Social Identity vs. Individual Identity
Invisible Man is a prime example of how fictional literature opens up conversations about our real lives as readers. The narrator, who remains nameless throughout the entire story, struggles with his identity as a functioning member of society and as a human being. Throughout the book, the narrator is torn between these two versions of his own identity, at some points confusing the two together. The narrator is constantly told who he is by society’s standards, which complicates his journey with struggling with finding himself.
The narrator deals with an identity crisis from the beginning of the story, all the way to the end. One of the first instances in which we see the narrator forced into a social identity is when he is driving Mr. Norton around. The narrator considers the outcomes of his actions as it would reflect on his standing in the college, connecting to his social identity. The narrator is worried about how he is perceived by others during this duration of the book. When interacting with Trueblood, the narrator is worried that Mr. Norton will take Trueblood’s story and make a generalization from it regarding all black men. This is an example of the narrator being concerned about his social identity, or more simply, how he is perceived by others. Along with Mr. Norton, Bledsoe heavily influenced the narrator’s actions in the beginning of the book. The narrator constantly reminds us of Bledsoe’s power and influence in society, as it is something he too wishes to obtain one day. However, Bledsoe eventually bursts the narrator’s bubble by revealing the true version of himself, as he is passive and coy when talking to Mr. Norton. This is Bledsoe’s true, individual identity. “[...] That’s my life, telling white folk how to think about the things I know about. [...] It’s a nasty deal and I don’t always like it myself [...]” (143) Bledsoe’s reveal is one of the most influential on the narrator in the entire book. Bledsoe is a perfect demonstration of the difference between someones’ social identity versus their individual identity.
An individual identity may be defined as an identity in which one feels set in, regardless of outside or societal opinions. The entire book of Invisible Man follows the narrator’s journey to self discovery, which in other words, is the search for their individual identity. Throughout, the narrator seems to impose individual identities onto himself. By the end of the book, the narrator has discovered his individual identity: an invisible man. This journey was certainly not easy. It took many people to order him around and give him an identity, especially when the Brotherhood literally gave the narrator a new identity. This stunted his ability to grow out of the mindset that you can only have a social identity. However, the invisible man prevailed.
The narrator in Invisible Man deals with muddled versions of his social and individual identity. Although we can argue one is more important than the other, the true answer is that they are both important in their own ways. Rather, they both play an integral role in each other's version of identity. A situation that stands out in which individual and social identity mix a bit is when the narrator’s own grandfather states, "overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open." (16) These words from the narrator’s grandfather stick with him indefinitely. They always have a thought in the back of their minds that they must present themselves in a certain way to be accepted by society: social identity. The narrator also feels a personal duty to their late grandfather to not disappoint and find himself: individual identity. At the end of the book, the narrator asks the reader our thoughts on our identity. No one shows their entire individual personality to society, because society has preset acceptable and unacceptable views and actions and ideas. Therefore, the question is not: which one is more important? The real question is: how do they intertwine? We can not have a social identity without an individual identity, nor can we have an individual identity without our social identity.
The narrator deals with an identity crisis from the beginning of the story, all the way to the end. One of the first instances in which we see the narrator forced into a social identity is when he is driving Mr. Norton around. The narrator considers the outcomes of his actions as it would reflect on his standing in the college, connecting to his social identity. The narrator is worried about how he is perceived by others during this duration of the book. When interacting with Trueblood, the narrator is worried that Mr. Norton will take Trueblood’s story and make a generalization from it regarding all black men. This is an example of the narrator being concerned about his social identity, or more simply, how he is perceived by others. Along with Mr. Norton, Bledsoe heavily influenced the narrator’s actions in the beginning of the book. The narrator constantly reminds us of Bledsoe’s power and influence in society, as it is something he too wishes to obtain one day. However, Bledsoe eventually bursts the narrator’s bubble by revealing the true version of himself, as he is passive and coy when talking to Mr. Norton. This is Bledsoe’s true, individual identity. “[...] That’s my life, telling white folk how to think about the things I know about. [...] It’s a nasty deal and I don’t always like it myself [...]” (143) Bledsoe’s reveal is one of the most influential on the narrator in the entire book. Bledsoe is a perfect demonstration of the difference between someones’ social identity versus their individual identity.
