3. Is the reader meant to identify with the narrator?

[John]

3. Is the reader meant to identify with the narrator? To sympathize with him? How do you think Ellison himself sees his protagonist?

[Kristel]

I found it very hard to sympathize with him, especially with the first part of the book where he seems so violent but later as you get to know what he has gone through, I felt great sympathy. I also felt he was so naïve and trusting. I found that hard to believe but I think it is all about the education that the narrator gets in college and in New York where he really learns about things as they are.

[[deleted user]]

I don't think as a white reader that I was meant to identify with the narrator I think this was more about educating the reader to how life is.

[Connie]

I think we are meant to sympathize with him, but not overly so...we were also meant to be critical in terms of asking ourselves what we would do in the same situation -- and whether he is doing the right thing for his race.

I would guess that Ellison sees himself as the protagonist, but I don't know enough about the author to know, other than his language (and knowledge of a range of dialects) matches the character's.

[Sushicat]

Simpathize I can. Identify myself with him - no. His experiences are too far removed from my experience. I also think that in real life all these experiences he goes through would not occur in any single life. I don't think the level of naivety could be maintained.

[Connie]

I agree, Sushicat. I can't personally identify with him either because of completely different lives.

[Anita]

Wow, I really felt tremendous empathy for the protagonist, and I do think that was the author's intention. Here he was, doing his very best and trying to make good decisions and be a good person, and everything he does is thwarted by the powerful people. Powerful people who are basically using the protagonist for their own ends while making it seem like they have his interests at heart. I think there's a human thread throughout this book that rises above race, but it also especially relevant to black Americans. Political power is gained in the most pernicious ways. The protagonist was a pawn, and I really felt for him throughout the book.

[Connie]

I certainly felt for him too, just haven't experienced the same life. The way he was used over and over by those in power was very disturbing....I felt so frustrated for him. He's invisible partly because those in power always want him to do what they want, not be himself. That part -- the frustration with not being allowed to totally be yourself -- I could identify with.

[John]

Wow, until Anita's post I wondered if maybe this was a male/female issue because I absolutely identified with the narrator, for all the reasons she mentions. And I think that is a great part of Ellis's art - by choosing a first person narrator, he can avoid a name, making him "every man" and he creates a bond and intimacy between the reader and the narrator.

[Kristel]

John wrote: "Wow, until Anita's post I wondered if maybe this was a male/female issue because I absolutely identified with the narrator, for all the reasons she mentions. And I think that is a great part of Ell..."

Great points, John.

[Patrick]

Even though I get John's points, I rather range with BW and Connie (and others) with respect to feeling empathetic with the narrator but not necessarily identifying with him. I read this novel with the eyes of a white man who wanted to understand better what it felt to be "invisible", even to your race.

[Diane]

I had sympathy for the narrator in the beginning when his school principal kicked him out. Sadly I don't think much has changed since he wrote this book.