Ralph Ellison's essay The Invisible Man is a work of fiction. The story is about a black man whose skin tone makes him invisible, and it was first published in 1952. As a result, the essay is an exceptional example of post-civil war literary production. It discusses a wide range of intellectual and social challenges confronting the Negros at the turn of the twentieth century. Personal identification, individualism, reformist racial policies, the relationship between black identity and Marxism, and Black Nationalism in the United States of America are among the subjects addressed (Ellison 23). The persona in the essay is an unidentified black man who starts by giving a description of his living standards. He lived in a secretive room wired with numerous of electric lights which are powered by electricity stolen from the town's electric network. The narrator describes the ways in which he experienced social invisibility throughout his life starting from his teenage period. The storyteller lived in a small town where he graduated from high school and won a scholarship to attend an all-black college (Ellison 24). However, to acquire the scholarship, he had to participate in the humiliating battle which involves entertaining and worshipping the white Americans. This piece of work will give a critique of the continuing racial discrimination in the United States of America despite the end of civil war. The end of the civil war was meant to stop all injustices such as racism in the US, but this has been a dream to the African American people who have continued to receive injustices from the white. Evidence of racism after the 1861-1865 civil includes; unfair social policies, division of power and unequal share of US resources amongst different races thus the African America can be categorized as the population at risk in the US.
Unfair Social Policies
Social strategies are regarded as the measures taken by the government to govern over its people. They mainly consist of decisions meant to add value to the lives of all people in a country. Nationally, the social policies are authorized to control commerce and industry to safeguard people in their natives and when they are abroad (Desmond 42). The laws are also designed to guard the interests of city administrations and the common citizens especially the poor people. African American are examples of individuals who have negatively been affected by policies made by the administration which consists mainly of the white people. The black people go unnoticed during the formulation of social policies resulting to laws which are less concerned with their interests in the society (Desmond 47). However, in the recent past, there have been instances where advocates and other policy makers come out to defend the rights of the black people. Such scenarios are evident in the Invisible Man essay where most of the social policies made are designed to favor the white people but oppress the black people.
In the United States of America, the black people can be viewed as the population at risk even after the end of civil war. The reconstruction of the US was meant to build up America by making it a superpower by uniting all people regardless of the color of the skin. However, this has not been accomplished since evidence of unfair social policies has been seen after the end of civil war (Hornsby 22). The invisible Man was subjected to social injustices where we see him residing at secretive underground places so as to hide from the oppressors that are the white people. The man has been forced to use stolen electricity power so as to avoid his relationship with the white man. The white people ruled the city and controlled all the resources available in the area (Ellison 34). All the social policies were made by the white man where he made sure that those policies favored the white people but humiliated the American-Americans. As a resultant, the invisible man was forced to steal electricity from the city grid since electric power was only used by the white people. In addition, the imperceptible man acquired a scholarship after high school studies to attend an all-black college implying that the social policies were unfair since social amenities such as schools and colleges were established for different races and white people participated in the best of such amenities while the black population went to poor institutions (Ellison 23) The narrator knew well he had to make himself invisible so as to survive from the discriminations from the white people.
Unfair Division of Power
Power in the United States of America was unfairly distributed before and after the civil war. Before the civil war, the white man ruled over the African-Americans has continued to rule over the black man even after the end of the battle. The unfair distribution of power is described in the Invisible Man where we see the main character leading nowhere in the city he lived. As a matter of fact, he had to hide from the white people to avoid being arrested (Ellison 39). The United States of America is composed of different races, and thus power is expected to be distributed equally amongst those races.
The black people population is third after white Americans and the Hispanic Americans thus the American-Americans are the minority group in the US (Hornsby 16). The black people come to America as a result of the slave trade, but the white people came here as business people. Africans came from West Africa which is a part of the world which is looked down upon by other parts of the world due to its underdevelopment and the fact that all people there are black skinned individuals (Hornsby 16). The fact that the African American people came to the US as slaves make them an inferior group from the other groups of people who went to America as investors and explorers especially the white people. They thus view black people as people who cannot be able to rule the country in any way; therefore, they are denied a chance to take part in the leadership of a country.
The unfair distribution of power after the 1861-1865 civil wars was seen in the parliament where the African American people were never represented. All laws and regulations of a country are made in parliament thus there is the need for every individual to be represented so as to participate in the law-making process. Due to the lack of representation of the black people in parliament, the laws which made favored the white people while oppressing the African American people (Hornsby 79). The black people struggle and discrimination increased since all of them were subjects under the rule of the white man. Consequently, black people activists and leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Marco Max arose to fight for the rights of their people back (Hornsby 16). They advocated for equality in America and equal share of power regardless of the color of the people. Many of such leaders were imprisoned by the white administration but later as the years went by the voice of the black people was heard, and they were also represented in the law assembly. In the Invisible Man essay, such scenario is depicted where we find the narrator living in secret places until when he started socializing with the white people and was accepted in the society as a human being (Ellison 67).
Unequal distribution of power is also evident in the white house where the United States of American has been led by the white people presidents up to 2008 where black leader was elected in as the president of US. The country has had many white leaders in the white house since the inauguration of the US constitution which allowed administration to be led by a president but only one black president has ever ruled the country to date (Hornsby 65). The black leader is the legendary president Barack Obama who led the US for two terms setting a good example that the African American people can make great leaders. During his period as the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama advocated for equality among all people. He proved that people should never be judged by the skin of the color, but rather they should be judged by the content and what they have to offer for the development of the US (Hornsby 78). His leadership was excellent since, during his reign, he met few scandals as compared to previous leaders and he was able to make extraordinary achievements such as killing the greatest terrorist leader, Mr. Osama bin Laden. In the essay, the invisible man shows his superiority, for instance, he can perform well in high school and acquires a scholarship to attend college implying that the abilities of people are not based on the skin of the color but the content they have (Ellison 97).
Unfair Sharing of Resources
After the great civil war, unfair distribution of resources continued to be seen amongst the people based on the skin color of individuals. There were unequal opportunities for different races of people. The white people took over the best careers and jobs because they were known to achieve high results than the African-Americans since they attended best schools (Hornsby 16). As a result, most companies had trust with the white people that they would add more value to the firms than the black people. The public sector which was led by the white people also employed fellow white people to various positions leaving the African American people unemployed and in poverty.
Most businesses were also run by the white people while the black people were just clients to those businesses. For instance, there were two dominant groups in Chicago, the Irish which was led by Cholasimo and the Italians who were led by Johnny Trial (Hornsby 101). The head of Italians had invested in brewery and casinos while Cholasimo had invested in flowers and brewery productions (Hornsby 25).The Italians dominated in the brewery production and were located in the Northern Chicago while the Irish were not that dominant in brewery production. Crime thrived as the two groups were trying to outdo each other. Corruption was rampant as every gangster tried to maintain position in the industry. More killings were evident as bodies could be found lying everywhere in the city of Chicago. Because life was hard, every family struggled to earn basic needs for survival, especially for the Italians. The Irish had settled in Chicago earlier than the Italians thus they were more stable. However, the Italians were very aggressive in business than the Irish leading to the Italians picking the power by force (Hornsby 44). The Irish gangster was not happy about the rapid rise of the Italians. This left few chances for the African American people in the commercial sectors.
Conclusion
The Invisible Man essay is a good example of American literature after the Civil War. The essay describes an African American man who undergoes discrimination from the white people thus he is forced to live a weird life of hiding himself from the oppressors. The man was not entitled to attend any white people school despite his good performance in high school education. The book describes real life situation before and after the civil war. What happens in the essay continues to happen even in the contemporary American society. The evidence of continuity of discriminations includes unfair social policies, unequal division of power and inequitable share of US resources amongst different races.
Work Cited
Desmond, Matthew. Evicted: poverty and profit in the American city. New Yolk: Crown Publishers, 2016.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible man. Bronx, NY: Ishi Press International, 2015.
Hornsby, Alton. A companion to African American history. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Pub, 2016.
