Harrison Chan

Ms. Zachan

AP Literature

9 December 2021

The Quest for Invisibility

Ralph Ellison uses the protagonist’s briefcase as a motif throughout his novel Invisible

Man to represent the white manipulation of every aspect of the black man’s life. Through scenes

such as the battle royal in the first and last chapter and the narrator’s entrapment underground,

the briefcase serves to illustrate the quest for identity the narrator takes through the twisting

complexities of racial manipulation.

The narrator first receives the briefcase at the end of the first chapter, a gift from the

white men who pose as authority figures in the early stage of the novel. Upon gifting the

briefcase to the narrator, the superintendent tells him “Keep developing as you are and some day

[the briefcase] will be filled with important papers that will help shape the destiny of your

people” (32). Already, from this early point in the novel, the white man is establishing his

control over the narrator, preventing the narrator from fully realizing his own identity as a unique

black man. Ellison’s diction suggests subtle manipulation rather than supportive encouragement

in the context of the novel’s satirical tone. Interestingly, Ellison seems to suggest already a seed

of disdain and disregard for the powerful, white men who oppress and control the narrator when

the narrator drools a “rope of bloody saliva forming a shape like an undiscovered continent”

(32). However, because the narrator “wiped it quickly away” (32), Ellison maintains that the

narrator is still firmly under the control of the white man and without a mind of his own to think

and decide with. The final message in this first chapter is of particular interest in analyzing the
briefcase’s significance. In the narrator’s dream, he finds a note that reads “’To Whom It May

Concern… Keep This Nigger-Boy Running” (33), a guiding theme that persists throughout the

novel. At every major turning point in the novel, the narrator finds himself guided or

manipulated by a man or woman of the white race, influenced to make a decision based on their

desires. The narrator never stops moving in a direction pointed out by the white man until the

final battle royal.

The briefcase makes no major reappearances until the narrator departs for his journey to

New York. In New York, the briefcase is a symbol of the narrator’s bright outlook on his

situation, “still shiny as the night of the battle royal” (157). For all the narrator has seen of the

white men’s abusive, avaricious use of black men for entertainment, he still has faith in the

supposedly respectable white men of the North. To the narrator, the white men of the North are

pristine, beneficent men who can do no wrong. Other briefcases also appear in New York, such

as when the narrator sees “Negroes who hurried along with leather pouches strapped to their

wrists” that seem to be important (164). The narrator observes, however, that the pouches

chained to the black men resemble “their leg irons as they escaped from a chain gang” (164).

The implication here is that blacks are chained to the wills and demands of whites, constantly

controlled in every aspect of their lives. However, his briefcase makes him feel more important

than the other black men bearing briefcases for his own case’s shiny newness. As the narrator

“removed the letter from my [his] briefcase” (167), he removes another directive for white men

to throw at him. Ellison takes every chance to reinforce the idea that the narrator is manipulated

by white men. When the narrator finds out what the letters Bledsoe provided truly read, the

reader can take full comprehension of the significance of the briefcase and its contents. He

finally understands a small portion of how he has been manipulated. The Bledsoe letter marks a
turning point in the narrator’s search for identity. From here, the narrator begins the long journey

to recreating himself as a unique, black man, not styled after the stereotypical expectations of

white men.

Chapters later, the briefcase makes another appearance as the narrator makes his

departure from Mary’s for the final time. The briefcase appeared as new as the night he had

received hit, but it “sagged now as I placed the smashed bank and coins inside” (327). As the

narrator loads more and more things created by white men such as orders and racial stereotypes,

the briefcase grows more burdensome. The implication is that eventually the burden will be too

great, and the briefcase will break, metaphorically and literally. The “briefcase with the broken

image lay on the table” where it is left alone for the moment (332). Gradually, the narrator is

weaning himself off the base white men give him with their regular orders and manipulations.

The process will take a long time though, as a this point, the briefcase and its contents are only

temporarily forgotten.

The briefcase’s final appearance underground represents a great moment for the narrator

when he finally realizes how thoroughly and skillfully he has been manipulated into a literal hole

in the ground. As the narrator describes the things he removes, “holding tight to my [his]

briefcase” (567), the reader sees the journey he has made in searching for his identity and how he

has been manipulated in that journey by everybody, white or black. From the narrator’s high

school diploma to the notes and letters from Brother Jack, the narrator’s entire life has been built

upon the schemes and titles of white men. He has never fully embraced his identity as a black

man, instead always trying to satisfy the whites and become white. In his final escape from the

view of society, the narrator realizes that “to light my way out I would have to burn every paper

in the briefcase” (567). The narrator recognizes that he must give up his attachment to the idea of
white as right, and ultimately, this decision leads him to find just how thoroughly he has been

played by white men. Ellison also refers back to the earliest times with the briefcase, connecting

the story full circle when the narrator sees the papers that Brother Jack wrote that could “set

[him] running with one and the same stroke of the pen” (568). True to the words that appeared to

the narrator in his dream, “they”, presumably the white race, kept the narrator running for a long

time before they were discovered. For all his attempts to become whiter, the narrator ultimately

realizes he must embrace his black invisibility. As the narrator had mentioned, “the blacks

striving toward whiteness, [become] quite dull and gray” (577). Despite the best attempts of each

race to mimic the other, they will all fail and lose their own identity, becoming, instead, a duller,

less unique gray.

Ralph Ellison uses extensive symbolism and a widespread use of motifs to focus on the

narrator’s quest for identity, particularly keying in on the narrator’s briefcase to demarcate the

narrator’s path on his quest. As with any quest, the narrator faces regular obstacles and

challenges. At the end of the journey, he finds his destination is not what he thought it would be.

Instead of being an affluent African American, styled after Bledsoe, the narrator has discovered

that he truly is an invisible man. He is unseen to the eyes of society for he is below them, but his

position gives him power, a power of his own to control and manipulate people from the

darkness. At points throughout the novel, the briefcase serves as a motif that alerts the reader to a

change in the narrator’s attitude or life.