americans-5

3.1-Oppressed African-Americans-6

3.2-Slavish African-Americans-6

4. The Incomplete African-Americans-7

4.1-Flattering African-Americans-7

4.2-Radical African-Americans-8

5.-Case study——the Invisible Man-10

5.1-The invisible visible man-10

5.2-The visible invisible man-10

6.-Conclusion-11

Works Cited:-13