Winkler

Emily Winkler
Dr. Janice Tuck Lively
Capstone Paper
12/14/2016

The Mysterious Workings of Folklore Throughout Invisible Man: Tracing The

Tricks

Within the workings of Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man is the utilization of

iconic African folklore. Through a nameless African American narrator this
novel illustrates the life of an African American man during PostReconstruction, while focusing on these classic folkloric tales. These tales are
illustrating the tricks and tripes that are around every corner for the narrator.
During this period of Post-Reconstruction the country is slowly beginning to
destroy the walls that have been built around the African American
community, but the truth of how much freedom Post-Reconstruction imparts
is disguised by swindlers within society. These folkloric tales cite instances of
bribery, trickery, and cunning to survive in nature and outsmart those in
control. Folkloric narratives descend from times of slavery, and within an era
of segregation these stories remain central as a reminder of the captivity and
oppression fought. Within Invisible Man the narrator works through his
naivety by transforming, realizing, and resisting the upper hand similarly to
the characters in folkloric tradition. In tracking the path of folklore

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throughout this novel Ellison creates a character that is not always aware of
the commonalities between his cultures past and his own present involving
folkloric tales, within the various groups he becomes a part of. His ability to
transform as needed to fit with each group also raises questions related to
identity and identities carried throughout folkloric tales that are projected as
a means of survival. Culture is ascribing the narrator and he does not wish to
be created as a fictional character, but as a character that is resisting this
movement to make him folkloric and therefore fictional. The narrator states
at the opening of the novel,
Or again, you often doubt if you really exist. You wonder
whether you aren't simply a phantom in other people's
minds. Say, a figure in a nightmare, which the sleeper
tries with all his strength to destroy. It's when you feel like
this that, out of resentment, you begin to bump people
back. And, let me confess, you feel that way most of the
time. You ache with the need to convince yourself that you
do exist in the real world, that you're a part of all the
sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you
curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And,
alas, it's seldom successful (Ellison 4).

In resisting becoming a fictional character as designed by culture, the

narrator is rejecting his own culture, thus building a solid foundation for
research to be presented. This notion leads into how Invisible Man bravely
defines what living as an African American man in a time of oppression

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requires by using famous folkloric narratives recited during times of bondage

and servitude, creating a footing for new boundaries to be lain in society.
From the very beginning of the narrators journey he is warned about
how to survive in a white mans world. The narrators grandfather shares
with him his own recount of keeping up the good fight during the time of
Reconstruction. His grandfather, not entirely proud, says, I never told you,
but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born daysLive with
your head in the lions mouth. I want you to overcome em with yeses,
undermine em with grins, agree em to death (Ellison, 16). These words
caused much anxiety for the narrator, as he tells us, but the general idea
that is present here is exactly what African folklore is rooted in: the ability to
outsmart the ones in charge. African folklore announced the Negros
willingness to trust his own experience, his own sensibilities as to the
definition of reality, rather than to allow his masters to define these crucial
matters for him (Blake, 121). The narrator has yet to understand his own
truth and his own reality outside of the South, and even with the words of his
grandfather the actuality of his circumstances has not been revealed to him.
He does not know how to take the knowledge that has been presented to
him.
The narrators grandfather was the first person to attempt to enlighten
him about the constant state of promise that the African American
community has been susceptible to. Following the words of the narrators
grandfather the narrator dreams that his scholarship is instead a letter

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reading, To Whom It May Concern, Keep This Nigger-Boy Running

(Ellison 33). This quote follows our narrator throughout the novel and reflects
an African folk song called, Run, Nigger, Run. This idea of running can be
traced in early African American culture to the theme of escape from
slavery (Sundquist 117). This particular song has several versions, but
each can be attributed to narrating a slaves escape or offering advice to
avoid being captured and returned to a master. For context one version of
the song is as follows:
Run nigger run, the pateroller catch you,
Run nigger run, well you better get away...
Nigger run, nigger flew,
Nigger tore his shirt in two,
Run, run, the pateroller catch you,
Run nigger run, well you better get away (Skillet Lickers).

