Biography of Ralph Ellison
Ralph Ellison was born on March 1, 1914, in Oklahoma City. His father died when he was three and Ellison’s mother raised him and his brother. Ellison began an appreciation for literature and music at a young age and after graduating from high school received a state scholarship to study music at Tuskegee Institute. However, after three years of study Ellison left Tuskegee due to scholarship-related reasons and his belief that the school was overly accommodating to white people (1516). He migrated from Alabama to New York City where he met African American writers Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. These men helped introduce him to several literary opportunities, many Marxist in nature. Ellison eventually cut ties with his Marxist connections after he began doubting the veracity of the philosophy and decided to pursue works focusing on “blues, jazz, and the tragicomedy of everyday life” (1517).
Ellison though much about the theme and reality of invisibility as an African American, which he discusses in his “Introduction” of the second edition of Invisible Man. He speaks about wars-within-wars that African Americans faced during wartime, specifically during World War II, and how equality in times of war did not result in equality during times of peace (and often, equal treatment during times of war did not even happen). Working as a cook with the Merchant Marines for two years, Ellison is said to have written the famous words that would become the very first words of his acclaimed novel: “I am an invisible man” (1518).
Rather than focusing on the major “black-white” or “majority-minority” racial conflicts present in many African American novels, Ellison focuses on the inner battle of an African American man in being able to see himself. He chooses a main character with intellectual depth—a divergence from most other African American literature which featured uneducated, “purely victimized” (1517) central characters (such as Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright’s Native Son). Ellison also chose to make this book more than a “protest novel” that exposes the inhumane treatment of many whites towards blacks. Instead, he wanted it to be a thorough examination of the human psyche—exploring the depths of thought, pain, and emotion, and the means with which one discovers his or her own voice and identity.
Horizon magazine published the first chapter of Invisible Man in 1948 and the completed work was published and dispersed in 1952. The book received much praise and was awarded the National Book Award and Russwurn Award. A 1965 Book Week poll called the book “the most distinguished American novel written since World War II” (2). Nevertheless, along with praise came a fair share of criticism. Many persons on the Left believed that Ellison’s depiction of “the Brotherhood” posed a derogatory view of the party and other black nationalists disagreed with Ellison’s anti-black nationalism stance, as exhibited through the character Ras the Exhorter. However, the impact Ellison’s book had on the African American community and world as a whole was immense as it gave voice and sight to issues often overlooked by those enjoying higher status or greater quality of life. The book continues to permeate high school and college reading lists alike and remains a favorite novel to many. “But, as I said in the beginning, this has always been a most willful, most self-generating novel, and the proof of that statement is witnessed by the fact that here, thirty astounding years later, it has me writing about it again” (Ralph Ellison, 10 Nov. 1981).
Norton Anthology: “Ralph Ellison.” Gates Jr., Henry Louis and Nelly K. McKay, eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 1515-1518. Print.
Ellison though much about the theme and reality of invisibility as an African American, which he discusses in his “Introduction” of the second edition of Invisible Man. He speaks about wars-within-wars that African Americans faced during wartime, specifically during World War II, and how equality in times of war did not result in equality during times of peace (and often, equal treatment during times of war did not even happen). Working as a cook with the Merchant Marines for two years, Ellison is said to have written the famous words that would become the very first words of his acclaimed novel: “I am an invisible man” (1518).
Rather than focusing on the major “black-white” or “majority-minority” racial conflicts present in many African American novels, Ellison focuses on the inner battle of an African American man in being able to see himself. He chooses a main character with intellectual depth—a divergence from most other African American literature which featured uneducated, “purely victimized” (1517) central characters (such as Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright’s Native Son). Ellison also chose to make this book more than a “protest novel” that exposes the inhumane treatment of many whites towards blacks. Instead, he wanted it to be a thorough examination of the human psyche—exploring the depths of thought, pain, and emotion, and the means with which one discovers his or her own voice and identity.
Horizon magazine published the first chapter of Invisible Man in 1948 and the completed work was published and dispersed in 1952. The book received much praise and was awarded the National Book Award and Russwurn Award. A 1965 Book Week poll called the book “the most distinguished American novel written since World War II” (2). Nevertheless, along with praise came a fair share of criticism. Many persons on the Left believed that Ellison’s depiction of “the Brotherhood” posed a derogatory view of the party and other black nationalists disagreed with Ellison’s anti-black nationalism stance, as exhibited through the character Ras the Exhorter. However, the impact Ellison’s book had on the African American community and world as a whole was immense as it gave voice and sight to issues often overlooked by those enjoying higher status or greater quality of life. The book continues to permeate high school and college reading lists alike and remains a favorite novel to many. “But, as I said in the beginning, this has always been a most willful, most self-generating novel, and the proof of that statement is witnessed by the fact that here, thirty astounding years later, it has me writing about it again” (Ralph Ellison, 10 Nov. 1981).
Norton Anthology: “Ralph Ellison.” Gates Jr., Henry Louis and Nelly K. McKay, eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1997. 1515-1518. Print.