Ralph Ellison’s novel, “The Invisible Man” uses the postmodernist era themes of individuality, isolation, and conflict. The novel starts off with an unnamed narrator talking about how he wants to get a scholarship to a University. The narrator is constantly subjected to different forms of discrimination throughout the story. The theme of conflict is present when the narrator has to participate in the battle royale. In this scene the narrator has to fight with other black men for the entertainment of others. The theme of isolation is present when the narrator is talking about how he is being treated by society and the white people. The narrator ends up winning the battle royale and gets the scholarship. He goes to make a speech air the end of his boxing match, but in the process gets laughed at by the white people after he says , “Social Equality” (Ellison 2038). This shows that the narrator has to deal with conflict no matter what he does in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQurUl4Snio
The goal of Ellison’s story was to show how hard it is for a black man in white society. While “The Invisible Man” talks about the narrator and uses the pronoun “I”, throughout the story, it hints at the bigger societal problem of racism. Ellison used a lot of derogatory terms throughout his entire story, and the speech that the narrator made at the end was made to emphasize the conflict in society.