Racism always following

The Americana bank episode in chapter 15 of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man shows that as the narrator is moving away from his past and going to join the Brotherhood he will still be followed by racist ideas and stereotypes. The scene takes place after the narrator is hired by the Brotherhood as a speaker for Harlem and has to leave his previous name, his family, and Mary behind. After the narrator breaks the bank, representative of the racist stereotype, he wonders why “would Mary have something that he broke it. Her having the bank and his shame at having broken it shows that even if you don’t agree with the stereotype it is still something that these characters have to acknowledged. Once the narrator leaves Mary’s, he tries to discard the bank but when other people see him they immediately impose their own view of who he is and why he is doing this. The reactions he receives are not consistent but simply what people want to see when they look at him, for example one woman sees him as “a southern Negro” (Ellison 328), and man sees him as a “young New York Negro,” (Ellison 330), both scold him for his actions and classify the term has highly negative. This, in addition to the fact that the narrator doesn’t feel like he is either of these stereotypes, provides sharp contrast to the narrator’s forming sense of identity and that even if he can define himself others will still see him as a stereotype. In the end the narrator is unable to get rid or people’s stereotypical view of him and the bank that represents the stereotypes he so hates and must simply put the broken pieces in his briefcase, the one given to him for following the wishes of southern white men.

Works Cited

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. EBook ed. N.o.: Vintage INternational, n.d .EBook