Religion_and_Invisible_Man

=__Religion and Ideology in the Invisible Man__=

Samantha Schles & Amy Cohen

Throughout __Invisible Man,__ a novel by Ralph Ellison, the protagonist, known only as an invisible man, encounters religion through Jesus-like figures, disciples, and prophets, and through direct opposition to practicing religion by white men. Characters such as the Founder, Dr. Bledsoe, Mr. Barbee, and Mr. Burnside all contribute to the religious undertones of the novel and effect how the IM sees the white world around him.

Early in the novel, IM is offered a scholarship to College (also unnamed) by the esteemed white men in his community. The point of this scholarship is to make the IM the white man's black man. After the incidents of the Golden Day, the IM returns to the college to hear a sermon by Mr. Barbee. Mr. Barbee is a blind man who was a great friend and follower of the founder of the college, known as the Founder. Religious imagery is simply dripping through the pages of Barbee's speech. His speech praises the Founder with the contolling metaphor of Jesus Christ. Direct correlations can be seen in quotes such as "And into this land came a humble prophet, lowly like the humble carpenter of Nazareth, a slave and a son of slaves, knowing only his mother" (118, Invisible Man). The Founder experienced a ressurection: "... he lay nine days in a deathlike coma and then suddenly and miraculously recovered. You might say that is was as though he had risen from the dead or been reborn" (119, IM). Barbee refered to the life that the Founder had created for not only the people of his generation but for the bright students of the generations to come as "this Eden" (112, IM), refering to the Founder as a creator of a safe haven for his people. Mr. Norton's words support this connection to an Eden when he declares that he "can see the fruits produced by the land that your great Gounder has transformed from barren clay to fertile soil" (45, IM). After the Emancipation, the black community was lost until the Founder "came and showed them the way" (119, IM) as a guiding figure just like Christ. Barbee describes him as being "godly" and "God-inspired" (120, IM). Barbee called the campus a "shrine" (120, IM) to the Founder, and proceeded with a direct simile to Moses by saying "... like that great polot of ancient times who led his people safe and unharmed across teh bottom of the blood-red sea. And your parents followed this remarkable man across the black sea of prejudice, safely out of the land of ignorance, through the storms of fear and anger, shouting, LET MY PEOPLE GO!" (120, IM). Barbee recalls his death as "the setting of this glorious son of the morning" (123, IM), using a play on words to create a metaphor of the sun setting and a reference to Jesus being the great son of God. Moreover from Barbee's speech, Mr. Norton recalls that the Founder "had the power of... a god" (45). When the IM is in Dr. Bledsoe's office awaiting his punishment, he notes that "the Founder looked down at me" (103, IM) as if he were a God watching over the people in his Eden.

Furthermore, one might suspect that the Founder viewed Bledsoe as a God, for when he wished to see him on his death bed, he refered to him as "his friend of midnight consultations, his comrade of many battles, who over the wary years had remained steadfast in defeat as in victory" (128), a description equally applicable to a God.

Invisible Man and Ideology
Throughout the novel, our narrator is faced with numerous religious characters and joins a over-bearing spiritual cult, while being blind to the evils that this conformity and ideology can do. The novel portrays different types of people and their ideology, ranging from Booker T. Washington, the IM's idol who is level-headed in his ideology, to Ras the Destroyer, who violently stalks the street in the climax of the book, weilding weapons and spouting sepratist ideological ideas. In the beginning of the novel, IM is subserviant to the white man's ideals and holds them up as his own, which identifies with Booker T. Washington's way of thinking. As he grows, he turns violent, like his brawl at the paint factory with Brockway. His violence was facilitated by the Battle Royal, in which the white men deceived him into fighting other black men for their amusement. Although he was too naive to realize their deception at the time since he still delivered his speech and received a scholarship, the reader recognizes that this is the first reason that the white man give IM to lose faith in this passive ideology. The turning point of the IM's ideology was when he started to turn away from the Brotherhood. He realizes that the Brotherhood's ideology only limits the black race and prevents the community from growing any further as people. In this way, the Invisible Man is an unconventional story in the Harlem Renaissance. Instead of a man who finds solace in religion in a turbluant time, he turns away from it and comes into his own.

