Theme Of Innocence In Invisible Man

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Courtney Emerson March 17, 2013 Innocents and Invisible Man Ms. Donovan How Long Can We Stay Innocent For? The drastic change of a structured point of view to a vibrant abstract point of view can really change a person’s outlook on life. In the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison a character whose true identity we do not know has experienced a complete change and outlook on life, (I call this character I.M). I.M (the main character) starts off at a "colored" school down in the South. His innocence is ripped away from him when he miss judges a scenario. I.M takes a white trustee from the school board to the back roads of the south, where they met a man that was accused of incest and impregnating his daughter. I.M is promised a…show more content…
I.M was just a simple college student attending an African American college, people did not see him as important or necessary, and this is why it was so easy for the school to expel I.M. This quote demonstrates the point that Ellison is making about the value of an African American person. He proves that they are “disposed of.” I.M loses his innocence by being ignorant of the situation that he is in. “To you he is a mark on the score card of your achievement, a thing not a man; a child, or even less - a black amorphous thing’” (95). This quote really speaks to the hardship and reality that sets in when I.M is looked at for his skin color; not what he is thinking and feeling. He believed at school his color wouldn’t determine his whole life. I.M is now starting to change his outlook on himself as a person and other people in the black community as well. He is no longer being thought of as a person but a black thing. For any young person this is extremely hard to hear and process. I.M asks “Who am I?” (240); Ellison wants the readers to understand that I.M no longer understands himself and has lost his sense of childhood. Growing up we all understand that are names are who we are and where we come from. I.M starts off at college looking at the world with the view that everything is good, nobody has grudges to hold, or that a white…show more content…
I.M is constantly struggling with that fact that he is being blindsided left and right. His inexperience and lack of worldly knowledge gets the better of him. Ellison uses the character as a symbol of how many people did not understand what was truly happening with racism and the fact that there were many people that were in the same shoes as I.M. Ellison does a great job of showing that innocence and lack of experience will lead many to a fate that they cannot possibly
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