论《看不见的人》中的象征手法

毕业论文Symbolism on Invisible Man 论《看不见的人》中的象征手法教务处制Abstract: Invisible Man,written by Ralph Waldo Ellison who is a famous black writer, is a distinguished novel on an African-American’s struggling in the tough and adverse societ y, from blindness to vision, from darkness to light and from losing to identifying himself. Ellison told us about a young black people's fighting story in breaking the edge of race and region rather than in criticizing on racial discrimination. The theme of novel is that the hero seeks the identity of his own. What Ellison presents to us is not only an African-American’s pursuing his own identity but an anguish process of man's quest for identity in this dehumanizing and absurd society of racial discrimination, the mental crisis in western countries. By using the method of documentary, exemplification, quotation and comparison, the paper tries to analyze the application of symbolism on Invisible Man through visual symbolization, structure symbolization and ceremony symbolization and so on to discuss how the author used symbolism to deepen the topics and to learn Ellison's writing skills. Symbolism is throughout the whole novel. In addition, by analyzing the symbolic meaning and symbolic skill used in the book, we can demonstrate how the symbols contribute to developing the theme. The writing style was changing with the development of the story, which extended the space of language and imagination to make us speculate and ruminate. The social phenomenon and its characteristics of America gave us a better understanding of western culture.Key words: African-American, Invisible Man, symbolismContents1. Introduction (1)1.1 Introduction about Ralph Waldo Ellison (1)1.2 Introduction about Ralph Waldo Ellison's works (1)1.3 Introduction about Invisible Man and its major theme (1)1.3.1 Invisible Man (1)1.3.2 Major theme of Invisible Man (2)2. The concept of symbol (3)3. Symbolization (3)3.1 Visual symbolization (3)3.1.1 Symbolism meaning of black and white (3)3.1.2 Symbolism Meaning of Darkness and Light (5)3.1.3 Symbolism Meaning of Blindness (5)3.1.4 Symbolism Meaning of Visible and Invisible (6)3.2 Symbolism Meaning of Structure (7)3.3 Symbolism Meaning of Characters and Behavior (8)3.4 Symbolism Meaning of Eyes. (9)3.5 Symbolism in Rituals (9)4. Conclusion (10)Bibliography (11)Acknowledgement (12)1. Introduction1.1 Introduction about Ralph W aldo EllisonInvisible Man, which was first published in Spring of 1952 and it was called "epoch-making novel, we can say that it was a epic of modern African-American’s life ". The author of this novel is Ralph Waldo Ellison (1914---1994). He was a black writer who was born and raised in Oklahoma, a frontier state with no history of slavery in middle south of America. His fellow African—Americans suffered less racial injustices than those in other states. His father, Lewis Ellison, was a native of South Carolina working in Oklahoma as a businessman and construction worker. His mother, Ida Milsap Ellison, was a native of Mississippi and worked as a domestic maid. Ellison's father died when he was three years old and his mother brought him up all by herself. Though poverty—haunted, the mother tried to keep the son in school. Ellison worked so hard in school that he got a scholarship in 1933 to the well—know Tuskegee Institute which is reflected in his novel as the Eden. The author was interested in literature and music from his childhood.1.2 Introduction about Ralph W aldo Ellison's worksIn order to raise tuition fee, he went to New Y ork to work as a performer, waiter and worker and so on. And there he met Richard Wright who encouraged him to write in 1936. He began to write short stories, essays and reviews from 1939. During those years, he published 9 short stories and more than 10 reviews. Invisible Man was his first novel, which was started from 1945 and it was not published until 1952. Ellison had been working on a second novel for more than 40 years. At his death, the long—waited novel, delayed in part by the destruction of hundreds of pages in a 1967 fire, was left unfinished. Shadow and Act(1964) is a collection of political, social, and critical essays, and the early details set down in it can help to enhance the understanding of Invisible Man. Going to the Territory contains his essays and speeches from 1957 to 1985 with a focus on such as racial problems, American culture and black literature. Among Ellison’s much anthologized short stories are Flying Home, about a black pilot whose plane has crashed in Georgia, and King of the Bingo Game, which proves wrong the claim that an unemployed black can win the game if he gets the lucky number.1.3 Introduction about Invisible Man and its major theme1.3.1 Invisible ManInvisible man is Ralph Waldo Ellison’s masterpiece and it gained him the most impor tant American novelists of his generation, a position that was not only maintained in the following decades. It is considered as the best novel after Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks. In recognition of its depth and brilliance, a 1965 poll of two hundred American