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Power Of Music In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

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Music is one of the main things that connects the people in humanity, especially those in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Ellison utilizes this power of music to expose the raw culture of the black community and how the Invisible Man associates with it. This exposure allows for the Invisible Man to embrace his individuality, therefore allowing him to develop his new, true identity. Ellison uses many different music genres, specifically African American Gospels or jazz, to connect the Invisible Man to his roots at home. There are multiple cases where the Invisible Man has the opportunity to listen to a song pertaining to something he connects with, arousing in him a sense of homesickness. This sense of melancholy occurs most often when he …show more content…
African Americans are expected to know music and be able to perform it well, due to the plethora of musical exposure in Harlem. When the Invisible Man is hooked up to the surgical machine, one of the doctors present makes a comment on the Invisible Man’s awkward movements, exclaiming that “they really do have rhythm, don’t they?” (Ellison 237). The doctors disregard the Invisible Man’s feelings and degrade him down to an experiment, laughing at his pain. Their morbid negligence proves the lack of sympathy that people have for those of the Invisible Man’s race. The Invisible Man is exposed to yet another racist expectation when one of the brothers demands that he sing for the crowd, insisting that “all colored people sing,” (Ellison 312). The brother insists that the Invisible Man sing a black spiritual to represent his people, only causing him to become embarrassed to be there. He is exposed to what others think of him, exposed to their expectations of people like him, and he becomes extremely bothered by it. Both the doctors and the brother make assumptions about what he can do with his musicality, as he only becomes more aware of racial expectations, making it easier to succumb to his

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