INFLUENCES
Invisible Man includes references to and inspiration from several authors, including Booker T. Washington, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Frederick Douglass, and Marcus Garvey.
“Atlanta Exposition Speech”—Booker T. Washington
Ellison has his narrator quote these famous words by Booker T. Washington when he presents a speech to a group of white men about the necessity for humility in all interactions. However, the very context in which this speech is given—after a brutal battle royal in which young African American men have been forced to brutally fight each other—disillusions the message. Ellison views Washington as “accommodating” to perspective of white supremacy and would probably also join many other critics in dubbing Washington’s famous speech as the “Atlanta Compromise Speech.” Click here to read the speech. |
Dostoevesky's Notes of the Underground
Ellison cites several authors as his inspiration, including well-known Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky. Ellison compares his narrator to that of the main character in Dostoevsky’s 1864 novella Notes from Underground. Underground also features an isolated unnamed narrator who has retired from society. Similar to the narrator in Invisible Man, this narrator questions the purpose and meaning of life in an existentialist manner. |
Frederick Douglas
Brother Tarp hangs up a poster of Frederick Douglass and presents the narrator with a link from an old chain Tarp had from when he escaped after being inhumanely imprisoned for 19 years. He tells the narrator to look back at both every "once in a while" (378) to remind him that the battle of slavery continues. African Americans may not be physically enslaved to whites, but mentally, emotionally, and psychologically they must steal deal with the reality that many whites view them as puppets and inferior creatures rather than human beings. |
Marcus Garvey
Jamaican political leader and orator, Garvey was an extreme supporter of Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism—the belief that all African Americans should come together and be united as fellow Africans. This point of view has the potential of self-empowerment, but it can also lead to a reverse discrimination in which not just some whites but all are seen to be manipulative and cruel. Garvey was eventually deported back to Jamaica for mail fraud—a fact which is briefly alluded to on page 272 in Invisible Man. The character of Ras the Exhorter is probably an allusion to Garvey. |