Justin Boyd
Professor Broadous
PAS114b
24 April 2012
Briefcase
and Transition
A
transitional stage is the hardest. To change oneself is an incredibly difficult
process. In order to make a transition there would have to be a mental change
along with an emotional and sometimes physical change. Imagine having to make
all these changes within a society that looks down upon the race and skin color
the person is and everyone telling the person that they will become nothing in
life and treat them like nothing. This is the world in which the invisible man
lived in. In the book Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison the main character, who
will be named Invisible Man, was going through his life trying to figure out
who he was. He discovered parts of his identity through a series of objects and
events. Although, the most important
factors that helped him on his journey were the items he used the most and the
briefcase followed him throughout his entire journey. The briefcase allowed him
to house certain objects that either hindered him or helped him in his journey to
transitioning to become a better person.
The briefcase was awarded to him after he was
tricked to fight over pieces of gold that turned out to be useless brass tokens
that were scattered on an electrical rug. The briefcase was the reward of him
enduring a fight over what was assumed to be gold and so it initially held that
memory of him overcoming an overwhelming situation. Receiving this briefcase
gave him a slight hope that he can become something more than what he is thus
beginning the transitional period. A briefcase is defined as “a common bag used
by vagrants and transients for carrying around belongings and business people
who needed to carry papers” (Pohl). The common bag symbolized his mind because
everyone has a brain but chooses the way in which they would use it, just like
the suitcase; therefore the briefcase is parallel to the mind. The reference to transients, vagrants and
business people show that the briefcase, the mind, is something that men and
women of all social classes can obtain which helps the invisible man see that
the briefcase is his starting point into a better life. Briefcases are meant to
house significant objects, usually papers but can also be objects of
importance. Also, much like the mind the parallel of important objects and
papers would be the memories and events which are placed within the mind via
memorization. Once again the briefcase has shown a resemblance to the mind and
so the memories, mind, and events not only are mental but they have manifested
themselves within the form of the briefcase and all its contents. This
briefcase played as an opportunity for him to actually be able to bring along
items and memories which helped his mind to see this part of his life,
beginning with the reward of the suitcase as a new journey to become a new
person.
On his journey the first major piece of information
stored within the briefcase was the high school diploma which seems to be the
next step in his journey. Having the high school diploma shows that Invisible
Man does have an education and is not an uneducated transient. Not only does
him having this document seem important but also since he is an
African-American male with no sub-standard education, the diploma helps him add
another piece to the bridge that he is trying to create to transition so
someone better. This diploma held quite a bit of power “[T]oday’s college
degree is the equivalent of the 1950′s high school diploma,” (Clarey) since the
book seemed to have taken place within the realm of the late 1940s and early
1950s this quote perfectly depicts how the diploma was viewed. This also runs
parallel to his mind. The briefcase housing the proof of knowledge parallels to
his mind housing four years or more of high school knowledge, which means that
he is no ignorant man, he has learned to read write and speak well, as
witnessed in a speech given after he receives the briefcase. The diploma also
is one of the most pivotal steps in his transition because it is what allows
him to enroll in a college, which then should allow him to pursue a career,
well that is how he planned it. During this timeframe a high school diploma was
scarce “In the 1940s only 24.5 percent of 25-year-olds had a high school
diploma,” (Hayden) the quote further explains the difficulty of obtaining a
degree such as a high school degree. This differentiated him from all the other
people of that time that were without a degree and inevitably helped him step
on to a new part of his transitional stage. The high school diploma was treated
as a very precious document and so that knowledge from high school was also
precious and he tried to utilize the knowledge and make apparent his
intelligence whenever a chance arose.
Invisible Man’s next addition to his mind
comes when he meets a sweet young woman with secret intentions. Her name is
Mary and decides to house and care for Invisible Man, during his stay he comes
across a coin bank in the shape of a fat black man that ate coins placed in his
hands. Invisible Man didn’t realize how normal it was in the region he was in
to have racial items such as that “African Americans had been fighting against
racial discrimination for centuries; during the 1950s, however, the struggle
against racism and segregation entered the mainstream of American life.”
