Assumptions and Moral Values in Society in Invisible MAN.
Ralph Ellison uses the narrator in Invisible Man to portray how the narrator's alienation shows the society's assumptions and moral values. It is very apparent his society was not how it is today by way of the examples given in the book. Many examples in the book can cause one to believe that there was a negative aspect to the society.
The first example that came up in the book is when the narrator was given the scholarship. Normally, this would be a wonderful thing, and to the narrator it was. However, the reader knows that the men expected him to fail and how the narrator had to be humiliated in order to get something he honestly deserved. There are many other examples in the book where the reader knows the true characteristics of a character when other characters don't. This shows how the whites in the society were mostly manipulative and when it seemed like they did something "good", they had bad intentions for the whole situation. The people in the society also ignored and openly oppressed blacks with no shame or guilt.
No one in the society seemed to have a true identity of his or her own because everyone was trying to impress someone else. For example, the narrator was trying to impress and please everyone he came into contact with. Even Dr. Bledsoe was trying to please high white people although he would never openly admit it. Bledsoe was trying to impress Mr. Emerson when he said he was Emerson's humble servant. The people in the society seemed to be in a never-ending cycle and showed he weak society the narrator lived in. By the society having no identity of his or her own, the narrator had to alienate himself because he didn't know who he was.
Furthermore, the society did not seem to have very many morals because the examples of when people were being used by others. Even when the narrator knew he was being used, he continued being used and never addressed the issue.