Use of Metaphor in Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"

 Todd Lieber traces the historical trajectory of the metaphor of invisibility in black American literature where it often refers to the larger American society’s refusal to acknowledge black humanity and blacks’ purposeful concealment of their identity. He sees Ellison advancing the metaphor by recognizing “that mask-wearing and inherent invisibility are related aspects of the same problem” (87). Ellison not only unites two strands of a metaphorical concept that are usually explored separately, he aims to extend its meaning beyond a description of black existence to render American identity more broadly. With the aid of this rich metaphor, he penetrates the surface discussion of racial invisibility and broaches a discussion of human consciousness. 

In his preliminary musings, the narrator piles metaphor upon metaphor to portray himself and his society. On the contrary, the narrator dedicates much of the epilogue to translating the central metaphors that confound him throughout his life. His ruminations leave him certain that “the mind that has conceived a plan of living must never lose sight of the chaos against which that pattern was conceived. That goes for societies as well as for individuals” (580). For the narrator, his plan lies squarely in working through the narrative process.



Before he becomes a writer, however, he must confront the one character who is himself a metaphor for identity instability. Just as the protagonist begins harboring serious reservations about Brotherhood dogma related to black consciousness, he discovers Rinehart, the chameleon-like Harlemite who defies simple definition. After being mistaken for Rinehart by vastly different groups, the narrator wonders whether “Rine the runner and Rine the gambler and Rine the briber and Rine the lover and Rinehart the Reverend” could “himself be both rind and heart” (498). His quandary exhibits his willingness to peer beneath the multifaceted surface Rinehart projects as well as his readiness to accept the possibility that Rine comfortably accepts as genuine the incongruity between his outer avatars, the “rind,” and his inner self, the “heart.” By the novel’s end, the protagonist’s advance from interpreting Rinehart’s metaphorical name to comprehending and rejecting the self-serving, exploitative nature the trickster embodies signifies his readiness to articulate his personal sense of identity.


Works Cited

  • Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage, 1989.
  • Lieber, Todd. “Ralph Ellison and the Metaphor of Invisibility in Black Literary Tradition.” American Quarterly 24 (1972): 86–100.


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