IMLITCRITFINAL

8/20/2019 IMLITCRITFINAL

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Sarah Kim

Ms. Loureiro

AP Lit - 7

2 December 2015

The Limitation of the Invisible Man’s Future by the Controlling, Powerful Writers of the

Documents in His Briefcase

The battle royal briefcase in the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison appears to signify

progression as the items in it are collected during pivotal moments in the narrator’s journey

starting with the Battle Royal. The Invisible Man’s briefcase symbolizes the limits to his future

and life as each piece of paper in it is boxed and becomes baggage to him physically and

mentally. Due to the limitations that it places on his life, the novel is found revisiting the

beginning of the novel multiple times- each found at the pivots in his life. Each document in the

briefcase becomes his authentic marker of individual identity as he allows the people that write

these documents to control his existence. Much like how the briefcase houses the letters of the

narrator’s future, these papers limit the progression of his future by perpetuating a hopeless cycle

sustained by the writers of the documents.

The first pivotal moment for the narrator happens right after the battle royal when the

narrator finally delivers the speech he had been invited to present to a gathering of communal

leaders. Before administering the speech he was so anxious to recite, the Invisible Man

experienced a series of traumatizing events from the battle royal. Upon his arrival, the narrator

soon learns that he and nine other Black youths are to entertain the powerful whites of the town

through a series of acts that are clearly set to degrade the Black race. In what can only be



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described as a humiliating boxing match and a pitiful retrieval of rewards from an electrified rug,

the narrator carries on to blurb out his proud valedictory speech even while choking on a mouth

full of saliva and blood subsequent from the physical pains he receives from the harmful acts

(Samuels 1). Even though receiving recognition to address his valedictory speech on Black

progress for a group of well-respected people was a proud accomplishment for the narrator, to

his audience, the speech was heard as a joke. The audience reacts to his introduction with,

“Much applause and laughter” (Ellison 29), and although the narrator is introduced by the M.C.

as, “The smartest boy...in Greenwood”, the crowd unmistakably reacts to the appointment as

laughable (Ellison 29). If he was truly a well respected person, there would be no evident sounds

of displeasure, laughter, or interruptions, but all these occurred during the narrator’s speech even

after being addressed highly. Not only does the action of accepting the briefcase after the

horrendous happening reveal the narrator’s ignorance to see that the battle royal was wrong, but

it also shows that the narrator is limited by the people in which his advancements are controlled

by. Overjoyed and so moved to the point where he could, “Hardly express [his] thanks”, the

narrator’s physical pains are alleviated immediately after being awarded the briefcase and a

scholarship to the state college of Negroes as if the battle royal was an acceptable requirement in

order for him to progress (Ellison 32). The narrator is illusioned by the offer he receives and by

doing so, he fails to see that the White men are actually limiting his future with their ability to

control the actions he performs for them. These powerful people predestined his future and

prevented the Invisible Man from achieving his goal to find his true identity which he finds after

experiencing all the pivots in his journey. The briefcase that is given to the Invisible Man



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symbolizes the limits to his life as the encased scholarship directs his life to a college in which

the Invisible Man had no decision to choose.

After being kicked out from the college he had been so enthusiastic to attend, the

Invisible Man is found at another starting point in his journey when he is sent to New York, a

city of foreign culture that suggests limitations (Samuels 2). The Invisible Man soon recognizes

these pivots in his life as hopeless cycles (Bowser 5). Once an inspiration to the narrator for

being a powerful (well-respected) black figure as the president of his college, Dr. Bledsoe soon

becomes the source of anger and emotion for the Invisible Man. The infuriation he feels is

caused by the shocking words in Dr. Bledsoe’s letters because he had so strongly believed that

Dr. Bledsoe sent him off with his best interests. Unable to see beyond the hurtful betrayal by

Bledsoe, the Invisible Man rejects the sincere offers that young Emerson gives to him because he

interprets his help as offensive. By letting the offense get to him, the Invisible Man is unable to

move forward in his life and is found limited by Dr. Bledsoe’s plans, causing him to miss out on

the opportunities that would have actually allowed him to progress. Dr. Bledsoe is only able to

execute his plans out because of the power he has;in fact, he expels the narrator because he is

afraid that the Invisible Man is a threat to his position. Believing that, “It is to the best interests

of the great work... that he continue undisturbed in these vain hopes while remaining as far as

possible from our midst,” Dr. Bledsoe’s worrying leads to his decision of planning the narrator’s

path (Ellison 190-1). The limitations that Bledsoe sets on the Invisible Man’s future is evident

through the reactions that the important men of the country who receive the letters make.

