超越凝视：论《看不见的人》中主人公的身份建构

al of white people — whom he has been taught to see as powerful, superior beings who control his destiny. This belief was so internalized and ingrained that he placed his hope in the white men that they could change his destiny and thus obeyed them blindly. The idea of the essence of progress being humility expressed by the protagonist in the speech he gave at the graduation ceremony at the beginning was not what he really thought, but he “believed that it worked” (Ellison, 1995: 16) to whites. It did. He accepted the arrangement of battle royal in an obedient manner. The fight raged on, while he was still fretting about the speech he was going to give next. He was worried about whether the white men would appreciate him, and at the same time was looking forward to receiving some reward. Even though the whites didn’t care about his speech, and the blood in his mouth due to boxing almost choked his throat, he still tried to swallow the blood and spoke with enthusiasm. The briefcase and scholarship he received for delivering his speech seem confirming his assumption that if he does what the world expects of him, he will be respected and accepted in return. This is when the black body was subjected to “a technology of docility.” (Yancy, 2016: 125-126) 

2.2 Negation of Self

After internalization of the gaze, the protagonist’s identification with the power and blindly pursing a false social identity led to the negation of the self, triggering alienation of racial identity and personal identity. He became someone else rather than himself, a party hack with an assumed name, someone arbitrarily forced to deny his past. (Callahan, 2004)

2.2.1 Negation of His Own Race

At the beginning of the novel, when asked to fight a battle royal with his schoolmates, the protagonist did not find anything wrong with this arrangement, except that fighting with those tough boys might “detract from the dignity of [his] speech.” (Ellison, 1995: 18) He resents participating in the Battle Royal, not because the competition itself is degrading, but because he is disgusted by the notion of mixing with other black boys. (Callahan, 2004) After all, he saw himself as “a potential Booker T. Washington.” (18) 

The black student’s mind and eye were still “glued to the white line” (38–39) at college. He felt ashamed of Trueblood, a black sharecropper impregnating his teenage daughter, which “brought disgrace upon the black community” (46). He felt embarrassed by his primitive animal harmonies singing for the white visitors in the chapel, and felt resentful of the black community being pulled down by those like Trueblood. To stop Norton from asking for more details about the incest scandal, he said the two pregnant women in log cabin were not bright enough to understand what they were talking about.

Chapter Three The Protagonist’s Transcendence of Gaze: Identity Construction ..... 33

3.1 Resisting Gaze................................…33

3.1.1 Awakening of Rebellious Consciousness ........................ 33

3.1.2 Practice of Oppositional Gaze ......................... 36

Conclusion .......................... 42

Chapter Three The Protagonist’s Transcendence of Gaze: Identity Construction

3.1 Resisting Gaze

The protagonist undergoes a process of guidance by wise gazes which provide inspiration and strength, and it is the urging and reminding of these gazes from his black kith and kin that the protagonist’s inner sense of rebellion can gradually awaken. After the protagonist’s consciousness slowly awakened, he felt the presence of the racial gaze and fought against it.

3.1.1 Awakening of Rebellious Consciousness

Many characters in Invisible Man play an important role in the protagonist’s seeking of his own identity, and act as catalysts for the protagonist’s oppositional gaze. Perhaps these guides are also the objects of the power gaze and this is what touches the protagonist’s heart more. They have rich social experience after various trials and tribulations which bui