The narrator can be seen running from the university, Liberty Paints, the
Brotherhood, to his underground world he encapsulates himself in. While the
movement of running when this song was written was an action entirely
based off of reality for the slaves, the narrator is not physically running,
though he is always changing where he feels most needed. He is constantly
fighting the idea that he is only a black man in a white mans world, although
he is unable to see how he is being built up with falsities to keep him
climbing the ladder. The idea is that as long as he believes he can achieve
success he will remain a commodity for the white folks. They can then
continue to control his status and also his mind. The narrator is in a constant

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state of invisibility, unaware that his efforts to surpass his situation are being
controlled by those in power around him. They build him up so they can also
tear him down when they choose to. When the knowledge of this is finally
ingrained, the narrator states,
I believed in hard work and progress and action, but
now, after first being for society and then against it, I
assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude
is very much against the trend of the times. But my
world has become one of infinite possibilities. What a
phrase- still its a good phrase and a good view of life,
and a man shouldnt accept any other (p.576).

This perspective is a survival technique, for without it he would disappear. He

has to force himself to believe that not only he is significant and that he can
still achieve what he had set out to do, but that society will no longer be a
controlling factor of his mind. He must have no boundaries. This is similar to
the slaves that fled from their masters for if they never kept up the good
fight they would have never had the hope that they could escape to a
better life. The act of running maintained their faith and their cunning as
they fought to move forward.
We learn from reading this novel that Ellison recapitulates a
common theme in black folklore and literature (Sundquist 117), which refers
to the line keep those Negros runningbut in their same old place (Ellison,
33). Ellison only enhances what has already been present in folklore for
decades. The narrators grandfather knows from the beginning of the novel

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the hardships that the narrator is going to endure out in the real world. He
sends the narrator away to the university with warnings and advice, but our
narrator is hopeful to be apart of the white mans game instead of having to
play it as an outsider. However, the narrator is soon told by the director of
the university how the world he entered views his importance, Youre
nobody, son. You dont existcant you see that? The white folk tell
everybody what to thinkexcept men like me. I tell them (Ellison 143). Dr.
Bledsoe is, as he signs his letter, a humble servant of the white man.
Bledsoe may claim to be no longer ignorant to the games of the white man,
but he is playing the game like everyone else. He has not stopped running,
but is rather running in place, which can be attributed to a man who has
stopped fighting. Bledsoe is no longer in a position that requires him to argue
purpose in a white mans world. He has power and that is all he needs. What
Bledsoe is unaware of is his actual unimportance and how easy he is to
replace with another intelligent black man. He is a contributor to the everrunning black man so he can keep his place at the university and in society.
With each passing scene you can hear the lines, De sun say dat a nigger am
free; De yaller gals he goes to see; I heard a man cry, run, doggone you,
Run, nigger, run, patter-roller ketch you (Sundquist 118). Bledsoe is still the
Negro represented in this song. He still needs to free himself from the eyes
of the white men that act as financial backers for the school and keep him in
power, but whether or not he realizes that he does not care because they
have put him in a position of power. He maintains an image for the university

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so that he can keep a disillusioned appearance that he is actually an

authority figure.
Before the narrator is given a scholarship to the university and meets
Dr. Bledsoe he is forced to live through what Ellison calls The Battle Royal.
A scene in which our narrator and his other black schoolmates are forced to
fight each other in front of the towns societal men while they chant
profanities and become roaringly drunk. These black men endure, electric
shocks, crude language, blindness, and all for the entertainment of these
rich white men who hold their future on a piece of parchment. This scene
depicts a ritual that is used historically to keep cast lines. Blake states, The
Battle Royal is rooted in the slave experience. It goes back to the manyversioned folktale, The Fight, in which Old Master and his neighbor pit the
two strongest slaves against each other (Blake 122). This ritual captures
the exploitation of slaves, and the abuse that African Americans were still
exposed to even during the period of Post-Reconstruction. This scene is
chaos, one man yells, See that boy over there?... I want you to run across at
the bell and give it to him right in the belly. If you dont get him, Im going to
get you and another yells, Let me at those black sonsabitches! yet the
narrator states, There was nothing to do, but what we were told (21). The
narrator allows these white men to take advantage of the situation because
he knows they have the power to affect his life in society. The Battle Royal is
a depiction of coerced black performance providing troubling commentary on
black entertainment (Lee 466). The battle leaves a taste of dependence,