writers, critics, and editors selected Invisible Man as the most distinguished novel published in the twenty years since the Second World War. Invisible man is mainly about the fate of African-American. However, its meaning is not only about racial discrimination and social issues, but the difficulty facing to all human beings. What's more, it's the classic work of American literature and a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to encourage readers since it appeared. This work gained the reputation from its first published and never decay so far. So if a similar poll were to be conducted now, it would in all likelihood produce the same result. This is one of the reasons why I have chosen the book as the source of my essay. Therefore, I will give a brief introduction of the novel as follow.Invisible Man is a controversial novel and the various conclusions made by his critics fully demonstrate such a dilemma. Initial reviews of particularly those by white reviewers, weregenerally very favorable. For a first novel by a relatively unknown writer, the book received extensive coverage with reviews by a number of established authors and reviewers. Saul Bellow in Commentary called it “a book of the very first order, a super book……intelligenc e. ”Invisible Man is a record of a Negro’s journey through contemporary America, from south to north, province to city, naive faith to disenchantment and perhaps beyond. In this novel, the hero was a young black man who had no name and lived in south. T he novel portrays the hero’s repeated attempts to define himself as he reels from one community and system of values to author, only to find disillusionment at every turn and lose his sense of identity in a world of prejudice and hostility. He longed for fame and money, he quest for identity of this absurd society.1.3.2 Major theme of Invisible ManSpeaking from the hole in the ground which he says is “like a grave,” he relates his bitter experience of having lived a life of death for some twenty years until he discovered his invisibility. He tells us how he began life with expectations and won the approval of the whites of his region. He had a great dream because he was regard as a model black by the whites around him. Those whites pleased with his humility sent him with a scholarship to a state college for Negroes in order to “Keep the Nigger—Boy Running.” He accepted all things that the society pledges him.In college, he became a protector of president. Unfortunately, he showed white benefactor of the institution around places that the white were not expected to see, such as the black's textile factories and made him seen the phenomena of incest in a black peasant family. What's worse, he took the white director who suddenly became ill to a sex bar in order to save him. But all he had done became an excuse that he was expelled from university.Then he went to New Y ork where he tried to be seen with the president's letter of reference. Just then his dream was not really broken. He had naive faith; he thought that he could find a good job in New Y ork and he would back to his university to finish his study in the near future. However, he never thought that the president's reference was a letter to make the people who received would not help him. He was fooled and controlled by the real society again and again.He got involved in a combat between labor union and anti-labor union undesignedly. In this accident, he was regarded as a scab. In another case, he was seriously injured in an explosion and he was subject for medical experiments. Later, in a winter afternoon, on the occasion of a black couple being driven out of their apartment in Harlem, he was so angry that he made an impassioned speech in public which subsequently put him in touch with the Brotherhood, a chessboard. So he became a member of "Brotherhood". His main task was to stimulate the gloomy mood in Harlem. He found that he was just regarded as a tool by Brotherhood to get their politic aims very soon. Its goal was to control the members' action and thought. In fact, both individual's own effort, ability and the fate of black were used as a pawn by "Brotherhood". But the fanatics of Black Nationalism considered that he was a rebel of black.At last, his dream was broken by a fight in the street of Harlem. He tried every method to make himself seen. He did everything in that dangerous and complexity society in order to prove his existence. However, all of these did not work; he still could not be seen because of his black. In the end, he dropped into an underground cellar where he decided to “hibernation”. It is from there he thought about his life. In the cellar, he lighted 1369 bulbs in order to prove his existence.The book ends with the hero’s awareness that “even an invisible man has a social ly responsible role to play,” and that “who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?”In the beginning of the story, the protagonist hasn’t independent identity at all. What he pursues is the acceptance and approval of the white’s society, as a black. Therefore, he engages himself into the white’s education model, and tries hard to adapt himself to the unfair rules anddisciplines of the nation. However, his result is the endless insult and abuse imposed by the whites dominated society.Ellison is skillful in using symbolism to emphasize the theme. For instance, the blindfolded in Chapter 1 is an extraordinarily successful symbol. This symbol foreshadows the hero’s invisible identity and the root reason why he is invisible. Additionally, it also indicates the hero’s suffering in the way he pursues his identity. This paper mainly presents how symbolism is used to reveal the theme of the nove1．