An individual identity may be defined as an identity in which one feels set in, regardless of outside or societal opinions. The entire book of Invisible Man follows the narrator’s journey to self discovery, which in other words, is the search for their individual identity. Throughout, the narrator seems to impose individual identities onto himself. By the end of the book, the narrator has discovered his individual identity: an invisible man. This journey was certainly not easy. It took many people to order him around and give him an identity, especially when the Brotherhood literally gave the narrator a new identity. This stunted his ability to grow out of the mindset that you can only have a social identity. However, the invisible man prevailed.
The narrator in Invisible Man deals with muddled versions of his social and individual identity. Although we can argue one is more important than the other, the true answer is that they are both important in their own ways. Rather, they both play an integral role in each other's version of identity. A situation that stands out in which individual and social identity mix a bit is when the narrator’s own grandfather states, "overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open." (16) These words from the narrator’s grandfather stick with him indefinitely. They always have a thought in the back of their minds that they must present themselves in a certain way to be accepted by society: social identity. The narrator also feels a personal duty to their late grandfather to not disappoint and find himself: individual identity. At the end of the book, the narrator asks the reader our thoughts on our identity. No one shows their entire individual personality to society, because society has preset acceptable and unacceptable views and actions and ideas. Therefore, the question is not: which one is more important? The real question is: how do they intertwine? We can not have a social identity without an individual identity, nor can we have an individual identity without our social identity.
Hey Emma, this is a really good blog post! I like how you organize and support your points. I definitely agree with you that social and individual identity are important in their own ways and you pose a good question about how these two identities are related. Good work!
ReplyDeleteThis idea that the narrator needs to find a way to reconcile the social and individual identities makes a lot of sense: this underground life is not sustainable, and the novel is not arguing for a total withdrawal from society. As the narrator repeatedly emphasizes in the Epilogue, he's "coming out" after his time underground. He's not sure what "socially responsible" role he will play (and the reader really does wonder--as you say, the tough question is how to merge these two identities in a compatible way), but he is sure he wants to play one. And he's making these surprising connections to American traditions and ideals, the idea of democracy not as a collective but as an expression of individual wills taken together. It's still surprising how gung-ho he is about American ideals at the very end of the book, given what a hard time he's had navigating the racist society of America. But this ending fits with Ellison's idea that a person is not defined by oppression or racism, and that there is still a great deal of creative freedom for maneuver within an oppressive system. The founding ideals of this country enable that freedom, even as (paradoxically, again, as Ellison loves paradox) they curtail it at every turn.
ReplyDeleteYou did a really great job of providing detailed examples of the narrators struggles with his identity. I agree with your point that finding your identity, while also dealing with societal pressures of what you should be can be difficult, and that is very relevant to the narrator himself. Great post!
ReplyDeleteNice job on this post! I find the idea of a societal identity vs an individual or true identity is really interesting. We see throughout the book that the narrator is often faced with this problem and he says that he feels he is running a race against his societal identity and his personal identity, among other examples that you gave. Nice job!
ReplyDeleteI really like the way you fleshed out the idea of identity in this book! You make easy to follow points about the differences between social identity and individual identity as well as the relationship between them. They come together to form the identity our narrator gives himself by the end of the plot and the examples you gave in your post showed the process he went through to get there.
ReplyDeleteI really love this post. The discussion of identity in this novel has been incredibly intense and confusing, so your connection between social identity and individual identity makes a lot of sense. It seems like at the beginning of the novel his identity is entirely based on his social perception, but as the story continues his social and individual identities begin to separate as he tries to discover himself. Great job!
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