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making these young men believe that the only way they can achieve
anything beyond the days of slavery is to participate in heinous social rituals
and the problem is that as a social ritual, the Battle Royal reflects the
limitation of blackness in the face of white power (Blake 122) and furthers
the war not only between whites and blacks, but also interracially. This
becomes one of a series of initiations that the protagonist finds himself apart
of. He is constantly being forced to analyze the safest way to come out of a
situation, all while trying to convince himself that he still exists in this
unfamiliar territory.
After the narrator is expelled from the university and first enters
Harlem he is exposed to the culture he grew up with in the South. It is
shocking to him because he has rejected his own culture and been taught to
cast it off. He has never been in a position that has allowed him to be proud
of his culture. Harlem is new experience for him filled with vibrant
personalities. As he roams the streets of his new neighborhood he
encounters the character of Peter Wheatstraw, an eccentric fellow, who
speaks in mystifying phrases. The narrator is confronted by Wheatstraw,
with a flurry of riddles and word games (Sundquist 123) originating from
African folklore. Wheatstraw is in fact a folkloric character himself.
Wheatstraw attributes natural and supernatural talents with being born 'a
seventh son of a seventhson' which, according to African American folk
beliefs, becomes a "sign of special supernatural or conjure powers" (Shinn,
252). Wheatstraw alludes to this when he states, All it takes to get along in

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this here mans town is a little shit, grit, and mother-witI was bawn with all
three
Imaseventhsonofaseventhsonbawnwithacauloverbotheyesandraisedonblack
catboneshighjohntheconquerorandgreasygreens (Ellison 176). In The Souls
of Black Folk, Du Bois writes, The Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a
veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world (885). Being a
seventh son becomes a curse insofar as it alienates and renders black
Americans invisible and unseen (the "veil" signifies the color line), yet it also
constitutes as a blessing in that it bestows a measure of clairvoyance and
"second-sight (Shinn 252). The black Americans that possess this power are
able to clearly understand the division between races within society and do
not fall victim to being nave as to how society views African Americans. In
this line above, Wheatstraw also references caul over both eyes, cat bones,
and High John the Conqueror, all of which relate strongly to classic African
American folk tales. Wheatstraw being 'bawn with a caul over both eyes'
"marks him as one born with the gift of clairvoyance and derives from a
specific Ashanti heritage. 'Raised on black cat bones' as Leon Forrest
explains, is from Afro-American version of voodoo and the context is this: in
voodoo, which always reverses meaning (as does so much of Negro idiom):
you throw a live black cat into a boiling pot of hot water; after the flesh has
fallen away you pick out its bones and gnaw away, and if you are lucky, and
gnaw down upon the right bone, you will become invisible (Shinn 252). In
many cases an African American during slave times would have rather been

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invisible, therefore making them less likely to face the violence inflicted by
their master, where in contrast the narrator is fighting his invisibility.
Because the narrator has a lack of knowledge about folklore he is
unable to appreciate the folkloric messages that he has been taught as a
boy, therefore Wheatstraw referring to himself as a seventh son goes
unnoticed by the narrator and leaves Wheatstraw typified through the eyes
of the narrator as a bit strange. The narrator manages to suppress the
meanings of the folkloric stories and songs that he had grown up listening to
as he becomes nervous around the hurried conversation style of Peter
Wheatstraw. This man speaks of various folkloric tales to the narrator, who
cannot think of anything to say in response. He does not grasp what
Wheatstraw is saying, ...if times dont get better soon Im going to grab that
bear and turn him every way but loose! In response to Wheatstraw the
narrator states, I tried to think of some saying about bears to reply, but
remembered only Jack the Rabbit, Jack the Bearwho were both long
forgotten (Ellison 174). The narrator has been smothering his own culture
in order to fit the ideal construct accepted by white society. He therefore
does not look to his own upbringing and background for support and
considers those tales and characters no longer relevant in his new life.
Although, these tales carry the wisdom needed to survive in the world he has
entered because they embody the fight that he does not yet know he is
apart of. The characters of Jack the Rabbit and Jack the Bear are the symbols
of the constant state of running that the African American community has