“Looked at strangely,” and, “[Receiving] polite refusals,” the readers of the letters judged the

Invisible Man not for his true character but for the humiliating explanations that Bledsoe wrote



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about in the letters “(Ellison 168-9). While the Invisible Man believed that he was progressing

towards something greater for himself, in reality he was moving among the constraints of Dr.

Bledsoe’s workings (Bowser 5). The letters not only limit the narrator from finding a job to help

him settle down in the new city, but they also set up a negative pre-created image to the people

that receive the letter. These bounds not only set the Invisible Man back into a position of being

powerless (unable to control his own life), but they also allowed the upper people in power to

have authority over his life. The letters bring forth a revisitation of the novel’s beginning and

because the narrator fails to locate an origin, this time Dr. Bledsoe, the narrator is found

inconclusive in his journey to find his identity.

The last few documents that the narrator collects into his briefcase include a slip of paper

that has his Brotherhood name written on it and a letter from an anonymous person during his

membership in the Brotherhood. What the narrator did not realize until the end is that it was

Brother Jack who wrote the threatening anonymous letter which was revealed after the narrator

matched the two different papers through the handwriting. Brother Jack wrote the anonymous

letter with the intent to control the narrator’s actions after witnessing the Invisible Man’s ability

to move crowds with his speeches; he became afraid that the narrator would become too

powerful to be controlled under his hands. To prevent this from happening, Brother Jack sends

the anonymous letter to warn and more-so threaten the narrator for, “[Going] too fast” (Ellison

383). Before the narrator was able to connect that it was Brother Jack who had sent the letter, he

failed to see that Brother Jack had really been limiting his actions the entire time he was in the

Brotherhood by restricting the content he was able to speak about in his speeches. By telling the

narrator that he had to, “Start thinking with [his] mind and not [his] emotions,” Brother Jack was



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essentially cutting away the true words that the Invisible Man wanted to say so that he would not

appeal too strongly to the listeners (Ellison 375). The limited speeches that the narrator spoke

prevented him from being able to live his true identity, but because the narrator believed that the

the Brotherhood was helping him in his best interests, he viewed the limitations they placed on

him as constructive criticisms (Bowser 2). The narrator eventually learns that just like how the

powerful Whites and Dr. Bledsoe had used and controlled him, the Brotherhood that he had

thought he was making self-progress in turned out to be no different from the others. The men

responsible of limiting the Invisible Man’s life all used their power to do so which forced the

Invisible Man to make involuntary decisions that prevented him from being able to be his true

form of self (Samuels 2).

Symbolized through the briefcase that carries papers written by people in power, the

limitations of the Invisible Man’s life physically and mentally become the baggage that prevents

him from finding his true identity. In the end, the Invisible Man finally realizes that he was under

an illusion and that these experiences were all leading him to live an advancing, influential life.

These limiting experiences discouraged him from being his true self, and the people behind all

the papers that were encased in his briefcase were what really limited the Invisible Man’s future.

Documentation gives a sense of certainty and sureness and these encased documents in the

briefcase were what the Invisible Man carried physically and mentally. The narrator was only

able to be controlled by these pieces of paper because he was unaware of the idea that he was

being bounded. Although these documents did not physically have any powers, the idea that they

were documented by men in high power gave them a sense of certainty and sureness that was

strong enough to convince the narrator into believing the words that were written on them. The



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briefcase that was expected to hold the papers that recalled meaningful moments in the Invisible

Man’s life eventually did the opposite when he realized that the men behind these papers were

responsible for the limitations in his life for their interests in power.



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Works Cited

Bowser, Rachel A. "Visibility, Interiority, And Temporality In The Invisible Man." Studies In

The Novel 45.1 (2013): 20-36. Literary Reference Center . Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print.

Samuels, Wilfred D. "Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN." Explicator 42.4 (1984): 49-51. Literary

Reference Center . Web. 1 Dec. 2015.