英语专业论文范文-Other Symbols Used in the Novel

英语专业论文范文-Other Symbols Used in the Novel

Ellison is the master of symbols, which permeate everywhere in the novel and help to reveal the theme and introduce further discussion to it. Apart from the symbols of identity, there are other symbols essentially to the whole novel, such as the symbolism in the structure, symbolism in rituals, and symbolism in the contradictory images.

3.1 Symbolism in Structure

The structure of the novel is peculiar—the flashback of the tale begins with the prologue, and ends with the epilogue. The reader could take a first glance at the structure of the story then follow the narrator to the whole story. Any part could be viewed as the beginning or ending, which symbolizes the course of human’s life—the eternal cycle as the nature law limitlessly moved.

Each episode develops and proceeds to a climax. The novel’s prologue and epilogue simply frame this series of climaxes and reversal, and elaborate the emotional collapse of the invisible man in the present tense. These episodes confirm again and again that the protagonist doesn’t exist. At the end of each episode, the protagonist has to be brought back to life so that he will take up another adventure. The cycle of death, rebirth and re-death makes the novel go around.

The story is in the annular formation. The narrator lives in his warm and bright hole when the curtain is lifted, experiencing a lot of incidents, then falls into the hole in the ending. Just as what the protagonist said in the prologue: “the end is in the beginning and lies far ahead” (Ellison 2002:

6). Every struggle leaves him only the pain, suffering and sense of loss, which symbolizes that the narrator is doomed to fail in this absurd and hostile world. Meanwhile, the writer describes for us the four seasons of the protagonist’s life from his beautiful middle school, to his college life, to his struggle in the society and to his “hibernation” in the large hole by using the symbolism and the narrative method of flashback ranging from main frame to details (高灵英 200

6). It describes the modern man who suffers from the external pressure and searches for the inner identity.

Begun from the prologue, the narrator turns to recollect his experience out of the hole, the first one is his middle school years—the hopeful spring of his life. Though his grandfather’s deathbed words shocked him“ 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…”(Ellison 2002:

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6). The words like a curse haunt the boy for his whole life. He tries hard to control his discontent and hatred for the white people and tries to become the excellent student by studying hard, thus, he is asked to deliver a speech in a gathering of big shots and awarded with a scholarship and a briefcase. The innocent boy cherishes the great expectation and hope for the future life.

The university life starts in the blooming summer. The great pride and ambition seize him after his arrival the school. His excellent work and the humble attitude win him the praise from his classmates and teachers. This excellent boy maps out a bright blueprint for himself in the first three years in the school, which seems to be a reality at hand. However, a great danger falls upon him, he is chosen to be the driver of the trustee Norton but his innocence and ambition introduce Norton to some shameful things which the school master doesn’t want the white to know. Dr. Bledoes expels him but gives him seven important letters. A series of suffering and disaster despoils his bright summer of his life. He is on the way of quest for Self-Identity.

In his autumn–like year, life and reality teach him a lot and he becomes a mature man. The experience in Brotherhood exposes the hypocrisy of the so-called Brotherhood—not to save people but to take advantage of people to achieve their ends. The multifaceted man—Rinehart, a master of mask making, “if dark glassed and a white hat could blot out my identity so quickly, who actually was who” (Ellison 2002:4

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3)? At last, he knows that “the world in which we lived was without boundaries, a vast seething, hot world of fluidity, and the Rine the rascal was at home. Perhaps only Rine the rascal was at home in it. It was unbelievable, but perhaps only the unbelievable could be believed. Perhaps the truth was always a lie” (Ellison 2002: 4

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8).

The winter of his life is depicted impressively. He is chased by the Harlem Riot group and is forced to hide in an underground, thus, being an invisible man. He is beaten hardly by the true life, but when he combs his thoughts and experience, he declares to the world “who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you” (Ellison 2002: 5

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1)? The winter in the novel represents humanity depression in the world. All men in the world become his enemies to some degree. The ups and downs in the path of life tell him that life is the battle, especially to a Negro living in the world of racial discrimination.

