The Second Personality: The Use of The Mask in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

‫‪Wasan H.
Ibrahim‬‬ ‫ﻤﺠﻠﺔ ﻜﻠﻴﺔ ﺍﻻﺩﺍﺏ ‪ /‬ﺍﻟﻌﺩﺩ ‪٩٨‬‬
‫‪THE SECOND PERSONALITY:‬‬

‫‪THE USE OF THE MASK IN‬‬
‫‪RALPH ELLISON'S INVISIBLE MAN‬‬
‫‪By : Wasan H. Ibrahim‬‬
‫‪Assisstant Instructor‬‬
‫‪ ‬‬
‫‪ ‬‬
‫‪ ‬‬
‫‪ ‬‬
‫‪ ‬‬
‫ﯾﺘﻨﺎول اﻟﺒﺤ ﺚ ﻣﻮﺿ ﻮع اﻟﻘﻨ ﺎع و أﺳ ﺘﺨﺪاﻣﮫ ﻓ ﻲ اﻟﺮواﯾ ﺔ اﻷﻣﺮﯾﻜﯿ ﺔ اﻟﺤﺪﯾﺜ ﺔ‪.‬‬
‫ﻓﺎﻟﻘﻨﺎع ﺣﺮﻓﯿﺎً ھﻮ ﻏﻄ ﺎء ﯾ ﺮاد ﺑ ﮫ أﺧﻔ ﺎء اﻟﻮﺟ ﮫ‪ ،‬و ﻣﺠ ﺎزاً ھ ﻮ أﺧﻔ ﺎء اﻟ ﺬات اﻟﺤﻘﯿﻘﯿ ﺔ‬
‫ﻟﻸﻧﺴﺎن و أﺑﺮازِ ذاتٍ ﺛﺎﻧﯿﺔ ﻻﺗﻤﺖ ﻟﻸوﻟﻰ ﺑﺼﻠﺔ‪ .‬و أﺣﺪى أﻏ ﺮاض اﻟﻘﻨ ﺎع ھ ﻮ ﻛﻮﻧ ﮫ‬
‫وﺳﯿﻠﺔً ﻟﻠﺪﻓﺎع ﻋﻦ اﻟﺬات اﻷوﻟﻰ ﻣﻦ أﯾﺔ ﻗﻮة ﺧﺎرﺟﯿﺔ ﻗﺪ ﺗﺴﺒﺐ اﻷذى‪.‬‬
‫ﯾﻌﺪ اﻷﻓﺎرﻗﺔ اﻷﻣﺮﯾﻜﯿﻮن اﻟﺬﯾﻦ ﯾﻘﻄﻨﻮن اﻟﻮﻻﯾﺎت اﻟﻤﺘﺤﺪة اﻷﻣﺮﯾﻜﯿﺔ أﺑﺮز ﻣﺜﺎلٍ‬
‫ﯾﺼﻮر ﻛﺒﺖ اﻟﻤﺸﺎﻋﺮ ﻟﻠﺪﻓﺎع ﻋﻦ ذاﺗﮭﻢ أﻣﺎم ﻣﺎ ﺗﻌﺮﺿﻮا ﻟﮫ ﻣﻦ أﺳﺎءة و ﻣﺎ ﻋﺎﻧﻮه ﻣﻦ‬
‫ﻇﻠﻢ و ﻋﺬاب‪.‬‬
‫ﯾﺘﺨ ﺬ اﻟﺒﺤ ﺚ ﻣ ﻦ اﻟﺮﺟ ﻞ اﻟﺨﻔ ﻲ ﻓ ﻲ رواﯾ ﺔ راﻟ ﻒ أﻟﯿﺴ ﻮن و اﻟﺘ ﻲ ﺗﺤﻤ ﻞ ذات‬
‫اﻷﺳﻢ ﻣﺜﺎﻻً ﻟﺘﻠﻚ اﻟﺸﺨﺼﯿﺔ ‪ .‬ﻓﮭﻮ ﯾﺘﺨﺬ ﻣﻦ اﻟﻘﻨﺎع ﻣﻼذاً ﯾﺤﻤﯿ ﮫ ﻣ ﻦ ﻋ ﺬاﺑﺎت اﻟﻤﺠﺘﻤ ﻊ‬
‫ﻟﻘﺎء ﻣﺎ ﯾﺘﻌﺮض ﻟﮫ ﻣﻦ أھﺎﻧﮫ و ﻣﺎﯾﺠﯿﺶ ﻓ ﻲ داﺧﻠ ﮫ ﻣ ﻦ ﺻ ﺮاعٍ و أﻟ ﻢ ﻣﻤ ﺎ دﻓﻌ ﮫ اﻟ ﻰ‬
‫ﺑﻨﺎء ﺟﺪارٍ ﺑﯿﻦ اﻟﻮﻋﻲ و اﻟﻼوﻋﻲ ﻓﻲ ﺻﺮاﻋﮫ ﻣﻦ أﺟﻞ اﻟﺒﻘ ﺎء ﻓﺄوﺟ ﺪ ذاﺗ ﺎً ﺛﺎﻧﯿ ﺔ ﻏﯿ ﺮ‬
‫ذاﺗﮫ و ﺧﻠﻖ أﻗﻨﻌﺔً ﻷﺧﻔﺎء ذاﺗﮫ اﻟﺤﻘﯿﻘﯿﺔ‪.‬‬
‫‪٣٢‬‬
Wasan H. Ibrahim ٩٨ ‫ ﺍﻟﻌﺩﺩ‬/ ‫ﻤﺠﻠﺔ ﻜﻠﻴﺔ ﺍﻻﺩﺍﺏ‬
‫ ﻟﻜﻨﮫ ﻟ ﯿﺲ ﺧﻔﯿ ﺎً ﺑ ﺎﻟﻤﻌﻨﻰ اﻟﻤ ﺎدي و اﻧﻤ ﺎ ﺑ ﺎﻟﻤﻌﻨﻰ اﻟﻤﺠ ﺎزي‬،‫ﻓﮭﻮ اﻟﺮﺟﻞ اﻟﺨﻔﻲ‬
،‫ﻷن اﻵﺧ ﺮﯾﻦ ﻣﻤ ﻦ ﺣﻮﻟ ﮫ ﻻ ﯾﺴ ﺘﻄﯿﻌﻮن رؤﯾﺘ ﮫ ﺑﻌ ﺪ أن أﻋﻤ ﺎھﻢ اﻟﺘﻌ ﺎﻟﻲ و اﻟﺤﻘ ﺪ‬
‫ وھ ﻮ اﻟﺮﺟ ﻞ اﻟ ﺬي‬.‫ﻓﺄﺣﺘﻀﻦ ﺑ ﺪوره ذﻟ ﻚ اﻟﻘﻨ ﺎع وأﻣﺴ ﺘﺪ ﻣ ﻦ ﻻوﺟ ﻮده اﻟﻘ ﻮة و اﻟﺜﻘ ﺔ‬
‫ﯾﻘﻮل "ﻧﻌﻢ" أﻣﺎم اﻟـ "ﻻ" اﻟﺘﻲ ﺗﺘﺼﺎرع ﻓﻲ داﺧﻠﮫ ﻓﺄﺗﺨ ﺬ ﻣ ﻦ ﻗﺒﻮﻟ ﮫ ﻗﻨﺎﻋ ﺎً ﻟﻠ ﺪﻓﺎع ﻋ ﻦ‬
‫ وھﻮ اﻟﺮﺟﻞ ذو اﻟﻮﺟﮫ اﻟﻤﺒﺘﺴﻢ ﻣُﺨﻔﯿﺎً ﺑﺬﻟﻚ وﺟﮭ ﮫ اﻟﺤ ﺰﯾﻦ و دﻣﻮﻋ ﮫ‬،‫ﻋﻤﻠﮫ ودراﺳﺘﮫ‬
‫ ﻣﺘﺨﺬاً ﻣﻦ اﻷﻧﻔ ﺎق ﻣ ﻼذاً أﺑ ﺪﯾﺎً ﻟﯿ ﺪاﻓﻊ‬،‫ و أﺧﯿﺮاً ھﻮ رﺟﻞ اﻷﻧﻔﺎق‬.‫ﻟﻠﺪﻓﺎع ﻋﻦ أﻧﺴﺎﻧﯿﺘﮫ‬
‫ و ﻟﺘﻌﻄﯿﻞ‬،‫ﻋﻦ وﺟﻮده أﻣﺎم ﻣﺠﺘﻤﻊٍ ﻓﺸﻞ ﻓﻲ ﻣﻨﺢ ﻣﻮاﻃﻨﯿﮫ ﻣﺒﺎدئ ﻓﺎﻋﻠﺔ ﯾﻤﻜﻦ أدراﻛﮭﺎ‬
.‫ﻋﺎﻟﻤﮫ اﻟﺬي ﯾﺘﺴﻢ ﺑﺎﻟﻔﻮﺿﻰ و اﻟﺘﻌﺬﯾﺐ‬
Introduction:
The mask is a cover or external layer for the face or head
used as a disguise. It hides the identity of a person in order to
establish another being. It is the appearance that is distinct
from the underlying true personality. The word persona is used
to describe this layer. Persona is also the name used in ancient
Greece for theatrical masks worn by actors to indicate
emotions. Different masks or roles can be assumed depending
upon the context. The American psychologist Gordon Allport
wrote:
The terms personality in English, personalite in

