The first chapter of The Invisible
Manby Ralph Ellison presents symbolically what the narrator learns throughout
the novel: The black man has been exploited and continues to be "invisible" as a human
being who has rights and an entitlement to freedom. In the ring, the young men are put
amidst a naked woman who has a tattoo of the American flag on her body. She represents
the ultimate goal of the black animal, a forbidden temptation. The men must fight one
another senselessly for the amusement of the cigar-smoking white men who watch with
sadistic lust in their hearts.
After the fight, the young
men are made to reach for coins that have been placed on a carpet that has an electrical
current running through it. When the young men reach for them they are violently
shocked. These unattainable coins symbolize the unreachablewealth and positions for the
black men in American society. With a further parodic example of how the black man has
been deluded into thinking he is part of the American Dream, Ellison's narrator delivers
a speech before the older white men about his goals, and no one heeds a word of his
empty expectations.
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