However, the winter is not totally a gloom one, and his hope is still survival in the fierce winter, “A decision has been made. I’m shaking off the old skin and I’ll leave it here in the hole, I’m coming out, no less invisible without it, but coming out nevertheless…”(Ellison 2002: 5

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1). The cycle, spring –summer-autumn-winter-spring, signifies the man’s fate in the world.

3.2 Symbolism in Rituals

Rituals, the social customs, are the source of all kinds of themes, symbols and images. The narrator accepts the invitation of white men to deliver a speech held in a smoking-room. All the big shots attend there smoking, drinking and shouting. The royal battle, the performance of a naked girl, and the struggle of coin-picking are all the entertainments of those white people. All these symbolize the rituals projecting a false image to the young Negro the American Dream: sex, violence, money. The Negro blindly accepts the behavior of white men, which brings to Blacks enormous shame. The ritual intensifies the taboo of contact between the white and black.

Similarly, after the boxing, the narrator tries hard to deliver the speech, however, what wait for him is not the applause but the noise and shouting. No one pays attention to him, but when he slip-tongues the word “responsibility” for “equality”, which evokes their discontent and hatred, and it is not halted until the narrator admits it is a mistake. The satire of the ritual is very strong—how could a Negro call for social equality in a white-dominated world? It also tells us the wishes of Negroes for the recognition of white by their submissiveness and obedience are just illusions. The rituals in the novel symbolize that the White people try to use all kinds of material temptation to blind the Black people(黄媛 200

6). Their purpose is to strengthen the race hierarchy and preserve their myth that the White is the superior race.

3.3 Symbolism in Contradictory Images

There are three pairs of contradictory images in the novel, the Invisibility and Visibility, the Black and White, and the Dark and Light.

a) Invisibility and Visibilityb) Black and White

According to white-is-right philosophy, white generally symbolizes goodness and purity, while black symbolizes evil and corruption. In the novel, black is generally portrayed as good and positive such as black skin, Ras’ magnificent black horse, the “black power house”and so on. white is associated with the negative images of coldness, death, and artifice such as snow, such as Mr. Norton’s white shoes, the white blind folds, the optic white paint produced at the liberty paint factory. A series of sharp contrasts between black and white indicate a close relationship between the marginal Black culture and mainstream White culture. The fact is that the white culture had assimilated the black one, which is reflected in the epilogue of the novel one “… of the greatest jokes in the world is the spectacle of the white busy escaping blackness and becoming blacker every day, and the blacks striving toward whiteness, becoming quite dull and gray. None of us seems to know who he is or where he’s going” (Ellison 2002: 5

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7). In American society dominated by the white culture, no matter how hard a black or white man is searching for himself, he will eventually get lost and lose himself.

c) Darkness and LightDuring the riot, the protagonist tries desperately to return to Mary’s house, but while running away from two men, he falls into a manhole and lands in a coal cellar as black as pitch. The dark underground environment symbolizes the protagonist’s life—full of agony. Finally, the protagonist refuses darkness and searches for light. Light means warmth, energy to people, especially for the protagonist, and with the warmth of light, the protagonist shows great energy when he moves toward enervation and paralysis. He decides to come out from the hibernation and face the world again.

Conclusion

In all, the influence of Ellison on the Black literature is profound. More and more Afro-American writers deviate from the tradition of protest novel or the traditional realism style, but follow the Ellison’s example to combine the realism and modernism, which try to present the black problem in a broad sense. The theme of Ellison’s work eventually includes the major problem faced by all his countrymen in the twentieth century—the problem of American identity (Phillips 19

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1). The fierce perception and the skillful writing technique win Ellison one of the influential Afro-American writers in the world.

My paper aims at revealing the symbolism of Identity against the backdrop of African-American Literary Tradition and exploring the universal theme conveyed in this novel. Meanwhile, I should admit that my paper is not mature because of my limited knowledge. However, I’ve tried my best to explore the essence of the novel. In the literary universe, Invisible Man is one of the greatest works waiting for more people’s exploration. As a classic, its value is to endow human beings with enlightenment as time passes by.