French, and personlichkeit in German closely resemble
the personalitas of medieval Latin. In classical Latin
persona alone was used. All scholars agree that this
word originally meant mask. (Allport, ١٩٦١: ٢٥)
However, masks have been worn from time immemorial

throughout the world. They are used by primitive peoples
chiefly to impersonate supernatural beings or animals in
religious and magical ceremonies. Particularly notable are the
٣٣
masks of western and central Africa; the wooden masks of the

Native Americans of north-western America, which sometimes
represented totemic animals; the False Face Society of the
Iroquois, whose masked dancers were thought to ward off evil
spirits.
Thus, one of the self-masking purposes is the defense
mechanism. This mechanism can be defined as the method by
which an individual protects himself/herself from an outside
harmful force.
The defense mechanism is the agency by which
individuals from birth begin to protect themselves and it
becomes complex as their lives grows more difficult.
Therefore, the fighting or fleeing can be replaced by denial,
avoidance, and the creation of an exterior personality, for
example, the smile that everyone sees instead of fear or pain.
The African-Americans of the United States are prime
examples of how emotions can be repressed. This group of
people was treated with such disrespect and humiliation that it
is understandable why they would mask their true emotions in
an attempt to defend themselves.
Writers and civil rights advocates such as Frederick
Douglass, Booker T. Washington and W.E. B. Du Bois began
paving the way for African Americans between the late ١٨٠٠'s
and early ١٩٠٠'s. The American novelist Ralph Ellison
continued this attempt in a restless and violent period with his
١٩٥٢ novel Invisible Man. This time period was filled with
turbulent racial relations and hate crimes.
This study deals with the struggle of Ellison's Invisible
Man for existence through creating his second personality. His
٣٤
masquerade life is the result of other people's hatred and

prejudice in a society that fails to provide his citizens with
active principles. Thus, the Invisible Man masks his true self to
disable his chaotic and torturing world.
Racism and Self-Masking:

Ralph Ellison's essential dialectic is of face and race. His
culture is formed in the continuous struggle between individual
impulse and traditional imperative, between difference and
identity. And so the process of self-delineation is for Ellison
inextricably interwoven with the confirmed end of that process,
a tradition of achieved selfhood. If, as Ellison said that there is
"no scapegoat but the self," (Ellison, ١٩٩٥: ٩٤) we must
engage the obligations of the colored "familial past." (Ibid:
١٤٨)
Racism in the United States has been a major issue since
the colonial era. Racial stratification has occurred in
employment, housing, education and government. In colonial
America, before slavery became completely based on racial
lines, thousands of African slaves served European colonists,
alongside other Europeans serving a term of indentured
servitude. Slaves were used as a labor force in agricultural
production, shipyards, docks, and as domestic servants.
Although the Constitution had banned the importation of
new African slaves in ١٨٠٨, and in ١٨٢٠ slave trade was
equated with piracy, punishable by death, the practice of
chattel slavery still existed for the next half century. All slaves
in only the areas of the Confederate States of America that
were not under direct control of the United States government
٣٥
were declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation, which

was issued on January ١, ١٨٦٣ by President Abraham Lincoln.
However, the Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to
areas loyal to, or controlled by, the Union, thus the document
only freed slaves where the Union still had not regained the
legitimacy to do so. Slavery was not actually abolished in the
United States until the passage of the ١٣th Amendment which
was declared ratified on December ٦, ١٨٦٥.
Nevertheless, post-emancipation America was not free
from racism; discriminatory practices continued in the United
States with the existence of educational disparities and
widespread criminal acts against colored people.
Racism minimizes the individual and robs him of an
identity. Thus, self-masking or the creation of second
personality is a means of protecting one's inner personality.
The Black are obliged to create a mask or a role which negates
their identities in the interest of conforming to cultural values.
But, according to Geoffrey Galt Harpham, the mask that
creates a second personality inaugurates a progression that ends
with the annihilation of the self because the mask drains the
self and absorbs its essence.
Yet, W. E. B. Du Bois discusses that the African
American has double consciousness that makes him have to
deal with his dual personality as an American and a Negro:
...two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two
warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone
keeps it from being torn asunder. (Du Bois, ١٩٠٣: ٢)
٣٦
Du Bois suggests that if the Negro does not merge his

two personalities, then he is forced to either "bleach [his]
Negro soul," or "Africanize America." (Ibid)
This idea is the core of Ellison's famous novel Invisible
Man. Nearly thirty years after the publication of his novel,
Ellison returned to write about it in the introduction in which
he further sheds light about what he perceived to be the task
and purpose of his work. He recalls that while writing the
novel, working hours of the day in his home at a white
neighborhood, his neighbors became uncomfortable with his
presence. His "indefinite status," (Ellison, ١٩٨٢: ix) he says,
made people uncomfortable because they could not label him
as this or that. They could not define him and make him fit
within a neat package, he was a mystery. In this unlabeled
status, he has difficulty "seeing himself" because he too cannot
define his role, he is a man of "two worlds." (Ellison, ١٩٨٢:
xiii-xiv) This dual world is the underlying subtext of his novel.
Ellison says:
[M]y task was one of revealing the human universals
hidden within the plight of one who was both black and
American, and not only as a means of conveying my
personal vision of possibility, but as a way of dealing
with the sheer rhetorical challenge involved in
communicating across barriers of race and religion, class,
color and region –barriers which consist of function, to
prevent what would otherwise have been a more or less
natural recognition of the reality of black and white
fraternity. (Ellison, ١٩٨٢: xxii)
٣٧
The intricate issues that Ellison's discusses deal with the

