Happiness and Invisibility Hand in Hand?

     The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison pertains an unnamed narrator who is faced with a series of choices in order to discover himself. With each choice he makes, he has to contemplate how this will affect his life. The narrator begins in a state of invisibility, lacking happiness. Through out the book, he is taken on several journeys which help him to discover himself, and remove the invisibility, while finding happiness. Unfortunately, at the end of the novel the narrator finds himself invisible once again, and no longer feels happiness.
     At the beginning of the novel, the narrator is at the Battle Royal giving a speech to dozens of white men. While he is delivering his speech, no one is listening to him yet he continues to do it. This illustrates the beginning of his feelings of invisibility. Instead of feeling joy, the narrator is terrified of the situation he is in. As the novel continues on, the narrator finds himself attending college, searching for a job, living with a woman named Mary, giving a motivational curbside speech, and becoming a part of the Brotherhood, all of which are steps towards happiness for him. Through out these different scenarios, the narrator is able to find himself. He is able to feel joy, even from something as simple as a Yam because he is able to reflect back on home life. Unfortunately, the narrator gets to a point where he once again begins to lose himself and return back into the state he was in at Battle Royal. He finds himself alone, and unable to motivation an audience, like he could at the curbside speech. The narrator is faced with a series of hard times. Because all of these hard times happen so quickly, the narrator does not consider his happiness. The lack of happiness pushes him back towards being invisible.
     The narrator in Invisible Man is a part of a generation that is racist. His cultural experience involves prejudices between Black's and White's. Because of the culture he was surrounded by, he was faced by many different hardships. Through out his journey, the narrator had choices which could lead to happiness. While many of his choices did, his ending decisions lead the narrator towards invisibility and unhappiness once again.

The narrator did not choose happiness.