Now I will illustrate the details as follow.2.The concept of symbolSymbolic is one of the basic means of artistic expression in artistic creation, which consigns one artist's idea by the external characteristics of a specific thing or the artistic skills to express a matter of peculiar interest. On the meaning of noumenon, it is not necessarily related to the meaning of symbol. It is the technique of expression that uses some specific things and the creation of literature and art to express a particular meaning which has a touch of the pretext, substitution or suggestion. It is generally on the basis of grasping the inner relationship between the body of symbol and noumenon accurately through the image of a certain specific to express certain concepts or thoughts or feelings circuitously.The word "symbolism" in English contains two different meanings. The first one refers to the late 19th century, originated in France with the literary trends of symbol, and the second one is expression skill of symbolism in literary creation. Mallarme, the French symbolism poet and theorist talked about the poetry: “In contrast with the direct performance of the object, I think that we must suggest that the poet is written out to make us guess its meaning little by little, that is suggestion, and we also can say that is dream. This is the perfect application of this mystery which constitutes of symbol little by little to suggest the object used to indicate a state of mind.3. Symbolization3.1 Visual symbolization3.1.1 Symbolism meaning of black and whiteIt is common that the symbolism of black and white adopted by the black writers. Here Ellison's description mainly stresses on the comparison of white and black as well. Black represents the black and white on behalf of the white. The aim of the application of black and white is to symbolize social relationships between the black and the white. Especially through the strong and distinctive contrast of black and white to symbolize the gap between the black and the white and the black's unequal treatment. Martin Luther King had expressed the inequality of black and white humorously in his famous speech," A white lie is better than a black lie", which is due to the prevailing social environment. The black writers used these images to conduct a complaint of unfair fate of the black and social discrimination against blacks.In the novel of Invisible Man, the author used a lot of examples of comparison between black and white to highlight the theme of the article, showing that the unfair treatment between the white and the black. The most outstanding and vivid example is that the hero of this novel woks as a painter in the paint factory in the United States. This factory is famous for producing the most pure white paint "optical white” of the country. The reason of this paint can be so white is that they add the black chemical agent into them. This kind of chemical agent can make white paint whiter. However, the factory hit a slogan of "Optical white is really white!" to conceal the fact that there is black chemical agent in the white paint. Here, the paint factory where hero works in is a symbol ofAmerican society. In this society, blacks make a great contribution to the development of capitalism of whites and play a role in making American society more "white". However, no matter how hard the black people work, they can not get the recognition from the white community who are the masters of this society. The fates of blacks continue to force to accept the white's view of value and assimilated and dissolved by the whites at last.The other example are that the white trustee Mr. Norton, a member of the Board of Directors of a college, wears a pair of white shoes trimmed with black. At a snowy night, three white mounted policemen ride three black horses, patrolling on the street. The students in this college are the black, while the building is white. Near this college, there is a roaring black powerhouse. The series of comparison between white and black have multiple meanings: the black are stepped and ridden by the white; they support the white and provide energy for the running of social machines controlled by the white; if they want to revolt, they will be suppressed fiercely. The white building in the black college also has deep implication. It symbolizes a kind of social progress in which black college students are plunged white's mind into their brain and they have no awareness of their own mind.At the beginning of chapter two in this novel, the