complexities of the human mind, cultural integration, and the
survival of an individual's personality on a multifaceted level.
Thus, returning to Ellison's dialectic of face and race,
Emmanuel Levinas explains the significance of the face in his
Ethics and Infinity:
The face is signification, and signification without
context, …. And all the signification in the usual sense of
the term is relative to such a context: the meaning of
something is in its relation to another thing. Here, to the
contrary, the face is meaning all by itself. You are you.
In this sense one can say that the face is not 'seen.' It is
what cannot become a content, which your thought
would embrace; it is uncontainable, it leads you beyond.
It is in this that the signification of the face makes it
escape from being, as a correlate of the knowing…. The
face is what one cannot kill. (Levinas , ١٩٨٥: ٨٦-٨٧)
Levinas explains that the face has meaning, purpose, and

identity in itself without the need of the context of culture,
lifestyle, and race. Its definition is not confined to preset
characteristics and feature of a group. When individuals see
and judge others' faces by applying the preset definitions of
their context or race, they fail to see the person. By deriving
one definition for each ethnic group, the individual is killed
when his face is not important. The reduction of individual's
humanity to a set of preconceived characteristics dismembers
the face because of the creation of a conglomeration of a race
and a culture.
٣٨
Thus, Ellison sees the adoption of the mask by Blacks as

being as much in tune with American culture as it is the result
of cultural alienation:
Very often, however, the Negro's masking is
motivated not so much by fear as by a profound rejection
of the image created to usurp his identity. …. …. We
wear the mask for the purpose of aggression as well as
for defense; when we are projecting the future and
preserving the past. (Ellison, ١٩٩٥: ٥٥)
And in this context, Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s most

famous poem “We Wear the Mask,” should be recalled. In this
poem, Dunbar describes the harsh reality of the black race in
America and how they hide their grief, sadness, and broken
hearts under a mask for a defensive and survival strategy
towards whites:
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
Thus by negating the Negro's humanity, the Negro has to create

a new personality and a new face, that is, to wear a mask.
The Masks of the Invisible Man:

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is the story of an educated
black man who has been oppressed and controlled by white
men throughout his life. As the narrator, he is nameless
throughout the novel as he journeys from the South, where he
٣٩
studies at an all-black college, to Harlem where he joins a

Communist-like party known as the Brotherhood. Throughout
the novel, the narrator is in everyday self defense facing racial
minds filled with hatred and disrespect.
The narrator's life is filled with constant eruptions of
mental traumas. The biggest psychological burden he has is his
personality. The Invisible Man, the unidentified, anonymous
narrator of Ralph Ellison feels "wearing on the nerves"
(Ellison, ١٩٥٢: ٣) for people to see him as what they like to
believe he is and not see him as what he really is. Throughout
his life, he takes on several different personalities (masks). He
is the invisible man, the yes man, the grinning man and the
underground man.
١. Invisibility.
Invisibility is usually taken to the extreme effect of truly
being transparent, unseen by anyone. In Ralph Ellison's The
Invisible Man this view of invisibility is turned around so that a
man is in plain sight of everyone but to a lack of observation
nobody recognizes what he accomplishes.
The narrator describes his invisibility by saying, “I am
invisible … simply because people refuse to see me.”
Throughout the Prologue, the narrator likens his invisibility to
such things as “the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus
sideshows.” He later explains that he is “neither dead nor in a
state of suspended animation,” but rather is “in a state of
hibernation.” (Ellison, ١٩٥٢: ٣-٥) This invisibility is something
that the narrator has come to accept and even embrace, saying
٤٠
that he “did not become alive until [he] discovered [his]

invisibility.” (Ibid: ٦)
The initial articulation of invisibility comes from a
ferociously articulate, manic-depressive veterinarian – a patient
from the local insane asylum- who originally met the Invisible
Man during his odyssey with the trustee. They meet again on a
bus heading north, the veterinarian escorted by an attendee,
Crenshaw, who is facilitating his transfer to a new psychiatric
hospital, the Invisible Man launching his solo odyssey to New
York. The vet knowingly cajoles the youngster about the
circumstances of his departure, then turns serious:
He winked. His eyes twinkled. "All right, forget what I've

said. But for God's sake, learn to look beneath the surface," he
said. "Come out of the fog, young man. And remember you
don't have to be a complete fool in order to succeed. Play the
game, but don't believe in it - that much you owe yourself.
Even if it lands you in a strait jacket or a padded cell. Play the
game, but play it your own way - part of the time at least. Play
the game, but raise the ante, my boy. Learn how it operates,
learn how you operate - I wish I had time to tell you only a
fragment. We're an ass-backward people, though. You might
even beat the game. It's really a very crude affair. Really pre-
Renaissance - and that game has been analyzed, put down in
books. But down here they've forgotten to take care of the
books and that's your opportunity. You're hidden right out in
the open - that is, you would be if you only realized it. They
wouldn't see you because they don't expect you to know
anything, since they believe they've taken care of that.
٤١
"Man, who's this they you talking so much about?" said

Crenshaw.
The vet looked annoyed. "They?" he said. "They? Why, the
same they we always mean, the white folks, authority, the
gods, fate, circumstances - the force that pulls your strings until
you refuse to be pulled any more. The big man who's never
there, where you think he is" (Ibid: ١٢٧).
To be "hidden right out in the open" becomes the cardinal

existential dimension of the Invisible Man's experience. His
initial oration, which occurs among a group of African-
Americans watching an eviction with mounting anger, uses the
imperative "Look" in nearly every sentence: it is as if, the
Invisible Man suggests, we do not really see what is taking
place as this octogenarian couple is thrown out on the streets.
Invisibility is intimate with race, but this is not apprehended by
whites. Hence the following exchange between the Invisible
Man and the leader of the Brotherhood, Jack, when they
initially meet and discuss the eviction:
"But you were concerned with that old couple," he said with
narrowed eyes. "Are they relatives of yours?" "Sure, we're both
black," I said, beginning to laugh. He smiled, his eyes intense
upon my face.
"Seriously, are they your relatives?"
"Sure, we were burned in the same oven," I said.
The effect was electric. "Why do you fellows always talk
in terms of race!" he snapped, his eyes blazing.
"What other terms do you know?" I said, puzzled. "You
think I would have been around there if they had been
٤٢
white?"
He threw up his hands and laughed. "Let's not argue that
now," he said. (Ibid: ٢٤١)
The Invisible Man's ensuing work for the Brotherhood