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been forced into.
The folk songs of Jack the Rabbit! Jack the Bear! represent the careful
slyness that the narrator needs to hold in order to be successful while
navigating New York City. These songs take on many forms, but in each tale
either Jack the Rabbit or Jack the Bear represent a cunning black man
performing some form of labor, Jack the Rabbit/ Jack the Bear/Lift it, lift,/ Just
a hair (Sundquist 121). Similarly with all folkloric tales involving animals,
they frequently represent characters who survive by wit and trickery; and
throughout the black narrative tradition descended from slavery, animals
often enact an allegory of the relationship between master and slave
(Sundquist 120). It is also important to note that the bear and the rabbit are
sometimes psychologically one in the same when being compared (Horowitz
23) the rabbit representing the fast-thinking, witty back man and the bear
representing the laboring, slow-thinking black man. The characters of Jack
the Rabbit and Jack the Bear in these songs are able to survive their
predators with their clever thinking. The protagonist falls short of using his
own intelligence to understand his position within society numerous times.
He countlessly puts his trust and hopefulness into people who exploit it or
those who do not deserve it. It is not until he meets the young Emerson that
he only slightly begins to understand his situation, whereas Jack the Rabbit
and Jack the Bear understood their situation as it presented itself. Emerson
tells the narrator, There is no point in blinding yourself to the truth. Dont
blind yourself (192). These words are a key factor that allows the narrator

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to see what a ploy his move to New York has really been. He allowed himself
to be blinded by his desire to achieve importance, instead of seeing that
Bledsoe viewed him as a threat to the system. In folklore Jack the Rabbit and
Jack the Bear could not remain nave about their positions for they would
have never been able to outsmart their enemies if they did not truthfully
comprehend their own worth within their circumstances. They both knew
what that kind of ignorance could cause and that their place within society
was reliant on their judgment of those circumstances. The narrators lack of
knowledge about this own situation leads him down a path that continues to
spiral. His naivety puts him in a position far from that of Jack the Rabbit and
Jack the Bear because they can both acknowledge their place and that in
turn allows them to gain the ability to outsmart. Jack the Bear and Jack the
Rabbit are more similarly related to the character of Rinehart, who knows
exactly who he is and works to transform with the purpose of protecting his
identity.
Ellisons character of Rinehart, although never physically present in the
novel, is very distinguished. He transforms within society and plays the roles
of several esteemed societal members, such as a Reverend and a dealer.
They may be opposites, but each role holds its own importance. He is a
character of mystery, who was this Rinehart and what was he putting down?
Id have to learn more about him to avoid further misidentifications
(Ellison 484). The narrator questions who this man is that he is being
mistaken for. This Rinehart fellow clearly has clout in the community, for a

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black man, which is fascinating to the narrator who wants just that. Rinehart
ties back into the characters of Jack the Rabbit and Jack the Bear because he
represents the idea that a traditional black folk song uses the rabbit figure
to point to the anonymity of storytellers and singers alike in the history of
slave culture (Sundquist 120). He is a man that is unseen to the narrator
and yet he is mentioned in association with various parts of the community.
Rinehart himself has become mythic because no one truly knows who he is.
He is an anonymous character in the eyes of the narrator, similarly to the
tradition of the animal of the rabbit in various tales and folkloric songs. In
fact the song of Jack the Rabbit! Jack the Bear! has a line that goes,
Anybody should ask you who made up this song/ Tell em Jack the Rabbit,
hes been here and gone (Sundquist 120). This one line mirrors every detail
a reader can deduce from the tiny pieces of information about Rinehart that
are heard throughout one chapter of Invisible Man. There is not much the
narrator knows about Rinehart, therefore leaving the reader with some
further questions about his character. But like Jack the Rabbit he transforms
for people in order to survive in the community. He does not allow society to
put him in a category so he moves within a myriad of parts inside the
neighborhood.
Since Rinehart is able to alter the man that he is, he not only
represents the folk songs of Jack the Rabbit! Jack the Bear! but the
traditional folkloric mystery of possession, hoodoo, voodoo, and wizardry. As
the narrator explores more of this hidden person he discovers Rineharts

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claims of, "See all, Know all, Tell all, Cure all," and his promises to reveal
hidden secrets with his prophetic vision (495). With what little is known about
this character it can be presumed that Rinehart might be characterized as
self-possessed, and he can possess others at will (Shinn 253). He, like the
other African Americans of this time, struggle to not only find their identity in
this post-Reconstructive world, but to be significant and respected within it.
Rinehart has a gift for being someone in this community that is well known,
feared, and valued. As stated, Possession involves a struggle for power to
control or be controlled, inhabit and be inhabited (Shinn 253) and Rinehart is
in control. The narrator expresses, Rine the runner, and Rine the gambler
and Rine the briber and Rine the lover and Rinehart the Reverend?...His
world was possibility and he knew it (Ellison 498). Rinehart, through the act
of possession, was allotted the power that the narrator was struggling to
find. Rinehart became different people, but the narrator allowed other
people, white people, to define who he was. Each role that the narrator found
himself apart of was because of a white man.
This same notion can be understood through the character of Todd
Clifton, who in his own way also uses the hoodoo, voodoo tradition in this
novel, after he realizes his truth within the Brotherhood. Shinn writes, Clifton
becomes a puppet of the Brotherhood, manipulated and made to dance. As
he stands on the street comer peddling Sambo dolls, he uses ventriloquism
to speak outside of himself and from inside the Sambo doll (432). The
Sambo doll and Clifton therefore mirror each other as symbols of