(History.com) he was oblivious to the customs of the region and wasn’t informed
of how things were. The racism had been so heavily used that the people seen it
as just another part of life. There was an opposition to it but it was still
accepted through little things, such as the bank. This bank was offensive to
Invisible Man and so he smashed it. After smashing it he had to dispose of the
evidence and so he placed it within his briefcase. This event affects him in
two ways, one being that he came across a form of racism that he was not very
familiar with so it almost instantly angered him to the point of violence,
secondly after dispelling this anger the thought was stored within his
briefcase. Since the briefcase is representative of his mind the event was also
stored into his mind and it became something he would never forget. Now he has
to carry the broken remnants around in his briefcase which is a constant
reminder of how society sees the black man. The bank hurts him mentally because
it is an obstacle that he is faced with but is not easily overcome. Invisible
Man does not do well with racism and so it discourages him to want to continue
although he does. Him placing the broken pieces into his briefcase show that
this is a part of his transition and he will not forget this event.
Encountering the doll has set him back in his transition to become something
that he wants.
During the Invisible Man’s travels he ends up in a
factory hospital receiving a treatment. He is the hospital bed with a numerous
amount of wires, which look like strings, receiving electric shock therapy. As
he gets shocked his body contorts and moves about, it is explained by an
onlooker to resemble dancing "Look, he's dancing, someone called"
followed by “They really do have rhythm, don't they? Get hot, boy! Get hot!’ he
said with a laugh" (237). Invisible Man is now partially scarred because
he is fulfilling a stereotype and the therapy was a bad experience. He looks as
though he is a sambo doll. After meeting
Mary and breaking the bank, Invisible Man comes across a vendor named Tod
Clifton, he was peddling sambo dolls which were small dolls that resembled a
racist caricature of the African-American man. The doll had big lips, very dark
skin and usually with a smile on its face. The dolls looked almost like they
were dancing when he first saw them until he noticed a string on the back used
to control them. This doll symbolized failure and how the African Americans
were made to work, which would be the sambo doll’s dancing ability, by the
white people. The dolls held a lot of racial weight “Sambo was depicted as a
perpetual child, not capable of living as an independent adult” (Pilgrim) these
dolls were incredibly racist and yet the people accepted them. The dolls also
symbolize the African American history and how they have been made to do all
the work and the white man has sat back and reaped the benefits. These dolls
hurt Invisible Man the most because they were the way that an acquaintance of
his had to make money and that they were the epitome of racist. These dolls had
set him back further in his journey to discover himself. He later stored one of
the dolls in the briefcase which symbolized many things and has multiple
meanings. The sambo doll reminded him of his friend Clifton who died in the
next chapter, the dolls represented how the African American race has failed in
trying to pull away from the white man, and lastly the impression of racism
once again beating against his mentality. This has the strongest effect on his
transition because the idea that he cannot run from racism or change who he is
is beginning to manifest itself within his thoughts. He has tried hard to
arrive at where he is when getting this doll but it is starting to seem to him
like it is all for nothing. Once the doll was placed inside the briefcase the
mental toll of it had taken affect. He is now beginning to realize how he is
being used by society and other groups he is a part of at this point in the
book. The doll being placed in the briefcase is seen not only as a setback but
also an eye opener because of his realization.
The briefcase was Invisible Man’s mental sanity, it
had mental parallels to everything he had acquired in his briefcase throughout his
journey. At the end of his journey he had to destroy his briefcase which led to
him losing all progress or regress he had made therefore leaving him back at
the spot in which he first began. Him ending up where he began showed that the
transition was something that he either could not endure or no longer wanted to
go through. Not all transitions yield success and in Invisible Man’s situation
it was better that he did not make the transition which lead him back to living
underground which is where he began at the beginning of the novel. Transition
is not for everyone and he was just another person that could not do it due to
the surroundings and happenings of the world. This resonated not only in the
book but also in everyday lives for black people. They would try to become
something better than what they are and where they are in life and then make
the attempt to transition and be met with many racist remarks along with racist
people. One of the major beliefs were that of the “contrast between light and
dark. Light can symbolize understanding as well as the "good" of society, whereas dark can symbolize
confusion and the "lower scale" of society,” (Caudle) this idea was
widely believed among the white community which only fueled the racism and
eventually lead to more hostile environments for blacks. This showed that the
world during that time was very influential, even on an intelligent man, and
times have only changed slightly. The racism has broadened to other races but
the difficulty to transition is all the same. No matter what time era
transition will always take a full mental and sometimes physical toll on a
person.
