In 5 pages this work is analyzed in a consideration of how gender and race relationships are portrayed. Five sources are cited in the bibliography.
Name of Research Paper File: JL5_JLellison.rtf
Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
The relationships between men and women in Ellisons
The Invisible Man are complex, not only in terms of the protagonists own personal experience with women in the course of the narrative, but also in the gender and race
relations which are exemplified in the novel. For example, one of the first times in the novel when the protagonist comes into contact with women is in the scene where
he and the other young men are encouraged to fight and otherwise humiliate themselves in front of a group of dominant and drunken whites: the white woman who is used
to rouse their fighting instincts and emotions is treated with contempt by the white men, but the black men are regarded in an even more derogatory way.
The time which the protagonist spends with Mary, a
black woman, is by contrast described as a time of comparative peace and calm. The implication is that there is not only a basic social divide between men and women,
in terms of socially dominant groups, but also between black and white: overcoming both these barriers is something which is presented as virtually insurmountable.
The Brotherhood which the protagonist later joins, however, emphasises equality for all, and
there is a focus away from the divisiveness which results from separatism, in terms of both race and gender relations: however, the encounters which the protagonist has with characters such