An Additional Perspective

I thought that viewing the documentary on Ralph Ellison was extremely valuable. It gave more insight into what type of a person he was, and how that influenced his work. First off, I saw a lot of how his childhood and upbringing influenced him to be a writer at all. The documentary stated that he had a “painful childhood” which was caused by race issues, as expected. His parents made a conscious effort to keep that to a minimum by not residing in the deep south of Alabama or the sort, but avoiding racial issues, of course, was nearly impossible no matter what. Though his mother taught him to live with his chin up in any circumstance, and to be an ambitious young man looking for the bright side in every situation. Furthermore, his mother had to be independent and really strong herself, because Ellison’s dad died when he was young. When his dad was alive, he did express that he wanted Ellison to be a poet, so in a sense he did get his wish. So the combination of his dad’s vision for Ellison’s future, and the drive to be a great person instilled in him by his mother led Ellison to become ambitious indeed. A thought comes to my mind when I think of how Ellison lived a troubled childhood and then went on to become a successful novelist – there is a recurring theme of successful people having rough upbringings. The theory is that a hard life early on creates a drive to bounce back and prove you worth and value as a person. And there are many great examples to support this idea: Albert Einstein, Jim Carrey, Adolf Hitler, Stephen Colbert and countless others. Raph Ellison may have had some of this as a part of his life, naturally learning to survive and excel in the world because of a rocky beginning. For him specifically, success meant to find an identity and express that journey through a voice in literature. He was focused in having a defined public voice to convey what he thought was important in the human experience. According to the documentary, this is the way he put it (with some of his buddies), “we pretended like segregation did not exist so that it could not limit our horizons.”

Since our introduction to Ralph Ellison and then the documentary in class was through Invisible Man, I was naturally thinking about what the connections were between Ellison’s personal life and the novel. It didn’t take long to recognize the numerous similarities that exist between him and the narrator. He actually has quite a bit in common, which make Invisible Man sort of autobiographical. In terms of plot and life storyline, there is a lot of overlap between the two men. As forward-thinking people, they both are granted scholarships to college, something that makes them ecstatic and encourages their growth as people. Once at college, a lot of exploring is done, but then at some point before they finish and graduate, they head off north. There, they work various jobs, wading their way through new environments and trying to find their place as African-Americans. Ellison definitely faced racism in the latter part of his life too. At least the documentary revealed one instance of these occurrences. The original university that Ellison was supposed to attend was Oklahoma University, however, race riots delayed his enrollment and eventually the scholarship he received sent him all the way to Tuskegee Institute. These similarities in life events align the two men in the readers mind, and it makes sense to then look at their goals and ideologies. Both attempt to find some sense of identity, and Ellison as a black writer reflects his own strides towards enlightenment by writing out the process in Invisible Man. As the novel progresses, he makes aware the idea that all people should look for their identity and place in their context. To do so, there is a particular attitude to adopt according to Ellison’s illustration throughout the book. This mindset is to not care what stereotypes people have and want to place on you. In transformations such as the pork chops and grits scene to the yam scene, the narrator rebels against the shying away from stereotypes. If he likes something, then he will eat it, and nobody can tell him who he is or what he can do. By the type of person the documentary made Ellison appear as, it seems like he himself lived by these concepts – a further connection to the narrator. Ellison wore clothes that differentiated him, and he called himself a “Negro” which set him apart. His actions and thoughts were defiant, showing that he was on a genuine life search for his own identity, not waiting for others to call him out the way they may have wanted.

Another aspect of the documentary that I found particularly fascinating was the look at other novels that Ellison worked on during his career and the practices he had with studying and copying Hemingway. Both of these parts of his life were interesting since they gave a broader picture of who he was as a person and writer. One of the mentioned novels that caught my attention was King of the Bingo Game. In this work, the main character struggles to find a way to help his sick family members, and finally attempts to do so through winning money by playing bingo. As the documentary points out, Ellison is playing with the metaphor that his life is based on chance, and so is the game, which determines what his life will be. This highly symbolic context is similar to the style of Ellison in Invisible Man where he has several scenes such as the battle royal and paint factory scenes in which symbolism is so straightforward and vivid. Another thought that came to my mind was the similarity of theme this novel has with Native Son, which pushes the idea that the fate of a black man is almost predetermined, but also fickle. The chance of bingo and Bigger just waiting for an accident/major crime to occur both critique the idea of injustice for African-Americans in society. A final ponderance I found from thinking over the novel about bingo is that the only source I had for reflecting on it other than a few lines of summary was the film version on screen. To me, the intensity and emotion in the protagonist was clear to me through the documentary’s portrayal, and this actually relates to the scenes done on Invisible Man in the film. I found that my imagination from reading the novel were freshened by the proposed depiction of Ellison’s text. For one, I appreciated the exaggerated quality of the grandfather. It was almost eerie, which is the feeling I got when reading his warning and also his involvement in the narrator’s dream. There was an accurate weight to his influential qualities. The narrator on the other hand I had a few qualms with. It seemed as if he was actually toned down too much. It would be good for scenes near the end when he is obviously further matured, but the problem is that a lot of the scenes are from earlier on. I suppose that the prologue was adequately acted out then, but places like the battle royal, I envisioned more of an eager naïveté that defines his character for much of the novel. So those were a bunch of thoughts stemming from what I thought about King of the Bingo Game, one of the many thought-provoking novels brought up in the film.

The documentary was something that I definitely thought added a lot to experiencing Invisible Man, and I look forward to viewing the film on Zora Neale Hurston and how that will inform my reflection on Their Eyes Were Watching God.