Racism in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

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Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is filled with themes that make the deeper reading of the text an interesting task. One of these themes is the severity of racism in the segregated America of the 1920s and 1930s. As an educated African American in the South and the North during a time of great racial suppression, it was hard for Invisible Man to be seen as the scholar that he truly had the ability to become. This can be seen in multiple places in the novel including how Invisible Man and nine other African Americans were used as a form of entertainment to the white community leaders of the southern town in which the Invisible Man lived and went to high school. The preconceived notions of the white men made them see the ten black men as nothing more then meat that they can use as fun in which they have them do terrible things to themselves and to one another. These men were not just the typical uneducated white man, “They were all there—bankers, lawyers, judges, doctors, fire chiefs, teachers, merchants. Even one of the more fashionable pastors.” The way in which the black men were blindfolded and told to fight one another shows how the white men in attendance had no concern for their well being, they just wanted the insurance of a fun evening of laughing at these innocent men, whom which they plan on shouting at and belittling. They had only black men to compete in the battle royal, for they were aware of the level of embarrassment that this task would bring upon all involved but thinking how they did, they thought the “niggers” would not care, for they were not human enough to fell humiliation. This occurrence alone is enough to prove that this episode of the novel can show the ruthlessness of racism in America. Yet, the troubles for these poor men for the evening were not over. They second part of the “show” in which they had an electrified rug with money
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