involves a complete makeover: a new name, new clothing, and
a new situation. It appears to transform him into a visible
presence in the world. Initially inspired by this prospect, the
Invisible Man thinks that he can "glimpse the possibility of
being more than a member of a race" (Ibid: ٢٩٢). His
experience of community organizing initially confirms this
expectation, but with the important twist that the identity that
brooks invisibility is external to him: "My new name was
getting around. Things are so unreal for them normally that
they believe that to call a thing by name is to make it so. And
yet I am what they think I am ..." (Ibid: ٣١٢). And this sense
appears to be confirmed as success breeds success: speeches,
newspaper articles, parades, delegations - the Brotherhood
publicizes its new sibling, and he becomes a figure on the
street. They are "days of certainty ... it was the one
organization in the while country in which I could reach the top
and I meant to get there" (Ibid: ٣١٣).
In a similar sense, the narrator was given an identity while
working at the Liberty Paint factory. Upon first meeting Lucius
Brockway, another worker, Lucius only thought of the narrator
as a threat to his (Lucius’) job. Despite the narrator’s constant
explanation of merely being sent to assist Lucius, Brockway
repeatedly questioned the narrator on what his purpose was in
being there. During Brockway’s questioning, not once did he
٤٣
ask what the narrator’s name was. To Brockway, the only thing
that was important was that the narrator was nothing more than
a threat. Identity is only in the reflection of the immediate
surrounding that viewers can relate. In this particular case, the
narrator’s identity is derived from Brockway’s perception of
him (the narrator) being a threat.
A person’s identity is never the same, in comparison to the
many people that view that person. This is something that the
narrator recognizes but does not fully understand. While at the
University, the narrator was only a petty “black educated fool”
(Ibid: ١١٨) in the eyes of Dr. Bledsoe. At the same time, Mr.
Norton (a white trustee of the university) saw the narrator as
being an object, who along with his “people, were somehow
closely connected with [his (Mr. Norton’s)] destiny.” (Ibid: ٣٤)
To the members of the Brotherhood, the narrator is only what
they have designed him to be: someone who “[was] not hired
to think,” but to speak only when ordered to do so by the
committee who “makes [his] decisions.” (Ibid: ٣٨٥-٣٨٧)
By joining the Brotherhood, the narrator was given an
opportunity to re-invent himself as a leader and as someone to
be honored. As he gained fame and notoriety for his inspiring
speeches, the narrator begins to take this new identity that has
been given to him and make something of it. However, he soon
realizes that what he is being recognized for and what people
are expecting of him, is not truly for him—but rather for his
false identity that was given to him. His new identity has
placed him in the center of thousands of people’s attention, yet
he is unseen; in the brotherhood of thousands of brothers, “that
sense … of being apart,” (Ibid: ٣٢٥) was still with him.
٤٤
This new visibility is challenged in the remarkable

sequence of events in the novel in which Clifton, a heroic
figure within the Brotherhood who defects, subsequently
appears on the street performing dances with little black Sambo
puppets. Manipulated with invisible strings, they are identified
by at least one member of the crowd with the Invisible Man as
speaker for the Brotherhood, "I saw a short pot-bellied man
look down, then up at me with amazement and explode with
laughter, pointing from me to the doll, rocking. People backed
away from me." (Ibid: ٣٥٦) The Invisible Man's visibility is
severely compromised in the ensuing events, in which Clifton
is brutally murdered by a policeman and everything begins to
unravel for our narrator.
The funeral is followed immediately by a meeting with the
Brotherhood. The Brotherhood gets mad at the narrator for
publicly protesting Tod Clifton’s death without their
permission. The Brotherhood makes it clear to the narrator that
they hired him not think but only to talk. This truly symbolizes
how the narrator’s joining of the Brotherhood does not help
him grow as an individual. He couldn’t have his own opinions,
he couldn’t even think for himself. The narrator never gains
any power by being a part of the Brotherhood; he only gives
the Brotherhood more control over himself. In the course of a
tempestuous meeting, Brother Jack's false eye pops out and it
serves as a talisman for the Invisible Man's growing realization
that he is, in fact, unseen by the Brotherhood. Their rhetoric
about "the new society" makes him wonder, "what kind of
society will make him see me." (Ibid: ٣٩١), and leads him, at
the conclusion of their meeting, to respond to Jack's declared
٤٥
hope that the Invisible Man will never lose an eye to the cause
with a punning remark: "If it should, maybe you'll recommend
me to your oculist ... then I may not-see myself as others see-
me-not" (ibid).
The Invisible Man's dispossession by the Brotherhood -
his own return to invisibility - is completed subsequently when,
attempting to travel through Harlem incognito to avoid attacks
by those opposed to the Brotherhood, he is commonly taken to
be "Rinehart." Merely by donning a wide hat and dark glasses;
prostitutes, drug users and devout churchgoers alike mistake
him for the unknown Rinehart. Pimp, numbers man, gun
runner, and pastor, Rinehart is everyman and no man: but he is
visible in the Invisible Man. The emergence of Rinehart
suggests on the micro-level: that identity is at least as much
corporate as individual. Those who get close enough and look
hard enough readily see that the Invisible Man is not Rinehart,
but their number is small compared to those who are fooled. "If
dark glasses and a white hat could blot out my identity so
quickly, who actually was who?" asks the Invisible Man (Ibid:
٤٠٥). Once again, as with the Sambo dolls, the Invisible Man is
overwhelmed by an insight that turns his world topsy-turvy:
It was too much for me. I removed my glasses and

tucked the white hat carefully beneath my arm and
walked away. Can it be, I thought, can it actually be?
And I knew that it was. I had heard of it before but I'd
never come so close. Still, could he be all of them: Rine
the runner and Rine the gambler and Rine the briber and
Rine the lover and Rinehart the Reverend? . What is
٤٦
real anyway? But how could I doubt it? It was true as I

was true. His world was possibility and he knew it. He
was years ahead of me and I was a fool (Ibid: ٤٠٩).
Rinehart presents the Invisible Man with the paradox of

invisibility: the one who is visible is readily mistaken for the
one who is not. Race enters the picture in the important sense
that, with the right hat and some dark glasses, all African
American men look alike when people do not look closely.
Invisibility and race reach their most acute and intimate
formulation in the novel in the final, violent confrontation
between the Invisible Man and Ras the Exhorter. Ras, a
Caribbean who appears throughout the novel, is a street orator
exorting racial solidarity and the overthrow of the white social
order. Ras is deeply disaffected by the Brotherhood's Invisible
Man because his rhetoric follows Jack's in deemphasizing the
importance of race. At this late point in the novel, in the midst
of rioting throughout Harlem, the Invisible Man - having
dropped his Rinehart "disguise" – inadvertently encounters Ras
and his followers on a chaotic street. Ras is on a horse, spear in
hand, leading a crowd and he calls for them to hang the
Invisible Man. The Invisible Man begins to argue back, but
then reflects:
I stood there, knowing that by dying, that by being

hanged by Ras on this street in this destructive night, I
would perhaps move them one fraction of a bloody step
closer to a definition of who they were and of what I was
and had been. But the definition would have been too
٤٧
narrow; I was invisible, and hanging would not bring me

to visibility, even to their eyes, since they wanted my
death not for myself alone but for the chase I'd been on
all my life; because of the way I'd run, been run, chased,
operated, purged - although to a great extent I could have
done nothing else, given their blindness (didn't they
tolerate both Rinehart and Bledsoe?) and my invisibility.
And that I, a little black man with an assumed name
should die because a big black man in his hatred and
confusion over the nature of a reality that seemed
controlled solely by white men whom I knew to be as
blind as he, was just too much, too outrageously absurd.
And I knew that it was better to live out one's own
absurdity than to die for that of others, whether for Ras's
or Jack's. (Ibid: ٤٦٠)
Invisibility ultimately encompasses racial difference. It is

