Analysis of Ralph Ellisons The Invisible Man Essay -- Rhetorical Anal

Analysis of Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man The prologue from The Invisible Man deals with many issues that were palpable in the 1950s, and that unfortunately are still being dealt with today. An African-American man who refers to himself as the invisible man goes through life without being truly noticed as a person. He states that because of his skin color he is only looked down upon, if he is ever noticed at all. The invisible man goes through life living in a closed down part of a basement that no one knows exists and he anonymously steals all of the power that he needs from the Monopolated Light & Power Company. Ralph Ellison successfully captured the ideas and issues of the time in this essay with the elements of the rhetorical triangle, the use of pathos, and the rhetorical devices. Ellison wrote the prologue from The Invisible Man in 1952 and was dealing with racism on the home front. Although troops in Korea were desegregated and allowed to fight side by side with the white soldiers, there were still problems when the troops came home from the police action. Racism was exceedingly evident in this time and was shown in the article by speaking of the shadows, and saying how the invisible man disappeared in the shadows, making himself unseen to the blond man that he assaulted. This article was written to show America and the world that there was still a line dividing black and white, and that the extremely destructive treatment of blacks made them feel like inferior citizens. Ellison states, â€Å"nor is my invisibility a matter of a biochemical accident to my epidermis† for him invisibility is just him. In the early 1950s no one was openly talking about racism like Ellison did in this treatise. He brought t... ... case and arrest the audience. All of the successful rhetorical devices were used to covey deep emotions, putting the reader in the middle of this emotionally filled essay. Through the use of the rhetorical triangle Ellison showed his audience, the oppressed, that they were not the only ones feeling the way that they did, and that America had problems and double standards that it needed to work out. His pathetic claims and astounding description pulled the reader into the story and gave it a sense of reality. Ellison got onto the same level as those that he was trying to reach by keeping the essay informal, and using real life experiences to make his point. Ralph Ellison used many different rhetorical devises to convey to his audience that the world was not perfect and that there was an invisible man out in the world that no one would take the time to notice.