race Identity In Invisible Man And The Hate U Give
At this stage in our society, there is still a lot of controversy surrounding colored people. Along with the issues are different types of works by people of African descent. Invisible Man and The Hate U Give are examples of African American literary works. African American literature refers to works about African American people that focus on ideas about African Americans and the society surrounding them. African American artists have made creative works that have received great attention because of how they are recognized. A significant literary work about African Americans is a historical fiction named Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Ralph Ellison was an American writer and educator born in Oklahoma who won distinction for Invisible Man. In this work, the narrator goes through the whole story being unnamed and searching for his identity. A more recent piece of African American literature is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Angie Thomas is an African American writer born in Mississippi with a degree in Creative Writing. She won #1 New York Times bestseller for her piece The Hate U Give. In this piece, the main character Starr struggles to find her way. She is between a primarily black neighborhood where she lives and a primarily white neighborhood where she attends school. Although Ellison and Thomas use imagery and narration throughout their works, they portray race identity in different ways.
Thomas uses imagery to highlight the stereotypes against black people to give grounds for violence against them. At the beginning of the book, the main character Starr reunites with her childhood best friend Khalil at a party. Some gunshots erupt at the party and Starr leaves with Khalil. They drive around in his car reminiscing, and in the middle of their conversation, they get pulled over by the police. The traffic stop was something we have seen more of in the last few years. Khalil was shot in the back three times by a white American police officer. The police officer had asked him to step out of the car after asking for a license and insurance. After the officer walked back to his squad car, Khalil went to the driver’s door to check on Starr. He was shot to death outside of the driver’s side door because the officer thought that he was reaching for a weapon when talking to Starr. In Chapter 2, Thomas describes the moment Khalil was shot, “Pow! One. Khalil’s body jerks. Blood splatters from his back. He holds onto the door to keep himself upright” (Thomas 96). As soon as Khalil made a sudden move, the officer fired shots at him. Thomas describes every detail of that moment for the reader to realistically visualize the actions in the book. By the author using vivid imagery in this work, she depicts how racial identity is defined by society.
Angie Thomas illustrates the connection between race and identity by exploring the two different worlds that Starr was torn between. She lived in a primarily black neighborhood called Garden Heights, but she attended school in a primarily black institution named Williamson Prep. In between both environments, Starr code switches. She changes how she speaks, how she acts, and the way she uses her manners. The double life that she lived had two opposite personas of Starr. When Khalil was killed, she felt as if she could not discuss what happened to him with the people that she associated with at Williamson Prep. “If I face the truth, as ugly as it is, she’s right. I was ashamed of Garden Heights and everything in it. It seems stupid now though. I can’t change where I come from or what I’ve been through, so why should I be ashamed of what makes me, me? That’s like being ashamed of myself” (Thomas 441). Thomas uses narration from Starr to convey her idea of identity between two different lifestyles. Starr does not realize her habits until the end of the story. In Chapter 11, Starr arrives at school and the students were not acting normal. “All my Williamson rules go out the door, and Starr from Garden Heights shows up” (Thomas 183). The white students who attended Williamson Prep used Khalil’s death as a reason to skip class and they covered it up by saying the good cause was protesting. Even though they chanted “Justice for Khalil” they sided with the white police officer who had killed him because they were stuck in their own ways being prejudice against black Americans. When Starr realized that they did not have genuine intentions, it made her think about what her classmates honestly thought of her because she was black. This event led to her accepting that she did not have to change who she was. The way Thomas characterized Starr in two opposites domains supported the idea that the racial identity for African Americans has and remains passive.
Ellison uses narration and visual symbolism to portray race identity by drawing attention to the control white people had over black people in society. In Chapter 1 of Invisible Man, the narrator receives advice from his grandfather. The narrator’s grandfather told him to, “Live with your head in the lion’s mouth. I want you to overcome ‘em with yeses, undermine ‘em with grins, agree on ‘em to death and destruction, let ‘em swollen you till they vomit or bust wide open” (Ellison 265). The grandfather encourages his grandson to put on a false appearance in which he acts as if he agrees with the white people but still resents them on the inside. The narrator uses the advice from his grandfather as a principle of his intentions in the rest of the piece. The narrator does not realize that he gave into the orders of the white society.
In Invisible Man the white citizens of the town order the narrator to give his speech. Before the battle royal, the narrator describes how the room looked visually and tried to focus on his grandfather’s words. He said that “And besides, I suspected that fighting a battle royal might detract me from the dignity of my speech. In those pre-invisible days, I visualized myself as a potential Booker T. Washington” (Ellison 266). The narrator says “pre-invisible” days referring to the days that he was “visible”. To be visible means he was blinded and did not know who he was. He recognizes himself as a “potential” Washington because of the beliefs that Washington held. The battle represents Booker T Washington because in the battle the white Americans held dominance over the black men, and it goes along with the fact that Washington thought that African Americans had to be educated to achieve racial solidarity.
Ellison uses the narrator’s speech to depict how African Americans were submissive to white Americans. When he got there, they made him participate in the “battle royal”. In the battle, the narrator and other young black boys were given boxing gloves and went into the ring. They were all blindfolded and beat each other brutally. The blindfold that their eyes were covered with was a white cloth. The white cloth represented the white Americans and how the black men were blinded by the white control. After the narrator lost in the last round, their blindfolds were removed. There was a rug with money spread over it that the young boys thought was a reward, but when they lunged for the money they were shocked by an electrical current. While they were scuffling trying to get away, the white townsmen tried to make them fall forward onto the rug. The battle represents the power that the white people had socially. It points out the struggle that black people faced and the experiences they had to face to reap their struggle. The narrator then gives his speech while being ridiculed by the white men. In his speech, he references Booker T. Washington’s Atlanta Exposition Address. In his speech the narrator says “‘Cast down your bucket where you are” – cast it down in making friends in every manly way of the people of all races by whom we are surrounded…’” (Ellison 272). Booker T. Washington believed that black people must gain success through education. The narrator disagrees with the philosophy of Washington but goes on to quote Washington advising black people to accept “social responsibility”. Ellison uses Booker T. Washington immediately after he was in a fight that he did not want to be in. Ironically, the narrator is speaking to a white audience about social responsibility because they had previously done him wrong. The author interprets his theme of racial identity through the narration of the narrator.
In “Invisible Man”, Ellison uses imagery and narration to portray race identity by pointing out the dominance white Americans had over black people in society. In “The Hate U Give”, Thomas uses imagery to focus attention on the stereotypes against black people from the views of society. Both authors’ portrayal of race identity contributes to the African American literary tradition in constructive ways. The Invisible Man is like The Hate U Give because works have characters that struggle with their identity as a result of racial tension. In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the narrator racks his brain with how other people have stood in the way of him knowing himself. The theme of this work is that racism can be an obstacle in knowing your identity. The narrator struggles to be a real person throughout the whole work. Because of the color of your skin, you are seen differently by different people. In the Hate U Give, Starr has two different associated groups of people she talks to. The two groups come from separate racial understandings, so she struggles to know who she really is. The tradition of African American literature is supported by racial identity because of historical figures who use their intelligence to point out the issues surrounding race in their writing. Now it is becoming more prominent for African Americans and their race as a problem to be talked about because so many of the issues have become common and comfortable. Hopefully, as we progress as a society and history go farther behind us, we can continue to call attention to racial troubles through African American literature.
