Hamlet Is In All of Us

The evidence that states that the blacks are in an inferior position and should try to raise themselves up to the human level continues appearing. The whites prove their overly important existence, and convince whites and blacks alike of this false statement. Being white, then, must account for being happier. Or such they say. "You too can be truly beautiful. Win greater happiness with whiter complexion. Be outstanding in your social set." (262) Absurd. The irony of comments like this, especially in the way that Ralph Ellison follows them with the description of the statue of a black slave, can't help but stand out to the reader.

The theme of inaction in the black society is also present when the protagonist first meets Brother Jack. He states "They're living, but dead. Dead-in-living... a unity of opposites." (290) Brother Jack understands that blacks are a people full of the potential to do something, but they are silenced into "death" by the oppression of the whites. It is this behavior that Brother Jack believes the protagonist can bring a change upon. It he can rise the race to action, walls will be overcome.

Then, the mass effect and dehumanization of the black individual continues to take place. It is assumed by most people that a black man is just that: a man who's black. But they don't give the person any opportunity to define himself as an individual different from all other black individuals. As an example to this, Ellison makes a character question the protagonist: "Nonsense," he says, "all colored people can sing." (312) The reader understands the irony in such a statement, because he doesn't picture the strength of such an accepted social construct as who a black man should be.

The protagonist himself has also begun to notice the changes that have to take place within the race for its development, as he changes from a mere black man to a successful leader. He reclaims to the people bothering him late at night "Get rid of your cottonpatch ways! Act civilized!" (320) An allusion to the slavery a couple of decades before is what the protagonist uses to bring these people to action. He claims that even though they had now rid themselves of the chains that tie them to slavery, they have kept, as a race, the idea that they are still slaves. Their personal perception of themselves portrays the blacks as free slaves: not really free, not really slaves.

There is also the known way that Ellison, talking about something else, includes lines that make a lot of sense in the racial struggle. The protagonist is literally searching for a garbage can in which to throw away his trash, and he finds himself saying "I didn't know that some kinds of garbage were better than others." (328) This could have been said in a completely different setting, such as in a political fight for the rights of blacks. The protagonist is basically calling all humans "trash", yet he states that other consider white trash better than black trash. I find it really smart for Ellison to specifically choose to put this sentence in this part, because it brings extra attention to it from the reader. These hidden statements are what really show Ellison's opinion on the struggle the protagonist is facing.