hero set foot on in Tuskegee Institute of Technology where engaged in providing higher education for blacks with proud and self-satisfied, a great bronze statue of the founder of the college comes into view. When hero fixes his eyes on the statue, he can hardly contain himself for doubt:" The black slave kneeling beside the founder whose cloak should be thrown off or covered more tightly." and at the moment," a group of frightened birds is flying over, the indifferent eyes of bronze statue immediately flowing out the liquid of chalk strong. This makes the protagonist more confused, that is, why is disgraced statue looks even more splendid than a clean degree?" From the description of this paragraph, comparison of black and white is standing vividly revealed on the paper. The fo under's hands outstretch in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil that flutters in hard, metallic folds above the face of a kneeling slave. However, the protagonist can not make sure whether the veil is really being lifted, or lower firmly in place; whether he is witnessing a revelation or a more efficient blinding. The author obviously agrees with the latter. Then why their side works for them so as to consolidate the white society.Ellison himself had studied in Tuskegee Institute in which the statue of founder Booker T Washington stood as well for three years. He knew the kind of brainwashed education and racial discrimination very well. For the controversial black educator, different people have different attitudes towards him. Some people think that he sells out the interests of blacks to implement slavery education to gain a position in the white society. Some other people believe that his opinion on "local water" is a good opportunity for the black to be educated and make them more civilized. Then they will change their passive state of survival and be recognized by the white society. The statue of black founder’s with white tears which are actually the dung of birds. This stark contrast shows the black writer's unique metaphor thinking----reflects that black college under the guise of providing a unique opportunity for young black students to be educated and helping them to improve themselves. However, in fact, they indoctrinate blacks the value and life-style of white society forcibly and make them gradually lose the consciousness of themselves and national identity in the process of assimilation and enslavement. Apart from that, if we think it more carefully, more implications can be found.When protagonist attends the college's V espers ceremony, the black priest is advocating enslaving education. What's more, his "white collar is shining as if a white belt between his black face and black coat separate his head and body completely." According to the young black'smemories, the aim of sermons is nothing but making them know their own misdeed, unrealistic and idealistic, while the merciful white society is trying their best to save their lost souls. In his view, relations between black and white just as "white lip is full of black wet nurse's milk," "sucking the life source of blacks dry and vomiting filth towards them." With images of black and white to be exaggerated and irony show that after white society enjoys the benefits of slavery, they have no shame to forget the history and make the black's great sacrifices and contributions wiped out. The black priest who speaks highly of slavery education symbolizes that black educators have been completely white oriented. What is worse, they are used as accomplices to further pursue white mainstream culture among the young black to reach their goal of realizing the spirit of corruption and cultural colonization.3.1.2 Symbolism Meaning of Darkness and LightIt is known to all that darkness symbolizes ignorance, depravity and crime, while the light is a symbol of civilization, advance and truth. The main tone of this novel is darkness. Darkness means invisible which works in concert with the theme of the novel. Most of the things in this novel happen under cover of darkness, such as the dark night, the home is damp and cold like a grave, the dark groom and narrow channel, the dark house full with snakes, stay in a dark room as if stay in a tar bucket, the dark tunnel and coal pits, etc.In the beginning of the novel, protagonist declares that his hole is warm and full of light and there is not a brighter spot in all New Y ork than this hole of his, and he does not exclude Broadway or the Empire State Building on a photographer’s dream night. He says that those two places are among the darkest of our whole civilization. And he thinks that his hole in the basement is the brightest place of New Y ork because there are exactly 1369 lights. He has wired the entire room, every inch of it. Therefore, he says that:” I have been chased into the darkness in the past and then I live in the darkness. Now I light up the darkness of my invisible state and show the invisible status of darkness as well." Lightness is also a symbol of the awakening of the soul after protagonist grope his way in the dark under the delusion for twenty