clear that the Invisible Man's blackness makes him more
keenly attuned to the problem of invisibility than are his
counterparts in their whiteness.
Yet, the narrator decides to make use of his
invisibility."Power doesn't have to show off. Power is
confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-
warming and self-justifying. When you have it you know it"
(Ibid: ١١٨) which is stated by the school's Principal Dr.
Bledsoe. The first portion of the quote is Bledsoe's idea of
invisibility and what the narrator will eventually learn which is
that having power and invisibility can coincide with each other.
That is why the narrator has become invisible: because “after
٤٨
years of trying to adopt the opinions of others [he] finally

rebelled. [He is the] invisible man.” (Ibid: ٤٧٢) It is at this
point that he invokes his grandfather, the ex-slave:
Perhaps that makes me a little bit as human as my
grandfather. Once I thought my grandfather incapable of
thoughts about humanity, but I was wrong. Why should
an old slave use such a phrase as, “This and this or this
has made me more human,” as I did in my arena speech?
Hell, he never had any doubts about his humanity – that
was left to his “free” offspring. He accepted his
humanity just as he accepted the principle. It was his,
and the principle lives on in all its human and absurd
diversity. (Ibid: ٤٧٧)
٢. “[O]vercome [th]em with yeses, undermine [th]em with

grins”
Ellison argued that the best way to be free was to start
living as though you were free. One reoccurring idea in his
novels is how to know when to say “yes” and when to say
“no.” In Invisible Man, the first time this occurs is when his
grandfather, an ex-slave, attempted to give the narrator advice
about how to view the world in which they live. In this speech,
his grandfather advises him to “overcome 'em with yeses,
undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction,
let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.” (Ibid:
١٤) What this could possibly mean to the Invisible Man
remained a mystery throughout the novel until the epilogue
when he refers back to his grandfather.
٤٩
First, it is necessary to examine to whom the grandfather

refers when he says “‛em” or “them.” In this case, “them” are
the white Americans that seem to be ruling the way that men
view the world. The grandfather suggests that his grandson
should say “yes” when white men demand something of him
but only to a degree. The act of saying “yes” seems to lead to
the white man's destruction when his grandfather adds "to
death" at the end of this phrase. Or it could lead to the black
man's elevation. By saying “yes,” it seems to be allowing white
men to rule you. It seems to be teaching whites that black men
are willing or even happy as their servants. Instead of slavery,
white men could view yes-ing them as the black man's way of
consenting to their subservient status. For the grandfather, this
was not so. Yes-ing them was a means of survival. In a world
that saw blacks as inferior, striking against it would only leave
them unemployed, poor and hungry. Thus he has to say " 'yes'
against the nay-saying of [his] stomach." (Ibid: ٤٧١)
The most recognizable symbol of this yes and no in the
novel is Brother Tarp's -a member of the Brotherhood- leg
chain. Tarp was put in prison for saying "no to a man who
wanted to take something" from him, and he gives the twisted
shackle to the narrator. When Tarp tells the narrator it has “a
heap of signifying wrapped up in it and it might help you
remember what we're really fighting against.” (Ibid: ٣١٩), he
means a heap of significance, but also a heap of self-assertion
against oppression, and of turning a symbol of oppression
around into a symbol of combat. It signifies “two words, yes
and no,” Tarp says (Ibid)—taking hold of the physical forces
that say "no" and using them to speak one’s own "yes". A
٥٠
“yes” demonstrates one’s ability to rise above one’s terrible

situation. It demonstrates black man's determination not to give
up and to continue surviving.
Grinning has the same task. Laughter is a survival mode
for the mind and spirit. It is a reflex and a response to not only
jokes but also to fear, anxiety, and disbelief. Laughter can also
be almost medicinal, as the subconscious that deals with all
life's problems and decides that it has had enough.
Laughter is a central mask in Ralph Ellison's Invisible
Man. not solely because of the morbid humor that permeates
the novel, but also because it works to defuse a chaotic and
excruciating world. Laughing away the fears, sorrows, and
even tragedies, the narrator of Invisible Man creates a wall
between his subconsciousness and consciousness; in his fight
for survival, he creates a mask that bears a grin in place of
tears: a gross necessity in an irrational world. The mask, in its
separation from the individual's "true" identity, is the second
self. The second self appears as the trickster figure. Ellison
manipulates the use of laughter and humor to illustrate the
emergent needs of the narrator to not only create a mask from
reality and an inner second self to preserve, but also to evolve
into a trickster figure who works to bring balance in a chaotic,
dysfunctional world
Ralph Ellison's use of humor and laughter is perhaps one
of the defining features of the concept of second self and the
shift towards masking; also, laughter is vital to both African
American and Native American cultures as a form of spiritual
survival. In "An Extravagance of Laughter" Ralph Ellison
explains that on the Tuskegee campus he was compelled to use
٥١
comedy in order to mask the high level of degradations he was

forced to endure. He suggests that "Negro folklore taught the
preservation of one’s humanity by masking one's motives and
emotions just as it prepared one to be unsurprised at anything
that whites might do because a concern with race could negate
all human bonds'' (Ellison, ١٩٨٦: ١٨٠) Accordingly, laughter is
used to mask "one's motives and emotions." and to be alert to
the slight change of required reaction of oneself. Furthermore,
Ellison explains, aside from being perhaps the only outlet of
expression, it was the "only way we knew for dealing with the
inescapable conjunction of laughter and pain" (Ibid: ١٧٢).
Because, traditionally, society is not in tune with the problems
African Americans are facing, laughter is their only outlet
because sometimes it is the only response allowed. The
camouflaging of identity is simply a smile in place of tears, a
quiet resignation in face of an irrational and chaotic world.
With his tongue in his cheek, Ellison speculates that his
laughter is probably perceived by whites as "a peculiar form of
insanity suffered exclusively by Negroes, who in light of their
social status and past condition of servitude were regarded as
having absolutely nothing in their daily experience which could
possibly inspire rational laughter." (Ibid: ١٨٨) Laughter in
Ellison's writings is never genial nor pleasant; it is not humor
that seeks to delight. Rather, it is always incisive and double-
edged, it returns to the minstrel legacy. Minstrel shows, first
appearing in the ١٨٤٠s, were theatrical productions typically
performed by white actors who blackened their faces with
greasepaint and wore white gloves “to render comic burlesques
٥٢
of African American speech and manners” (Carey-Webb, :

٢٤). Ellison explains:
…the action of the early minstrel show....constitutes a ritual
of exorcism. Other white cultures have their gollywogs and
blackamoors but the face of Negro slavery went to the moral
heart of the American social drama and here the Negro was
too real for easy fantasy, too serious to be dealt with in
anything less than a national art. The mask was an
inseparable part of the national iconography....This
mask...was imperative for the evocation of that atmosphere in
which the fascination of blackness could be enjoyed, the
comic catharsis achieved. The racial identity of the
performer was unimportant, the mask was the thing.., and its
function was to veil the humanity of the Negroes...thus
reduced to a sign, and to repress the white audience's
awareness of its moral identification with its own acts and
with the human ambiguities pushed behind the mask. (Ellison,
١٩٩٥: ٤٨-٤٩)
Many black people wore a mask that suggested

happiness and contentment but concealed acute distress as in
the poem "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar, it
depicts oppressed black Americans forced to hide their pain
and frustration behind a façade of laughter.
We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
٥٣
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.
For Ellison, as it had been for many of his African