=The Harlem Renaissance and Religion=

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of unity and new, creative ways of thinking in the black community. Religion became an important part of this movement and was shown in many of the novels written during this time period, including Invisible Man. These "new" black men created new versions of exploring religion, involving sharp critques and new ways of engaging people in practicing. People engaged in mega-churches, religious cults, religious nationalists and storefront churches. Key players in this religious uprising included W.E.B Dubois and Marcus Garvey. These men, along with IM's idol Booker T. Washington, held large conventions where they preached the word of god to throngs of black people.(Source 1, jcu.edu)

There was also a rebirth of a religion in Harlem during this time; the Baha’i Faith (source 2, aftricanamericanlit.suite.101.com) This religion is dominated by a feeling of unity. During the Harlem Renaissance, the black people were coming out of a period of lost identity. They were coming into their own as people and as a race. The Baha'i Faith embodied this need to unifiy the black people. This is exemplified on the fath's website:

"The essential message of Bahá’u’lláh is that of unity. He taught that there is only one God, that there is only one human race, and that all the world’s religions represent stages in the revelation of God’s will and purpose for humanity. In this day, Bahá’u’lláh said, humanity has collectively come of age. As foretold in all of the world’s scriptures, the time has arrived for the uniting of all peoples into a peaceful and integrated global society. “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens,” He wrote."(Source 3, bahai.org)

In their book __Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance,__ Cary D. Wintz and Paul Finkelman explore how authors during the Harlem Renaissance approached religion. "Overwhelmingly, depictions of religion focus on the storefront churches or on the rural south.....there is scant attention given to the mainline churches.....during this time period"(Wintz 1042-1043). They go on to give reason to this ignoring of mainline churches in literature, "The aesthetes of the Harlem Renaissance were fulfilling a role that artists have always filled: poking and prodding at the pretentions of official power." (Wintz 1042-1043).

During the Harlem Renaissance, there was not only a rebirth of the black spirit, but a rebirth of religion in many different forms. People were captivated with how it bounded them together and congregated in mass numbers to practice religion. However, the literature during this religious rebirth went against the current. They fought against the awesome power of religious leaders and how they could control people.

Putting it Together: Invisible Man as a Commentary on Religion
We have learned that during the Harlem Renaissance many new and diverse forms of religion were produced. African Americans flocked to huge churches to praise the lord or went to storefront churches. At the beginning of __Invisible Man__ the Narrator is subjected to participating in a "mass church"-like event at his college. For pages and pages we read the words of Mr. Barbee. We note from how the Narrator describes his speech a slightly silly. However, later on in the novel after having a pseudo-lobotomy, the Invisible Man himself becomes one of these verbose speakers, spouting almost religiously about the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood as a cult is almost a religion itself. The Invisible Man becomes part of the evil machine and he does not realize it until the disapearence and ultimate death of his fellow Brotherhood member Tod Clifton. This is a great turning point in the novel, especially for the Invisible Man spiritually. From this point on, he leaves the Brotherhood and realizes the evils of this cultish organization. In the grand fight in the streets with Ras the Destroyer, we see him riding a horse, weilding a spear and wearing the garb of an ancient warrior. This has what become of the spiritual leaders of the Harlem people: they either run away (Brotherhood), turn on their people (Clifton) or act in crazy ways commiting pointless crimes. It is clear that all faith is destroyed and the Narrator, ultimately leaves and lives in his hole from then on, an invisible man.

As stated in the book __Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance__, we learn of Harlem Renaissance writers "poking and prodding at the pretentions of official power" (Wintz 1042-1043). __Invisible Man__ does just that. Through the eyes of the Narrator, we see the rise and fall of the religious power in Harlem, be it the Brotherhood or Ras. We also see a version of religion in the South and note the sheer extremitiy of it. Ralph Ellison warns us of the power of power and especially spiritual, ideological or religious power. He also shows us how rediculous it can be and how out of hand things can become with it. However, with such an open ending, it is up to us to decide if life is better with this power or without it.

Sources: 1) Lassiter, Rev. Dr. Val. "Religion." __Harlem Renaissance__. JCU. 3 Mar 2008 <[|http://www.jcu.edu/harlem/Development_Team/Page_1.htm>.] 2) Price, Ron. "Exploration of Harlem Renaissance & Baha'i in the 20s & 30s. ." __Suite 101__ 17 09 1996 2 03 2008 < [|http://africanamericanlit.suite101.com/discussion.cfm/3685>.] 3) Bah'i International Community, "Facts and Figures." __The Baha'is__ (2006) 02 03 2008 . 4) Wintz, Cary. __Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance__. Taylor and Francis, 2006. 5) Ellison, Ralph. __Invisible Man__. Vintage Books, 1947.