years. The people who really can not see the darkness are those living on the ground and in the light who the hero so-called sleepwalkers.In another example, the hero find that the bronze statue of God of Liberty still can be seen vaguely although her torch is submerged by the pride of the morning. As is known to us, God of Liberty is the symbol of democracy and freedom; however, the torch in her hands is flooded by the pride of the morning. It is easy for us to understand the author's implied meaning, that is, in a country like the United States which is so-called highly democratic and free, there is no lightness. To our disappointed is that people always turn a blind eye to the personality, while replace them with racial prejudice.Again, when fell into the dark cellar, hero burned his diploma of high school, paper dolls and anonymous letters to lighting. Isn't it a symbol of the hero burned all the past and began a new life? He wants to be out of darkness and go to a bright future. The protagonist experiences from darkness to lightness in order to be recognized by the society.3.1.3 Symbolism Meaning of BlindnessInvisible is the central image of symbol in this novel. Y ou can find the symbol of blindness, visible and invisible throughout the book, from the title to content, from prologue to conclusion. The protagonist is seen as a role or a function or as a mask. But he is not seen as fully individual person and therefore he is invisible. Most of the people around hero are blindness. The ambiguous image of the founder's statue in black college seems to imply that the aim of education is to broaden the black youth's horizon. However, as a matter of fact, the black is further blinded so that they cannot know the social reality of surrounding. The priest of college is a blind man, while he is guiding people; Jack who is the leader of Brotherhood has an artificial eye made of glass and it fell down in the debate with hero. The blindness of Jack, symbolizes his attempt to the dignity and individuality of the blacks and all of his subordinates, which makes the white do not want to see blacks as the hero, or even the white, or the people with any other color. However, they are trying to arrange the social reality according to their initial plan. It is the blindness result in "invisible". There are two symbolic meanings of invisible. The first one is that the hero is invisible, simply because people refuse to see him. The second is that the hero is blinded so that he can not see the social reality and can not be aware of his social status either.3.1.4 Symbolism Meaning of Visible and InvisibleThe protagonist is a nameless one, no matter blacks or whites in disregard of his personality; black veteran refers to him as "invisible to others", "embodiment of negative"; the black president makes it clear to him that:"you are a man not worth mention and not exist in the eyes of others."……"invisible" means that the hero has no value to the society, that is to say, he is only an empty title and losing his social status in the real world. The reason why the hero can not be seen is that people refuse to see him. This is resulting from the long-term formed traditional view with social prejudice. “It is the traditional concept that people always confuse a person with his race relation or his community when they look for in others, so as to ignore his personality characteristics." It can be said that the writer reveals the novel's profound theme by the symbol of "invisible".The white is reluctant to regard the black as the equal people like them. And blacks are ignored in the society under the rule of whites. However, the hero is blinded in the situation at first. He has tried to be an excellent and honest black student in the hope of getting people's respect and recognition, while a series of experience broke his dream. In the end, he realizes that he is an invisible man and accepts the fact that blacks are neither recognized nor respected. The protagonist gets much inspiration from these things, such as people always hold attitude towards others according to the labels on others or their own prejudices to others. Therefore, what is difference between a liar and an upright gentleman?Whites have turned a blind eye to blacks obviously because the black do not own the equal personality as whites. However, the fact is that blacks still can not be seen even if they have the same personality as whites. Because what whites see is the skin, not the heart. In such a society, you can not be recognized by others even if you find your self-identity and consciousness. Y ou can only discover who you are in the objective, especially among all kinds of social relations. The black who is unseen feel humiliated. However, on the contrary, those whites who can not see the black become blind.The cognition of human being is based on mutual understanding between each other.Then blacks are in the loss of self, while the white can not see themselves at the same time.That is to say, the completely opposite fate of blacks and whites will result in similar consequence.It is thus clear that" the issue of