What is identity? Is it how others perceive you, or is it how you perceive yourself? Is it how you present yourself, or could it be a combination of these ideas?
I found Invisible Man's ambiguous and experimental viewpoint regarding the concept of identity really interesting. The book is an exploration of the concept of identity and it never solidly defines what identity is, but it seems to imply that a person's identity can vary depending on whose perspective you're looking through. For instance, from a reader's perspective, Invisible Man's narrator's identity is comprised of (presumably) nearly every part of himself, while to the Harlem community, he's known only as a community leader who's part of the Brotherhood.
Another context in which I've been seeing many identity-related questions is college apps. Some portals have "identity" sections where applicants answer questions relating to their background influences and other concrete details such as religion and race. In this regard, identity is presented as a much more straightforward concept than what we see in Invisible Man. Another college mentioned the "different identities" of students while explaining the balance between school and extracurriculars. In this sense, an identity is defined as an individual aspect of someone presented in a specific situation.
From this definition, we clearly see two of Bledsoe's identities in Invisible Man—the humble, respectful Bledsoe and the angry, aggressive one—but only one of Brockway's. But from Invisible Man's definition of identity, we could say that Bledsoe only has one complicated identity that we see more of as the novel progresses, while Brockway has a shallow identity. I assume that we uncover much of what there is to know about Brockway from what we see of him since he can't stop talking about himself, but there's no way to know.
Identity is a vague term for a vague concept. We can never really know how much of someone there is, other than yourself. Even so, people are continually discovering new things about themselves and others, so from most perspectives, our identities are always changing.
I completely agree with you, and I think this novel's commentary on identity is really interesting. The premise of a metaphorically "invisible" man is already an abstract concept, and the way it plays out in the novel really made me think. The narrator starts off desperately wanting to be seen, and trying to fit into society's definition of success. However his identity changes throughout the story, as he quite literally changes names, and at the end has taken on his "invisible" identity.
ReplyDeleteThis is really interesting. I liked the contrast you pointed out between someone's different identities and their ∼identity∼. You can have a bunch of different identities - kind of like Rinehart has so many different personas to different people - yet this is not quite the soul encompassing identity that the Narrator seems to be referring to when he's talking about invisibility and not being seen. I agree that this is a pretty vague concept, which is probably why throughout the semester we've struggled to succinctly describe exactly what Ellison is talking about with the whole invisibility thing.
ReplyDeleteI also found this blog post so interesting! The question “what is identity?” in the title really grabbed my attention because, just like you discuss, it is so vague! At first, the answer seemed pretty straightforward to me: identity is how we define ourselves and who it is we feel that we are. But, as you explain so well, it gets so much more complicated, particularly as explored in Invisible Man. Is it possible to have more than one identity, like Rinehart, or do all of those different identities (as perceived by others), really just combine to form one identity that makes up ourselves? I love how you bring up the difference in the narrator’s identity to the reader versus to the Harlem community -- this is such a compelling point. And you bring up a great, interesting question: is it possible to truly know someone else’s identity if it’s constantly changing and you cannot know of everything in someone else’s life, and is it even possible to know our own identities if we’re constantly changing and discovering new things about ourselves? I definitely agree that identity is such a vague term for a vague concept. I love how you phrased this. Perhaps the definitions of this word simply vary from person to person, just as identities themselves vary from person to person.
ReplyDeleteAn awesome blog post!
The parallel to you-all writing your personal statements in your college applications is really striking to me, and it's surprising that this didn't come up in class, given that we have the rare section filled entirely with seniors. The Bledsoe letters are also something that members of this class can relate to--I once had a student in this course ask me for a letter of recommendation and jokingly say, "Just don't write me one of those Bledsoe letters!" The idea that a teacher or mentor might sell you out in this way is probably pretty terrifying for people in your position--the sealed letter that you've waived your right to view, which may say any number of things affecting your future.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that your college essays are like little versions of what the narrator's doing in his basement: trying to articulate who he is through words, and through telling the story of his experience and reflecting on it.
I think this is a great post and especially like how you used college applications to unpack it! I think throughout this book, to both other people and the narrator himself, the narrator's identity is constantly changing. Not only do peoples' perceptions of him change, his perception of himself changes as well. He becomes increasingly self-aware, to the point where he realizes that a central part of his identity is his invisibility and his ability to present multiple identities to different people. The narrator kind of seems to understand his identity better by realizing that his true identity is invisible and that he can make his identity look like anything--this is really weird, and this whole book really complicates the idea of identity for me!
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