American literary predecessors, laughter is an act of resistance
against the injustices, indignities, and double binds endured
daily by African Americans.
Langston Hughes has warned against literal
interpretations of laughter in "Minstrel Man":
Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter
And my throat
Is deep with song,
You do not think
I suffer after
I have held my pain
So long?
Because my mouth
Is wide with laughter,
You do not hear
My inner cry?
Because my feet
Are gay with dancing,
You do not know
I die? (Hughes, ١٩٩٤: ٦١)
٥٤
Such laughter is what Linda Hutcheon calls "painful laughter,"

a laugh whose mocking intent conveys the refusal to conform
to an unjust social order. Such ironic laughter, Hutcheon
explains, "'disarms' and therefore offers access to material that
is not, in fact, very funny at all;" (Hutcheon, ١٩٩٤: ٢٦) these
potentials lead Michael Fischer to see ironic laughter as "a
'survival skill, a tool for acknowledging complexity, a means of
exposing or subverting oppressive hegemonic ideologies, and
an art for affirming life in the face of objective troubles."
(Fischer, ١٩٨٦: ٢٢٤)
The grandfather's laughter is the first of a series of
disruptive laughter throughout the novel. Laughter here leads
to the dawning of self-consciousness and agency; asserting the
deceit in his actions, the grandfather turns his lifetime's worth
of complicities submissions into acts of conscious agency and
exhorts his son to do the same:
I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a
traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country
ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction.
Live with your head in the lion's mouth. (Ellison, ١٩٥٢:
١٣)
The moments of laughter punctuate the novel's narrative ring

with menacing and disruptive force.
At the start of the novel, after the Battle Royal section in
which the narrator and the other young men covered in sweat
are forced to retrieve their payment from an electrified carpet:
I lunged for a yellow coin lying on the blue design of the
carpet, touching it and sending a surprised shriek to join
٥٥
those rising around me. I tried frantically to remove my

hand but could not let go. A hot, violent force tore
through my body, shaking me like a wet rat. The rug was
electrified.... My muscles jumped, my nerves jangled,
writhed (Ibid: ٢٣)
The disguise through laughter begins to become apparent amid

all the laughter of the town leaders, the young men are
"laughing in fear and embarrassment, some were holding back
and scooping up the coins knocked off by the painful
contortions of the others. The men roared above us as we
struggled" (Ibid: ٢٣) Ellison’s depiction of the "laughing in
fear and embarrassment" illustrates the need to laugh in order
to maintain one's sanity, the need of laugher in place of tears to
protect oneself.
The repercussions of the Battle Royal event and its
depiction of (coerced) black performance provide troubling
commentary on "darky" entertainment. The white spectators,
by activating the electric current, successfully override
Invisible Man his physical impulses and force him to respond
as a puppet, his body jerking and shaking uncontrollably.
Indeed, the Invisible Man reacts like someone possessed.
Deprived of volition, he enacts the whims of his audience and
performs, however unwillingly, the physical burlesque of
blackness. He describes another "boy" who "literally dance[d]
upon his back, his elbows beating a frenzied tattoo upon the
floor, his muscles twitching like the flesh of a horse stung [by]
many flies" (Ibid: ٢٣).
٥٦
Even the Invisible Man's long-awaited speech becomes

another act in this grotesque minstrel show, as the M.C.
announces, "I'm told that he is the smartest boy we've got out
there in Greenwood. I'm told that he knows more big words
than a pocket-sized dictionary" (Ibid: ٢٥). Such an introduction
is more befitting a vaudeville performer than an earnest orator,
and the M.C.'s possessive language--"he's the smartest boy
we've got"--and crack about the "pocket-sized dictionary"
undermines the Invisible Man's academic accomplishments.
This paternalistic rhetoric confirms the Invisible Man's
emasculated "boy"-like status. He is allotted only a certain
amount of knowledge in the form of an abridged, "pocket-
sized" dictionary--a dictionary carefully vetted by his white
sponsors and purged of threatening "big words," words such as
Douglass's abolition. The only "big words" that the Invisible
Man knows are impotent phrases like "social responsibility,"
words that his white patrons have deemed safe for him, and,
therefore, meaningless to themselves. The Invisible Man not
only relies on an edited (and censored) pocket-sized dictionary,
he is himself securely "in the pocket" of his white patrons.
Yet the Invisible Man "slips" during his oratory,
substituting "social equality" for "social responsibility" at the
precise moment that the audience heckles him to repeat his
"big words." His inadvertent linguistic "trick" substitutes one
big word for another: "equality" for "responsibility." Yet one
word appears in the "pocket-sized dictionary" and the other
does not; one has been sanctioned and the other censored. "You
weren't being smart, were you, boy?" one man calls out, "you
sure that about 'equality' was a mistake?" The Invisible Man
٥٧
replies, "I was swallowing blood," (Ibid: ٢٦-٢٧) an explanation

that is simultaneously evasive and illuminating. The blood in
his mouth--evidence of his recent abuse and exploitation--
triggers his act of linguistic defiance. The moment of
transgression is short-lived for, duly chastised; he reverts to his
deployment of standard discourse, and then gratefully accepts
the briefcase and scholarship to a Negro college. Still, he has
unconsciously broken his minstrel routine and become an
accidental trickster.
The Invisible Man has tasted blood in his mouth, yet he
persists in swallowing his bitterness and injury. The legacy of
minstrelsy haunts the Invisible Man even after he leaves Dr.
Bledsoe's college and heads north. The horror of the Battle
Royal is re-enacted in the examination room of the factory
hospital, where he has been moved after being injured in the
factory, as the Invisible Man is again electrocuted and again
deprived of volition. He explains, "I wanted to be angry,
murderously angry. But somehow the pulse of current
smashing through my body prevented me. Something had been
disconnected" (Ibid: ١٩٥). Subjected to the experimental
whims of his doctors, the Invisible Man is effectively
debilitated. He becomes a dancing Sambo doll, spasming on
the examination table like his fellow battle royal participant on
the electrified carpet. One doctor exclaims, "Look, he's
dancing" and another observes, "They really do have rhythm,
don't they? Get hot, boy! Get hot!" (Ibid) An individual
becomes a robot, or to use another metaphor, a puppet, who is
defined by his role and who is controlled by the mysterious
mechanism of those in power. "I felt like a clown," (Ibid: ٢٠٠)
٥٨
the Invisible Man remarks--and so he is, inadvertently acting

