Thursday, April 16, 2009
I
The narrator's search for his identity is the main them of IM. One of the things I noted in the last bit of reading was the narrator's collection of significant items. Someone mentioned in class to pay attention to the brief case, which contained his diploma, his scholarship, the broken bank, and his brotherhood name. He also adds to his collection when he gets the paper doll from clifton, the anonymous letter, his rinehart-glasses, and brother Tarp's chain link. His entire struggle to find his identity is in his briefcase and i feel like the items symbolize something; old slavery and new racism, and the falseness of bledsoe and the brotherhood. The narrator undergoes a transformation when he falls through the manhole and is trapped. He is haunted by visions of all his former leaders/mentors and then decides he's going to stay in the hole and plan from there. We know by the prologue what happens and I wonder if the narrator has taken up a more nationalist mentality? He denounces the white leader of the brotherhood and we know from the prologue that he attacks the white man in the street. What is his new role in society? What faction does he fit into? Is he more like Ras the Destroyer than he thought?
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I don't know if he is more like Ras the destroyer or if he (the narrator) is still just at a loss for an identity. I definitely agree though that the narrator places all of himself in his briefcase, which is given by his extreme desire to protect it (I mean he runs in a burning building for it). I dont know if the narrator is any more nationalist than at the beginning of the book; really I just feel like the narrator is almost the exact same with new experiences under his belt. Its almost sad that he goes through so much, and his new role in society winds up to be his last, factionless and invisible to the rest of society. What i really do applaud is Ellison's ability to make a universal book (with a theme that applies to everyone and can be everyone's story) in a close minded time period where racist sentiments were still present.
ReplyDeleteI like, Isaac, agree with the briefcase as a symbol for the narrator's assumed identities.
ReplyDeleteI do not think he is like Ras the Destroyer. I feel like the narrator is just at a loss. He knows changes have to occur but he still hasn't figured out how to make it happen. I feel like he almost has less of an identity since he has thrown off what others have put on him and now he is seriously back at square one, before he graduated high school, before the Battle Royal, and before college.
I like how Ellison didn't exactly end the novel with a straight forward answer to the question of who the IM is going to be in the future. It would have been dishonest to the rest of the novel to do so.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, we all are allowed to draw our own conclusions about who the IM will be in the future. In my opinion, the end of the novel represented a sort of awakening for the IM. He recognizes that the world he lives in is more chaos than order. There are no hard and fast rules. By recognizing this essential truth he is able to stop playing by the rules and structure other people have tried to force on him.
I think the essential character here to discuss is Rineheart. When IM puts on his disguise and is taken for Rineheart, he becomes empowered by what he discovers. Rineheart realizes that there are no rules, and he moves about society on his own terms. He is different identities to different people, but ultimately HE is in control of these images rather than other people. I think the IM takes a lesson from Rineheart and will create his identity as such in the future.
I believe that the symbolic burning of the briefcase, and the life of old for the narrator, is the most important part of the novel. Dating back to before the narrator going to school, or the beginning of his life, the briefcase reflects that life. I feel that the burning of the briefcase is also the start of a new person for the narrator. With this symbolic burning, as everyone says, I believe that the narrator is now free to create a new identity, without the help or influence of other people on him. He is able to think for himself and decided things for himself with an open mind for the future. Without this scene, then the narrator would have not been able to grow as a person and come out for the better.
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