blacks” is not only belonging to blacks, but also be a problem to the whole American society. The protagonist realizes only too well that he is an invisible man after he clearly finds the divergence between him and Brotherhood. What Brotherhood need is a black's mouth that you can help them to express their opinion more effectively. In the end, he believes his fate that he is unseen as a black and human being. Hence, he stays in the hole under the ground to be an authentic invisible man. For the protagonist, he has been a visible man. He accepts the fact that he can not be seen by others. And this acceptance contains the acknowledgement of self and the real social status of self-----a figurative expression of self-awareness. The 1369 bulbs which lightened the darkness of the basement give him the body of his own. He says:" Withoutlights, I can not see anything and I am invisible. Life without knowing the form of you is death. After my twenty years survival, I am not alive until I find that I am unseen by others. From "invisible” at first to "visible" in the end is the process of seeking hero's own value in such a highly modern society of the United States. Fortunately, he eventually makes himself become a "vi sible” man who owns clear mind and with sharp eyes and keen sensibility. He want to seek for himself and feels like to defeat the traditional concept with racial prejudice, so that more people can experience from” invisible" to "visible". This is also a common issue facing black and non-black.3.2 Symbolism Meaning of StructureIn terms of plot structure of Invisible Man, the author uses expression of flashback to show the overall layout and the partial plan. The part of prologue is an extension of the conc lusion in the eyes of the plot development. The development of story in the novel as if a circle, any point can be the beginning or the end of the story. This indicates that our journey of life goes and returns in following a circle and continuous reproduction breed in an endless succession is the same as the nature. Ellison symbolizes the continual march of the life seasons skillfully through the hero's struggle in life and the dormancy in the end. It all adopts a structure of circle. At the beginning of novel, the nameless hero lives in his hole in the ground where warm and full of light. Then he tells us the story about his struggle from the south to the north, from school to the community and how he falls in his hole. As a whole, the novel begins as the "hole" and ends as the” hole".As the hero saying in the prologue:" The end of the story is included in the beginning." This is an organization which has symbolic meaning. The expression what the writer uses makes him do some introspection about his past at the same time when he tells his story. The protagonist gradually realizes that the past is a part of his life and guides his way ahead.The prologue is the beginning of the story. The writer keeps a series of suspense to readers from the title of novel, dedication and preface through the symbolism of imagery, metaphor, contrast and so on. And this leads readers into the interesting part of the novel.The young black man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids falls into an abandoned underground coal due to tracing by the police. He stays in the hole to start a reflection of life and human nature. He is the hero of the novel who is called invisible man by the writer. Generally speaking, readers will have some questions when they see the title for the first time. That is, who is the visible man? Why is he invisible? Is he really invisible? While its dedication is that----you are saved. What is casting a shadow on your life----to suggest and render theme.First, the lens of the memories go to the time of hero's high school, that is, the time of spring which is full of the beautiful expectations in his life. The "invisible man" keeps his grandfather's will in mind and be a model with excellent performance. Fighting between the masked black children is a symbol of the road to know himself that full of thorns. After fighting, blacks are forced to take money from the electric blanket and watch naked white woman, which symbolizes the black's present situation that they are abused, ridiculed, threatened and tempted by the white. The "invisible man" is full of curiosity and boundless yearning for the future after getting applause and scholarship from the white in his speech.College career is the life in the summer with flowers bloom. For the education is incomplete, unequal and isolated, hero can not see through the appearance to perceive the essence. In the ignorant conditions, he still weaves his beautiful dream. The hero is still full of hope for the white and life when he drops out of school. With longing dream, he takes a train to New Y ork. From the moment, he starts his social career and gains the autumn harvest of his life. The hero suffers all kinds of difficulties and failures are far more than success during the journey. The ridiculous phenomenon in the society makes hero feels contradictory loses the goal and confidence of fighting.。