the minstrel the Sambo doll, the "darky" entertainer.
Ellison saves the moment of full-fledged signifying for
Tod Clifton's Sambo show, a performance the Invisible Man
initially takes at (black) face-value. Clifton's Sambo puppets
suggest both the dehumanization of the Negro by the Minstrel
stereotype.
It was some kind of toy...,A grinning doll of orange-and-
black tissue paper with thin flat cardboard disks forming
its head and feet and which some mysterious mechanism
was causing to move up and down in a loose-jointed,
shoulder-shaking, infuriatingly sensuous motion, a dance
that was completely detached from the black, mask-like
face. Its no jumping jack, but what, I thought, seeing
the doll throwing itself about with the fierce defiance of
someone performing a degrading act in public, dancing
as though it received a perverse pleasure from its
motions. (Ibid: ٣٥٤)
Sambo re-enacts the antebellum master-slave

relationship, performing for his white owner and supposedly
thriving under a system of benign neglect, a phrase that
Ellison, in his ١٩٨١ Introduction to the novel, calls "double-
dealing and insidious" and translates as "Keep those Negroes
running--but in their same old place" (Ellison, ١٩٨٢: xv).
This Sambo doll invokes the other Sambo figure that the
Invisible Man encounters at Mary's house, the black woman
who helped him to recover at her house after getting out of the
factory hospital:
٥٩
[I saw] the cast-iron figure of a very black, red-lipped

and wide-mouthed Negro, whose white eyes stared up at
me from the floor, his face an enormous grin, his single
large black hand held palm up before his chest. It was a
bank, a piece of early Americana, the kind of bank
which, if a coin is placed in the hand and a lever pressed
upon the back, will raise its arm and flip the coin into the
grinning mouth. (Ellison, ١٩٥٢: ٢٦٢)
Pictorial representation of dehumanized twentieth-century man

transformed into a puppet and controlled, as the vet explains,
by the white folks, authority, the sods, fate and circumstances.
When people acknowledge only one's mask, "[y]ou often doubt
if you really exist....You ache with the need to convince
yourself that you do exist in the real world." (Ibid: ٣)
The mask of laughter is a defining characteristic of
Ellison's artistic consciousness; it is the means to the ethical
end of his artistic production. While many modernists found it
offensive to burden art with politics, Ellison had ceaselessly
attempted to find a way to fulfill what he thought to be his
political and artistic responsibilities. He has written that
American writing, "for all its technical experimentation [is]
nevertheless an ethical instrument, and as such it might well
exercise some choice in the kind of ethic it prefers to support."
(Ellison, ١٩٩٥: ٤٤) The ethic he chooses to support is the
modernist ethic of demystification and self-knowing, and he
achieves these by laughing at and exposing the absurdities
suffered by African Americans--a burden that art cannot easily
disregard. Kenneth Burke had said that we can "win by
٦٠
capitalizing on our debts, by turning our liabilities into assets,

by using our burden as a basis of insights," (Burke, ١٩٤١: ١٦)
and laughter is precisely what Ellison uses to convert burden
into insight. As a coping strategy, laughter provides comic
relief against absurd injustices; as political rhetoric, it exposes
and challenges those injustices. Thus laughter is Ellison's most
favored defensive and offensive gesture. Yet the "black humor"
of Afro-American is not black, it is tragically human. It is their
self shield or mask against the outside abuse and degradation.
٣. Underground.
For Ellison, "masking is a play upon possibility,"
(Ellison, ١٩٩٥: ٥٤) that gives man an "ironic awareness of the
joke that always lies between appearance and reality, between
the discontinuity of social tradition and that sense of the past
which clings to the mind." (Ibid: ٥٣)
By the end of the novel, the narrator understands that he
is caught in a great machine that treats him both as a thing and
a product that must be manufactured. The power structures that
manipulate and reify him are mechanical operations which are
physical and spatial.
Thus, the narrator burns the contents of his briefcase
among them his diploma, Clifton's Sambo doll, and the paper
on which Jack wrote his new name. He understands the
ultimate necessity of self-orientation.
At the end of the novel, when the narrator falls into a
dark coal bin and finds he must burn the papers in order to see,
his understanding that the papers are reifications and not
credentials gives him the freedom to use them to his advantage.
٦١
Because these tools of reification are material, he is able to

destroy them in order to serve his own interests. He would not
be able to do so, however, if it were not for his understanding
that the papers do not possess the importance or legitimacy
they purport to possess. The diploma and the scholarship, for
example, appear to be documents that should earn him respect,
and if they were important as credentials he most likely would
not burn them. By the end of the novel, however, he has
realized that they do not bring him respect, and so they are
worth more to him when he uses them for his own purposes.
The Sambo doll is a humiliating image into which the
narrator sees himself reified as entertainment. Like the papers,
the narrator destroys it by burning. The dolls are reifications
similar to the bank, just as humiliating and even more blatant.
Again, the narrator is immediately angered, at the image itself
and at Clifton for peddling it; to participate in such reification,
particularly as a business venture, seems inexcusable. And
again, because the doll is material, the narrator can take
physical action against it as his anger manifests itself as
phlegm welling in his throat: “There was a flash of whiteness
and a splatter like heavy rain striking a newspaper and I saw
the doll go over backwards, wilting into a dripping rag of
frilled tissue” (Ellison, ١٩٥٢: ٣٥٦).
Finally, Tarp’s leg chain is a different means of
signifying against the machine. Of the chain link, George E.
Kent writes, “Symbolically, it is a bitter link in the chain of
black tradition, meant to serve as a reminder of roots and
inescapable contours in the profile of black reality” (Benston,
ed., ١٩٨٧: ١٠١). Like the papers from Jack, the link is a
٦٢
physical remnant of the tools used to reify Brother Tarp, and

perhaps the narrator had he been in Tarp’s place. Like the doll,
the link forces the narrator to confront some of the cruelest of
realities regarding his and Tarp’s position in the social order.
And as he does with the doll, he is able to take the link in hand
and use it to strike back: “Finding no words to ask him more
about it, I slipped the link over my knuckles and struck it
sharply against the desk.” (Ellison, ١٩٥٢: ٣١٩) Brother Tarp’s
reaction underscores the significance of the act: “Now there’s a
way I never thought of using it…It’s pretty good. It’s pretty
good” (Ibid). The doll-and-chain reality is powerful in its own
right, but the chain link promises to serve as a weapon as well.
By the end of the novel, this collection of things constitutes an
arsenal of material manifestations of the narrator’s power to
define himself against his society.
Late in the novel, leaning on a stone wall and seething
against the Brotherhood, he finds in experience his own most
effective weapon:
I leaned there, aching to humiliate them, to refute them.
And now all past humiliations became precious parts of
my experience, and for the first time, leaning against that
stone wall in the sweltering night, I began to accept my
past and, as I accepted it, I felt memories welling up
within me. (Ibid: ٤١٧-٤١٨)
When the narrator needs a weapon with which to defend

himself against humiliation and reification, he returns to his
past humiliations for strength to be shielded behind.
٦٣
Soon, the hole is the final space of the novel, and

