Here are some quotes from my essay, so that people can further understand what my essay was about and so that people will make sense of my writing.
Here the narrator is still acting as a puppet for others enjoyment. After the narrator returns Mr. Norton to the school he is told that Dr. Bledsoe wants to speak to him. He goes to see him and Dr. Bledsoe talks of himself and how he has to lie to the white people so that he can get what he wants out of society. He says ‘“You’re a black educated fool, son,” “You’re nobody, son. You don’t exist”’ (Ellison 143). Here, the president of the school, Dr. Bledsoe, expels the narrator for driving one of the founders of the college, Mr. Norton, to a brothel. He makes the narrator feel as if he is nothing. Dr. Bledsoe has power due to his position in society, so he uses that to his advantage. The narrator is acting as the diligent uncomplaining disciple of Booker T. Washington. Washington’s philosophy was that blacks should work toward economic success as a means of achieving racial equality. He is letting others dictate his identity for him. I feel that in this situation his place in society is as a black man who is being convinced to be whiter.
Throughout the novel, we see the narrator interact with food and his reactions toward it. The narrator’s feelings of how he is perceived in society are evident in the way he acts around food. If he feels that he is being identified as a stereotypical black man, he will choose to not eat food that identifies him as a stereotype.
The narrator enters a drug store and goes up to the bartender and asks what the special of the day is, to which the bartender replies, ‘“Pork chops, grits, one egg, hot biscuits and coffee!”’ (Ellison 178). This statement upsets the narrator, because the bartender tells him that he would love the special. This would confirm in the narrator’s mind that the bartender is obviously a racist. Therefore the narrator chooses a different option, one that would not identify him as being the typical black person. He is upset at the fact that the bartender offers him the special, because the food is obviously southern food. The narrator feels pleased with himself for declining the special, however, he notices that most people are eating it. The narrator has such disgust for conforming to the stereotype, because he does not want people telling him who he is and what his place in society is. The reason the narrator felt this way was because he knew that pork dates back to Biblical times, and was considered unclean and a sin for Jews to consume it. However, during slavery it was consumed often. The slave-owner would cast off the scraps onto the slaves, which culminated into soul food. The slaves would make dishes using the different pieces of the animal. This was known as “eating low on the hog.” For the people who would eat the good portions of the pig, like the slave owner, it was considered “eating high on the hog.”
After the explosion at the factory, the narrator is taken to a hospital where some doctors run a series of tests on him. At the end of the tests, they ask him a series of questions to figure out whom he is and if he is ok to be discharged. The doctors ask him about Brer Rabbit and Buckeye, two characters from folktales introduced by Africans to America. The doctors then leave the narrator alone for a little while, to which he responds by saying, “Left alone, I lay fretting over my identity” (Ellison 242).
This shows how where ever the narrator goes, he is unable to shed his heritage. He is also unable to free himself from the burden of racism. Buckeye symbolizes childhood, whereas Brer Rabbit symbolizes adulthood. The narrator acknowledges that Southern black folklore is part of his heritage and he will never be able to get rid of it, neither do I believe he intends to. This is the first example of the narrator starting to understand his place in society and his identity. The narrator tries to discard his culture, while trying to transform his identity but he cannot seem to get rid of the racism that is attached to it. After this incident the narrator feels a sense of accomplishment because he creates his own identity rather than accepting an identity imposed upon him from the outside.
Another instance concerning the narrator’s Southern culture is reemphasized when he is walking down the street one day and sees a vendor selling yams on the side of the road. The narrator stops and asks the man for three of them. The vendor asks him if he is one of them old-fashioned yam eaters, to which the narrator replies, ‘“They're my birthmark,’ I said. ‘I yam what I am!”’ (Ellison 266).
These yams confirm his identity and heritage and place in society. The narrator chooses to behave as he wishes. He is his own person; no one is going to tell him how to act or how to be. His identity is what he wants it to be. He is celebrating his own background and taking hold of his freedom. The yams symbolize the Southern way of life and habits, because they are a traditional food of the South. Psychologically he is in a state of bliss because he is reminded of home and forgets about how he has been trying to act around other people. He forgets about how he feels about how other people view him, and focuses on what he is eating. The yams not only symbolize freedom, but they symbolize comfort and hominess.
When the narrator returns to Mary’s home, he notices the familiar smell of cabbage, a smell that reminds him of his childhood. “Cabbage was always a depressing reminder of the leaner years of my childhood and I suffered silently whenever she served it” (Ellison 296).
Cabbage was considered poor mans food and dates back to Africa to the time of the slave trade. The slave trade began in the fifteenth century with the Portugese and reached its peak in the eighteenth century. It started in West Africa as a cuisine and made its way to America by way of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It then became a series of dietary staples among enslaved Africans, known as Soul food. Soul food is America’s adaptation of African cuisine. Cabbage is a reference to the narrator’s childhood and also a reference to enslaved Africans. Before, with the yams, he felt this sense of freedom from racism, yet here he feels enslaved again. Its ironic that based upon his location and the type of food, his feelings towards an item will change.
When the narrator is walking through the street one day, he notices a stand that is selling dolls, but not just any dolls, he notices that the doll is “A grinning doll of orange-and-black tissue paper with thin flat cardboard disks forming its head and feet and which some mysterious mechanism was causing it to move” (Ellison 431).
The Sambo doll represents the narrator because he is being used like a doll to do what the Brotherhood wants him to do for their entertainment and amusement, even though they may not show it. His identity is given to him; he has a choice but chooses to accept what they tell him. He also, decides to keep one of the dolls and puts it in his briefcase, thus emphasizing, no matter how much he hates the stereotype he cannot part with it. It is part of his heritage and he does not want to loose that. This is similar to the bank idea. He cannot run away from his identity.
At the end of the novel, the narrator understands his place in society. He believes that society divides itself into two categories, blacks and whites. He understands that his identity is black, however, he feels that society should treat him as an equal and not conform to a stereotype. They should acknowledge his existence as an individual and as an American man. The narrator is a representation of the struggle to define oneself against societal expectations.
*****These quotes do not make up the whole paper, they sum up some of the major points that I discuss in my paper. This should help you understand more of what my paper was about.****
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