Wild birds

In Ralph Ellison's novel, The Invisible Man, the narrator must go through a journey of self discovery. He does not identify himself with the black people, nor is he a part of the white culture. Throughout the novel, Ellison uses the bird motif emphasize the personalities of the groups that he is describing. In his humble beginnings the narrator's greatest desire is to achieve the power that would earn him respect from all races of people. He attempts to achieve this by adapting white ideals and adopting white customs. With the opportunity of going to New York, the narrator's future is open to many possibilities. "Man's hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring vulture into a noble eagle or a moaning dove"(126).

The narrator can either succeed at being powerful and influential or he can be one of the persons who talks too much, but shows no action. He does not want to be a part of the masses of black people that do not know what it is that they really want. They want to be happy, but do not know how to achieve this happiness. Ellison often compares birds to black people to show how they group together into flocks and go around in circles without a purpose, and thus not achieving anything. They gather in shadows and feast on others(454). The pigeons whirl out of trees and circle around the city(435). They "plummet swiftly into the trees" making frightening sounds and blackening the sky(436). The huge masses scare our narrator. He runs from them and from the droppings that they leave behind(534). He does not want to be caught up in the storm.

From his southern lifestyle, the narrator is forced into believing that being white is the right way. "If you're white, you're right"(218). There is a similar example with the birds. While the narrator is at the Golden Day, Halley yells for the group of stool-pigeons to clean up and change into a white suit(82). To be white is to be right in every way. When the white man enters, all must be clean and proper. At Emerson's office the birds go wild until the white Mr. Emerson enters the room(181). At the Golden Day the drunkards must be proper because there are white people in the building(82).

The birds mock the narrator because of his alienation from all races and groups of society. At the college the narrator dreams of walking past the white magnolias and how the mockingbirds fluttered their tails at him(34). At the factory health room, the narrator hears the mocking song of the mocking bird above a choir of muted horns, while the air fills with white gnats(234). In this instance he is the caged robin and picked clean (as in the kids' rhyme)(193). He is trapped and cannot escape, while other people are looking and laughing at him and his lack of control.

There are multiple images of roasting chicken being turned on a skewer. They are stuck in their current situation and do not have an escape route. Ras's black men denounce the white meat of a roasted chicken(365). The chickens are rotated before the blue rotisserie flames(487). "[They] are suspended by their necks from the handle of a…broom"(539). The narrator is the chicken that is being fried and denounced by everybody. Everyone is out to eat him and stop him from succeeding.

In The Invisible Man, the narrator is compared to chickens that are being destroyed. He rarely has control of his life and is constantly influenced by the actions of others. The black people in the novel do not have direction and, thus, take out their frustrations in violent actions or frantic flights. The narrator has assumed that white is right, but can never achieve the status and so, can never be right or respected by everyone. While he is supported by the brotherhood, he is listened to, but he never has control. He is the cover man for the white man's operation.