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manipulation. Clifton makes the doll dance which transfers over to the idea
of possession and the possession of his spirit by those in the Brotherhood
(Shinn 454). Clifton gave his life to the cause when the cause was just using
him for his blackness. The narrator states, He thought he was a man and
that men were not meant to be pushed around. But it was hot downtown and
he forgot his history, he forgot the time and the place. He lost his hold on
reality (Ellison 457). As Clifton provokes his own death the narrator explains
that his state of reality was contorted and he was overcome by a bout of
clarity, leaving him disoriented. In the wake of Cliftons possession the acuity
he was imparted caused him indescribable guilt and shame. Clifton, as Shinn
writes, performs the part of a vendor in an amusement park concession
booth with his particular carnival inflections, turning into the fetishized doll
that he is attempting to sell (254). He can no longer live with the man he
has become in part because of who the Brotherhood lead him to believe he
was. Becoming a trinket, a toy, leaves Clifton as the one who was possessed.
He fights for the control, but he knows now that society will not allow him to
have that privilege. Clifton misses his opportunity to live like the character of
Brer Rabbit, who could evoke his influence on anyone he came into contact
with.
The character of Brer Rabbit is first mentioned in Invisible Man as the
narrator is being questioned by doctors in the hospital after the explosion at
Liberty Paints. He is initially asked, Who was Buckeye the Rabbit? which
sparks this reaction, I laughed, deep, deep, inside me, giddy with the

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delight of self-discoverySomehow I was Buckeye the Rabbit Then again,
the narrator is asked, boy, who was Brer Rabbit? and in a revelation of his
mind it seems that his subconscious is finally aware of the folk tales of his
childhood, Anyone knew they were one and the same: Buckeye when you
were very young and hid yourself behind wide innocent eyes; Brer, when
you were older (Ellison 242). As the narrator lies, strapped up, he resembles
the character of Brer Rabbit; caught in a tricky situation and it need of a way
out. The narrator, similarly to Todd Clifton is struggling with the idea of
freedom, that of which Brer Rabbit always has a solution. The tale of Brer
Rabbit, although carried down for centuries in African culture was
popularized during the nineteenth century as the Uncle Remus stories of Joel
Chandler Harris. The character of the rabbit has been recognized as a
trickster figure who thrives by outwitting his opponent, often a bear, a fox, or
a dog (Sundquist 127). This is an interesting notion because, for Ellison, wit
is not the same as intelligence. His protagonist is not a victor (Horowitz 23).
The narrator is not someone who controls situations or his opponents, like in
the Brotherhood. The narrator, although a brilliant speaker, is unaware of the
negotiating abilities needed in order to fight the political disturbance of this
time. He and Todd Clifton want to enact change within the community, but
are blinded by their passion and also their naivety and therefore, are
unsuccessful.
In the story of Brer Rabbit and the Goobers, printed in 1934, the
craftiness that is illustrated by the character of Brer Rabbit is the exact type

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of cunning that the narrator is missing throughout the novel. Brer Rabbit
faces his famous foe Brer Bear in this story. Brer Rabbit using ingenuity to
construct a sly scheme in order to provide food for his family. One scene
reads, so he go home an fin him a red string an tie it roun his neck an
he run an lay down in de road where Brer Bar would be comn by wid de
cart carryin his sack filled up with goobers (Carmer 129). Brer Rabbit acts
as if hes dead in order to be swung into Brer Bears cart where he can steal
the goobers and jump out. This ploy represents the immense amount of
trickery and consciousness that is required in order to survive. The stories of
Brer Rabbit contain negotiations of authority comparable to that between
master and slave (Sundquist 127). The narrator is not conscious of the lack
of equality during Post-Reconstruction. He does not know that his future is
being granted to him on a basis of cooperation. It is clear that the narrator
has a lack of awareness, but his mission remains the same throughout the
novel.
The narrator in Invisible Man does not fit the construct of the various
folkloric characters that have been tracked throughout the novel. He lacks
their wit, however the folkloric deity of Papa Legba is an icon that the
narrator resembles through his ability to communicate. Papa Legba is said to
be the guardian and also trickster of the crossroads. He is one of the most
widely served African deities, an intermediary between the loa and humanity.
He has the power to remove obstacles and he provides opportunities
(Cosentino 262). The narrator in Invisible Man wants nothing more than for

