Reflection Paper: I Am An Invisible Man

Unit 1 Reflection Paper, Topics:

Select one of the following essay topics as your subject, and write a reflection paper of approximately 500 words.

Topic 1: Ralph Ellison and Invisible Man

Ellison begins his novel: “I am an invisible man” (p. 3). Charles Johnson articulates the profound significance of this statement:

“And, as if this were not enough, Ellison gave our age a new metaphor for social alienation. His definition of 'invisibility' is so common now, so much a part of the culture and language—like a coin handled by billions—that it is automatically invoked when we talk about the situation of American blacks, and for any social group we willingly refuse to see” (p. vii - viii).

Reflect on Ellison's Prologue, and address one or more of the following questions:

How does this concept of human “invisibility” resonate for you in your own life experience? Have you been on one side or the other of this sort of experience? Have you been on both sides? Does Ellison's narrator provide a new insight for you personally? Does the recording by Louis Armstrong amplify or reinforce the tenor of Ellison's narrator? Do the song's words establish further connections?

Does the matter of the narrator's "invisibility" raise additional questions, such as: What about gender? What about women? What about black women? Are there possibly “layers” of “invisibility,” based on prevailing categories of social dismissal?

How does the issue of social justice relate to the phenomenon of human "invisibility"?

Topic 2: Michelle Alexander and The New Jim Crow

Consider the following elements of the argument Michelle Alexander presents in the book's introduction:

"Once you're labeled a felon, the old forms of discrimination--employment discrimination, housing discrimination, denial of the right to vote, denial of educational opportunity, denial of food stamps and other public benefits, and exclusion from jury service--are suddenly legal. As a criminal, you have scarcely more rights, and arguably less respect, than a black man living in Alabama at the height of Jim Crow. We have not ended racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it" (p. 2).

"Through a web of laws, regulations, and informal rules, all of which are powerfully reinforced by social stigma, [people who have been incarcerated] are confined to the margins of mainstream society and denied access to the mainstream economy. They are legally denied the ability to obtain employment, housing, and public benefits--much as African Americans were once forced into a segregated, second-class citizenship in the Jim Crow era" (p. 4).

"These stark racial disparities cannot be explained by rates of drug crime. Studies show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates"