.. lack Like Me demonstrated the interchangeability of identities and its effects.
For himself, a white man, to understand how it is like to be black, he decides to "become a Negro" (Griffon 8) By simply darkening his skin with a medication, he gives up his life as a privileged white southerner, and"walks into a life that appears suddenly mysterious and frightening" (Griffon 9). Similarly the narrator steps into a life of northern privileges he could only dream of when he was in the South. Probably "it was the clothes and the new name and the circumstances" (Ellison 328) which is so unfamiliar to the narrator that causes him to feel so different, and so strange, leading him into believing that he is becoming someone else. Perhaps he is startled that people likes him so much, which makes him think he "had become less of what [he] was, less a Negro" (Ellison 347); much like how Griffin is shocked when he glares into a mirror that reflects a "stranger-a fierce, bald, very dark Negro" (Griffon 191).But unlike the narrator who rejects reality by assuming invisibility, Griffin stands face to face with the people who sees his new identity. Although Griffin initially felt divided into "two men, the observing one and the one that panicked" (Griffon 48), he eventually learns how people are seen through multiple perspectives.
The narrator sees the meaning of identity as the universal perspective of a being. He acquires fame and recognition through the influential role he played as a leading activist of the Brotherhood, and thinks everyone will regard him that way. Feeling full of confidence and dignity, he greeted two black fellows in a bar, thinking they would be astounded to see him. But to his surprise, they "only ?K look at [him] oddly"(Ellison 416) To those two, his fame is his notoriety because they do not like his race philosophy.The narrator works for an ideology that promotes equality among all humans, whether black or white, male or female, while the two black fellows hold an opposing ideology, a popular conventional belief in blacks at the time that "insisted on respect for blacks as blacks, not as human beings simply" (Bloom 33), Instead of being seen as a social leader, he is seen by those two as a social disgrace for the black community.
The narrator sees himself as a walking stereotype. He is right because anyone who is perceived through an identity is a stereotype because no identity reveals exactly how a person is. Like a stereotype, identity exists externally from the person it identifies because it exists within the eye of the viewer. The narrator during his fight with a white man on the street suddenly realized that he is fighting a person that "had not seen [him]" (Ellison 4).However that white man does see him, just that he is seen through an identity not too sincere in respect.
The narrator is disgusted with people stereotyping him, therefore he wants to believe himself as invisible. He does not want to speak at Clifton's funeral yet the people will not leave until he performs what is expected of him - to give a speech. He comes to view his fame as a stereotype no different than that of those "black brothers who entertained them, [white people], with stories so often that they [white people] laughed even before these fellows opened their mouths" (Ellison 413). The narrator can believe himself to be whatever he wants.But what he sees of himself is not what others see of him.
He cannot decide for others how to see him, although he can influence the way people see him ?V just as easy as how J. H. Griffin adopted his new identities when he "wakes up in a black man's skin" (Griffon 161). According to The Closing of the American Mind, all identities "depends on the free consent of individuals" (Bloom 110). A president holds his identity only because people elect to see him that way, otherwise he is like any ordinary Joe; even if he thinks of himself as really nothing more than of common flesh and bones, he is no less a president because his identity is for the public to perceive and not for himself.
Even if there is a single person who considers him a president, he is a president to that person. Just like how the narrator is perceived as a "fink" when he stumbled into a Union meeting. That is his identity in that particular occasion, to those particular people, despite he truthfully denies it. Because identity is"something ?K which one has no control" (Griffon 7).
He believes he finally found his true identity when he realizes he is invisible to his surroundings; therefore, he assumes invisibility. However, invisibility is only his way to avoid reality.He is not invisible but simply not seen as what he thinks he should be seen as. He feels invisible only because no one really understands him, but in reality, can any person be fully understood? A person can only be understood to an extent. Not even a brother or sister, a best friend, a spouse, or a person's parents who created him or her can totally understand. Nobody is seen exactly as what they want to be seen as, but that does not mean they are invisible, just that the identity they have on might not be what they desire for.
Despite the narrator's belief that after his long journey, he has finally found the true understanding of identity and discovered his real identity, he is mistaken, for all the identities he experienced were real.He is the "same human individual", seen differently"only in appearance" (Griffon 161) and that shows invisibility is a false revelation. Every different person who sees him, holds a unique perception of him, even if he does not like how he is perceived; it is still a unique identity of his very being, and that identity is real on a simple basis that it exist. Because identity is a tool for the beholder to assess the identified, therefore it belongs to the beholder and not the identified. Without people around, a person will not have an identity and there will be no need for one. That is the whole reasoning behind identity.
Works Cited: Bloom, Allan (1988).The Closing Of The American Mind. (First Touchstone Ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster Inc. Ellison, Ralph (1994).
Invisible Man.(Library Ed.). New York: Random House, Inc. Griffon, John Howard (1996).
Black Like Me. (35th Anniversary Ed.). New York: Penguin Books USA Inc.