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his speeches to spark a common understanding between the white and black
folks within Harlem, and around the rest of the country, therefore acting in
the form of Papa Legba. He takes the initiative to remove misunderstanding
in order to provide a common conception of equality. The narrator states in
an inspired speech, Look at them but remember that were a wise, lawabiding group of people. And remember it when you look up there in the
doorway at that law standing there with his forty-five (Ellison 278). He uses
language to spark purpose for the angry mob of people, threatening violence
among the law enforcers. He is attempting to be a mediator between two
parties of people, who do not see the same urgency forming outside of this
confrontation. Legba is said to be a master of all languages (Cosentino 263)
a skill that our protagonist seems to hold through the numerous speeches he
gives throughout the novel. He has a way of talking that sets the people
around him in a reactive state, one that is triggered or calm, but he elicits
emotion.
There is a famous petition for Papa Legba that goes, Papa Legba,
opener of gates, Papa Legba, ouvrier barriere por moi passer" (Pavlic 61).
The gates in this petition represents opportunities, which our narrator gives
to people that listen to his speeches. Through his words the community
around him erupts in a bout ready for change and that is an opportunity. The
narrator is told, History is born in your brain (Ellison 291), a high
compliment from Brother Jack, who, yes, later exploits the narrators talent,
but still sees a talent and an ability to mesh people together nonetheless.

Winkler 19
The narrator knows that he has a special purpose but because of society he
has never had the opportunity to share it. He has the ability to produce a set
of ideas that can change the country. At the time of his second big speech
the narrator walks into a warehouse full of people chanting his words, No
more dispossessing of the dispossessed! (Ellison 340). The narrator could
feel himself becoming someone else (335), someone who was inflicting a
direct emotion on a group of people that needed a face to look to for their
cause. It is said that without him [Legba], there is no communication, no
community, no life (Cosentino 267). The narrator is creating this for the
Brotherhood, whereas before they did not have a communicator to translate
to the black community. It is also as if the narrator is taking the place,
momentarily, of the deity who was lost during the transition to the west:
"Legba who was life and its destiny, who was the Sun,
itself destined to descend from the noon of each year,
from the zenith of its ardent fire, has become an old
tattered man shuffling down the road, with his crude
twisted cane or crutch, a small fire in his pipe, a little food
in his macoutte, and sores on his body, as if the maggots
had begun their work already. It is as if in coming
westwards, the Africans had left behind the morning and
noon of their destiny, the promise and power of their own
history (Cosentino 266).
The narrator is able to embody that past greatness of the African community
when he speaks. He elicits a fight from being dispossessed, from being
nothing. He does not want to end up someone unimportant, the forgotten

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deity. He wants his words to have a life-long impact on the community.
Working as a guide between the two communities becomes the narrators
biggest strong suit in this novel.
Invisible Man challenges the Post-Reconstructive world using ancient
folkloric tales to describe the journey of the narrator as he descends from his
own naivety. The novel traces his experiences and his failed attempts of
revelation. Through his time above ground he is able to grasp the knowledge
he needs in order to resurface and play the game his grandfather warned
him about. With the narrator finally unashamed of his culture he can
navigate the world the way famous folkloric characters did. He can challenge
the people in control and work his way around the system using his own form
of cunning. Despite all that the narrator has endured he states, So I
denounce and I defend and I hate and I love (Ellison 580). All that he has
suffered makes him more human than any of the folkloric characters. He can
feel and he breathes and he has truly lived now, so he will move on from his
hole, embodying folkloric tradition, but he will always refuse to be fictional.

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Bibliography
Blake, Susan L. Ritual and Rationalization: Black Folklore in the Works of
Ralph Ellison.
PMLA, vol. 94, no. 1, 1979, pp. 121136. www.jstor.org/stable/461805
Carl Carmer. Brer Rabbit and the Goobers. Cultural Contexts for Ralph
Ellisons Invisible
Man. Eric J. Sundquist. Boston: Bedford/ST. Martins, 1995. 129-130.
Print.

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