Ralph Ellison's Brotherhood

The Brotherhood is meant to represent the Communist Party which Ralph Ellison strongly disproves for many reasons: “It stifles free thought; it ignores people’s uniqueness; it attempts to simplify the paradoxes of social life” (Ambivalent Man 622). These problems will become apparent with the narrator accepts the invitation after which he is given a new name and apartment. Before leaving Mary’s home, he stumbles around a coin bank in the shape of a black man with exaggerated features. Angered the Mary owns such an object, he destroys it and takes the remains in his briefcase. Trying to get rid of the remains, he is prevented by others. This represents his struggle to get rid of the stereotypes in order to be seen as an individual but is prevented …show more content…
For example, no matter how hard one and skills one possesses, he is destined to fail without the approval of the white people in charge. This is clear in the encounter with the veteran in the Golden Day. He served as a medic in the army since he was a surgeon, but was beaten up by ten men in masks for saving a human life. The narrator tries to be successful through his academic achievements and ability to give speeches. However, by not understanding how things work he gets expelled by the president of the college, Bledsoe, who is also black. Not only does he expels him, but also sends him to New York with seven false letters of recommendation. However, some think that he want to help the narrator by giving him a valuable lesson on how to live in a white dominated society. For example, Meiling Fu, a faculty member of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, states “Dr. Bledsoe educates the young generation and contributes to the cause of elimination of racial discrimination” (Fu 94). Arguably, it could be said that Dr. Bledsoe is only interested in him staying in power and does not care about his students or eliminating racial discrimination. As Dr. Bledsoe writes in his recommendation letter to Mr. Emerson which says that the narrator should “continue undisturbed in these vain hopes while remaining as far as possible from our midst” …show more content…
Unlike characters like Bledsoe and Brockway, the narrator was not able to use his invisibility to his advantage. Because of his race, he has been made fun of by the white elite in the battle royal and the doctors from the factory hospital, and exploited by Sybil and the Brotherhood. Even Mr. Norton was surprisingly found asking the narrator for direction without having a clue who he is since he never truly saw the narrator, which confirms the words of the veteran that he doesn’t know his destiny if he sees it. This leads the narrator “hibernating” in his hole trying to find out who he is. Although there have been big improvements in equality between the races, racism is a problem in our society. Still, being black apposes some challenges; for example, a study done by Whitfield-Harris showed that “faculty colleagues did not feel accepted at the university workplace, often having to prove value as a faculty member and credibility to teach academic courses” (Bridget Turner