In a 1953 interview with the
Paris Review
, Ellison asserts,“It [identity] is
the
American theme. The nature of our society is such that we are prevented from knowing who we are. It is still a young society, and this is an integral part of its development.”
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Here Ellison appears keenly aware of the impacts exploitation and oppression have on self-actualization. Although Ellison affirms identity formation is a universal experience,
Invisible Man
primarily explores the limitations that racism places on the individual’s creation of self. Ellison explains that it is necessary for the nameless protagonist to discard the social-identities that have been thrust upon him in order to achieve his self-identity.
After all, it’s a novel about innocence and human error, a struggle through illusion to reality. Each section begins with a sheet of paper; each piece of paper is exchanged for another and contains a definition of his identity, or the social role he is to play as defined for him by others. But all say essentially the same thing: “Keep this nigger boy running.” Before he could have some voice in his own destiny, he had to discard these old identities and illusions; his enlightenment couldn’t come until then. Once he recognizes the hole of darkness into which these papers put him, he has to burn them. That’s the plan and the intention; whether I achieved this is something else.
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Ellison delineates the limitations society places on the individual’s ability to create a vision of himself. To trade these labels or social identities for a self-identity the protagonist must recognize their origin and destroy them.