materializes the state of solitude in which the narrator ends up.
He resides underground, inhabiting the unknown basement
compartment of a house in a white neighborhood in New York
City, a small space which is brilliantly illuminated by, at last
count, exactly ١,٣٦٩ lights. Monopolated Light & Power
knows only that “according to the master meter back there in
their power station a hell of a lot of free current is disappearing
somewhere” in Harlem (Ibid: ٥). Occupying the hole is the
narrator's final act of masking in the novel. He has learned to
take advantage of his invisibility and live in the hole unnoticed,
living “rent-free in a building rented strictly to whites,” (Ibid)
and receiving free current from Monopolated Light and Power.
Stealing electricity is a way of asserting his ability to act in his
own interest. “That is why I fight my battle with Monopolated
Light & Power,” he says, “The deeper reason, I mean: It allows
me to feel my vital aliveness” (Ibid: ٦). We have never before
seen him in a space that was fully his own or that he fully
controlled; the college, the factory. He finally is able to
appropriate the hole as his own space, and correspondingly, he
completely detaches his identity from all its previous
connections: “And now I realized that I couldn’t return to …
any part of my old life” (Ibid: ٤٧٠). Having been kept running
so long for other people’s reasons, the hole is now the space
where he can exercise his own agency. “Monopolated Light &
Power,” then, is named ironically because it has no control
over him. Thus, the hole is the final space whose significance
exceeds its materiality: condensed in it is the narrator’s state of
being marginal to society “I don’t live in Harlem but in a
٦٤
border area.” (Ibid: ٥) Thus, this individual must hide himself

underground and try to save his masquerade existence to
defend himself against society.
Conclusion
Invisible Man is an echoing plea for recognition, the
need and right to be seen and individuated. It is a story of a
black man who gradually recognizes other people's corruption,
self-deception and deviousness. He comes to see that his
٦٥
personality is wholly determined by other people's perceptions

and preconception of his race. Black people are stereotyped by
the color of their skin; they lose individual identity through this
kind of classification. No one likes being humiliated, it is a
horrible experience and most people would do anything to
avoid it, most would wear a mask. The narrator becomes the
invisible man, not for a medical problem or transparent shape,
but because other people refuse to see him as what he really is,
yet, he embraced his invisibility to get power and confidence.
The narrator is grotesquely castrated, worked upon, rendered
impotent and anonymous. He is forced to be the "yes" man and
the grinning man "with torn and bleeding heart[…]" to protect
his humanity. He seeks light, vision and understanding both of
himself and the society but his experience of the world
devitalizes him and makes him a fugitive. Thus, he moves
underground to continue his masquerade life, defending
himself from the dehumanizing nature of racial prejudice that
he has experienced all his life. Yet, he is in a state of autonomy
being represented by the profusion of light bulbs in his
underground hiding place.
٦٦
Bibliography
Allport, G.W. Pattern and Growth in Personality. New York: Holt,
Rinehart, and Winston, Inc. ١٩٦١.
Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World. Helene Iswolsky, Trans.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ١٩٨٤.
Bellow, Saul. "Man Underground: Review of Ralph Ellison's Invisible
Man." http://writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/٥٠s/bellow-on-ellison.html
March, ٢٠٠٩.
Benston, Kimberly W. ed. Speaking for You: The Vision of Ralph
Ellison. Washington, DC: Howard UP, ١٩٨٧.
Bourassa, Alan. "Affect, History, and Race and Ellison's Invisible Man."
Comparative Literature and Culture. Vol.٨. Issue ٢. (٢٠٠٦)
http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol٨/iss٢/٨ December, ٢٠٠٨.
Burke, Kenneth. The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic
Action. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, ١٩٤١.
Callahan, John F. ed. Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man: A Casebook. New
York: Oxford University Press. ٢٠٠٤.
Carey-Webb, Allen. “Racism and Huckleberry Finn: Censorship,
Dialogue and Change.” The English Journal. Vol. ٨٢. No.
٧ (November, ١٩٩٣): ٢٢-٣٤.
Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folks. ١٩٠٣
http://www.bartleby.com/١١٤/١.html October, ٢٠٠٨.
Dunbar, Paul Laurence. (١٨٩٦) "We Wear the Mask."
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Ellison, Ralph. "An Extravagance of Laughter." ١٤٥ – ١٩٧. In Going To
the Territory. Random House. ١٩٨٦.
………………. Invisible Man. Signet books. New York: The New
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٦٧
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introduction by the author dated November ١٩٨١.] New York:
Vintage, ١٩٨٢.
……………... Shadow and Act. Vintage Books. ١٩٩٥.
Monte, Christopher F. & Robert N. Sollod. Beneath the Mask: An
Introduction to Theories of Personality. ٧th Edition. ٢٠٠٣.
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http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/thesis/garris/home.html October,
٢٠٠٨.
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١٩٨٥.
٦٨

The Second Personality: The Use of The Mask in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

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‫‪Wasan H.

Ibrahim‬‬ ‫ﻤﺠﻠﺔ ﻜﻠﻴﺔ ﺍﻻﺩﺍﺏ ‪ /‬ﺍﻟﻌﺩﺩ ‪٩٨‬‬

‫‪THE SECOND PERSONALITY:‬‬

The terms personality in English, personalite in

However, masks have been worn from time immemorial

masks of western and central Africa; the wooden masks of the

masquerade life is the result of other people's hatred and

Racism and Self-Masking:

were declared free by the Emancipation Proclamation, which

Du Bois suggests that if the Negro does not merge his

The intricate issues that Ellison's discusses deal with the

Levinas explains that the face has meaning, purpose, and

Thus, Ellison sees the adoption of the mask by Blacks as

And in this context, Paul Lawrence Dunbar’s most

Thus by negating the Negro's humanity, the Negro has to create

The Masks of the Invisible Man:

studies at an all-black college, to Harlem where he joins a

that he “did not become alive until [he] discovered [his]

He winked. His eyes twinkled. "All right, forget what I've

"Man, who's this they you talking so much about?" said

To be "hidden right out in the open" becomes the cardinal

The Invisible Man's ensuing work for the Brotherhood

This new visibility is challenged in the remarkable

It was too much for me. I removed my glasses and

real anyway? But how could I doubt it? It was true as I

Rinehart presents the Invisible Man with the paradox of

I stood there, knowing that by dying, that by being

narrow; I was invisible, and hanging would not bring me

Invisibility ultimately encompasses racial difference. It is

years of trying to adopt the opinions of others [he] finally

٢. “[O]vercome [th]em with yeses, undermine [th]em with

First, it is necessary to examine to whom the grandfather

“yes” demonstrates one’s ability to rise above one’s terrible

comedy in order to mask the high level of degradations he was

of African American speech and manners” (Carey-Webb, :

Many black people wore a mask that suggested

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

For Ellison, as it had been for many of his African

Such laughter is what Linda Hutcheon calls "painful laughter,"

The moments of laughter punctuate the novel's narrative ring

those rising around me. I tried frantically to remove my

The disguise through laughter begins to become apparent amid

Even the Invisible Man's long-awaited speech becomes

replies, "I was swallowing blood," (Ibid: ٢٦-٢٧) an explanation

the Invisible Man remarks--and so he is, inadvertently acting

Sambo re-enacts the antebellum master-slave

[I saw] the cast-iron figure of a very black, red-lipped

Pictorial representation of dehumanized twentieth-century man

capitalizing on our debts, by turning our liabilities into assets,

Because these tools of reification are material, he is able to

physical remnant of the tools used to reify Brother Tarp, and

When the narrator needs a weapon with which to defend

Soon, the hole is the final space of the novel, and

border area.” (Ibid: ٥) Thus, this individual must hide himself

personality is wholly determined by other people's perceptions

………………. Invisible Man. ["٣٠th Anniversary Edition" with an

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