In Ralph Ellison’S Novel Invisible Man, Man Is Often Equated

In Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, man is often equated to a vital part of what constitutes a greater â€Å"machine.† The character of Invisible not only encounters figures who liken their efforts and sense of entrapment to working at the heart of a much larger apparatus, but he eventually finds that his own actions within organizations such as the Brotherhood also contribute to the whole of the machine’s operation. In such instances where the black man’s body becomes a functioning part that remains both confined and fixed in place, we witness how the machine becomes an interconnected symbol for the unwavering power of technology over man. The machine also tends to represent how societal divisions can generate a growing disinterest in†¦show more content†¦Broadnax in the dream and Mr. Norton in reality are behaving with the same intentions, especially since Mr. Norton persuades Jim to tell the story and even ends up paying him. In a way, Jim is being encouraged to participate in the stereotype of the uncontrollable black man whose sexual desires must be tamed. The mechanical clock in the dream is what keeps Jim confined to a negative stereotype, a stereotype which allows whites to maintain their systemic notion that black men are inherently dangerous creatures who must be kept on the outskirts of society. Thus, Mr. Norton’s payment is only working to sustain Jim as a part of the white man’s exploitative system. Jim’s attempt to run toward and away from the clock, or what we can establish as the working system, harks back to an earlier dream sequence in the novel where the narrator opens a series of envelopes, the last one containing a document reading, â€Å"Keep This Nigger-Boy Running.† (33). When thought of in the same context as the machine, the narrator is now understood as yet another black man whom the system can keep running in his place. Unfortunately, his failure to recognize white power’s perpetuation of the stereotypical black man through a machine is