Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

audience neglects it, simply due to the color of his skin. This reaction to the speech leads to a loss of identity, as one’s identity is simply represented by race, and not individual character.

Much later in the novel, the narrator is introduced to ‘Sambo’ dolls. The blackface minstrel performer, ‘Sambo’ is a symbol of the stereotypical roles that African Americans play in society (Prajznerová, 2007). Sambo is a doll which depicts ridicule in both appearance and behavior of African people and has been attributed with racist a perspective, as it is a caricature represented as a dancing puppet and entertainer. In the introduction to the novel, Ellison recalls seeing a minstrel show advertisement in the process of writing the novel, and eloquently defines it by saying “the poster reminded me of the tenacity which a nation’s moral evasions can take on when given the trappings of racial stereotypes, and the ease with which its deepest experience of tragedy could be converted into blackface farce” (XVI). It is evident that the doll itself is an exaggeration of the stereotype of African Americans, as the narrator is disgusted and embarrassed when seeing Tod Clifton selling them after leaving the Brotherhood. The narrator says “I couldn’t face Clifton again. I didn’t want to see him” (pg. 334). Any African American would have such a reaction because the ‘Sambo’ doll not only represents the stereotype of the Sambo slave, who is submissive to his master, but also, as a black entertainer who makes a living dancing, singing, and laughing for the whites who control him. The symbol of the Sambo doll therefore represents stereotypes enforced by white society, and these stereotypes are upheld for all African Americans, regardless of their own identity. Ellison’s purpose in using these events and objects is to display how white society assigns African Americans a singular identity to manifest the notion that all African Americans, not just the narrator alone, were hindered in producing their own identity. This prejudice therefore stereotypes all African Americans, and so white society gives them an identity as a race, and not on individual character. From these three scenes, readers are positioned to perceive how overt and typical the stereotypical racism was in the setting of the novel. In contrast to the present, even subtle hints to racism can lead to serious consequences in today’s society. A good example is the many celebrities who have been criticized for using the ‘n-word’, such as Michael Richards in 2006, a comedian whose career was mostly derailed after using the word (Cbsnews.com, 2006). In contrast, the word is prevalent throughout Invisible Man and many contemporary novels and is used by whites as if it is normal inoffensive slang.

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