The Black Soul Under The Impact Of American White Culture

Ralph Ellison is a famous contemporary American black writer. His novel Invisible Man was published in 1952 which made him well-known. Ellison received the National Book Award for Fiction in 1953. It was acclaimed by a 1965 Book Week poll of two hundred prominent authors, critics and editors as " the most distinguished single work published in the last twenty years" ( Phillips, 1997:6 ) when they voted for the excellent novels after World War II.This novel describes black life and history under racial discrimination, taps into the inmost recesses of the black mind, and analyzes the black soul under the impact of American white culture. It reveals the conflicts between man and society, man and western civilization, and the conflicts between men. The theme of this novel is profound and complicated. It is mainly concerned with the American black's search for self and the value of existence, which indicates a widespread and profound social significance. This thesis intends to analyze the protagonist - an Afro-American young man's spiritual progress, that is, from the protagonist's self-loss through self-quest to self-knowledge. It aims to explore the Afro-American's self-quest after World War II, and the loss and anguish in the inmost recesses of the black soul. In capitalist society, the knowledge of a man about himself and the meaning of existence is distorted by religious beliefs and moral values. As a result, a man usually gets lost and feels lonely, depressed, confused and helpless while confronting the cruel reality of society. In such a society, the existence of an individual, especially a black man, is ignored, and humanity and individuality are destroyed in capitalist society with the rapid development of material civilization and the corruption of people's spiritual worlds.At the first stage of his spiritual progress, the young hero lacks a correct understanding of his "self", the pursuit of life, and independent human dignity. Under the great impact of American white culture, he moulds himself completely according to white culture and education. He thinks innocently that he will be able to get a happy life and climb up to the upper-society through hard work and obedience. The result of theblind pursuit of the American Dream and self-loss drives him to abandon the black ethnic tradition. However, his beautiful dream becomes disillusioned in the face of cruel reality. It seems that everyone sets himself against the hero, whites or blacks, at the factory or in the hospital, in the Brotherhood or in Harlem. People always impose various identities on him, try their best to manipulate and take advantage of him, and make him a "tool" to be used at will. He fails whenever he strives to prove his identity and existence. Looking back, and awakening from the nightmare of his bitter experiences, he can't help thinking over: "Who am I?", " What do I live for?" " How have I come to this?". Here is shown the hardship of the journey of the protagonist's self-quest. In this way, the "invisible man" becomes the symbol of modern man searching for self and freedom. Shocked by his friend Clifton's death, and with the help of many black mentors and his meditation in the underground, the protagonist comes to get a clear understanding of the social reality, to free himself from the bondage of American white culture, and returns to the Afro-American tradition. The protagonist realizes the duality of his self essence: an Afro-American as well as an invisible man. Only when a man realizes that he is an invisible man can he give up all his illusions and various false identities imposed on him. Only in this way can he get his independent human dignity and true freedom. And only in this way can he pluck up the courage to shoulder his own responsibilities in society.Why is the life journey of the protagonist full of hardship and frustration? Why does his beautiful American Dream turn out to be his nightmare? The following causes should be taken into account: firstly, the enslavement and alienation of the human being c...