Abstract:Ralph Ellison’s masterpiece Invisible Man represents the identity lost and social darkness in racial struggle at that time through an African-American nonentity’s experience of pursuing ego. Symbolism deepened the theme. The author applied symbolism theory to analyze the symbolic meanings of the protagonist’s briefcase systematically. The protagonist’s briefcase is a witness of the tortuous experience of African-Americans in the first half of 20th century. By the briefcase, a visible object, people can see the social darkness and the confusion and twist that the African-Americans went through when they were pursuing ego. The thesis reveals that only if African-Americans break out the spiritual shackle could they find their ego in the plight of invisible.

Keywords: briefcase; symbolism; identity; darkness

Contents

摘要

Abstract

1 INTRODUCTION-1

1.1 A Brief Introduction to Ralph Ellison-1

1.2 A Brief Introduction to Invisible Man-3

2 LITERATURE REVIEW-5

2.1 Overseas Studies-5

2.2 Domestic Studies-6

3 SYMBOLISM-9

4 ANLYSES OF SYMBOLS OF THE BRIEFCASE-11

4.1 The protagonist’s Struggle with the Briefcase-11

4.1.1 Fighting for it-11

4.1.2 Living for it-14

4.1.3 Ending with it-16

4.2 Analyses of Symbols of Things in the Briefcase-18

4.2.1 The High School Diploma of the Invisible Man-18

4.2.2 Coins from Mary-20

4.2.3 Tarp’s chain link-22

4.2.4 Clifton’s paper doll-24

4.3 Summary of this Chapter-25

5 CONCLUSION-27

REFERENCES-28

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS-29