The Concepts of Invisibility and Self-esteem

If he is recognized as distinctly Afri put forward American, it is only as a "nightmargon" that the dreamer uses all his power to destroy and not as somebody valuable in his own right.

Ellison points forth that his invisibility stems primarily from racial myths. Ellison's depiction of the horrific psychological and bodily abuses his narrator endures, demonstrates why many African Americans suffer humble self-pride from creation continually ridiculed and subjected to humiliation at the set down of blancheds. He discusses how he once thought he was being rewarded for his academic ability but it was only a energize to humiliate him and a bunch of other black boys for the recreation of the drunken whites around them. Despite showing how such experiences aggrieve unitary's self-esteem, Ellison maintains that the narrator's survival is because of his ability to maintain his own hopes and dreams. The narrator's hopes and dreams act as a shining beacon that guide him beyond the racialism and low-pitched self-esteem it engenders in many. As he says, " rickety confirms my reality, gives birth to my constellation" (Ellison 1972, 6).

Hopes and dreams are also the aspects of humanity that alter the daughters of Asian immigrants to meet the challenge of assimilating in a new culture while trying to maintain ethnic ties with their mothers in Amy Tan's (1989) The Joy opportunity Club. Often the daughters go out of their way to hide their Chinese beliefs

The daughters react in different ways to their mothers' desire to acquit them maintain behavior and ideas in accordance with Chinese customs and values. Sometimes they become invisible to their mothers while doing American things, and at other times they try to be invisible to white mainstream society while engaging in Chinese traditions. The low self-esteem engendered in individuals when having to hide natural behavior and thoughts from others can lead to invisibility. When an individual feels like they cannot be themselves around others, they practically forge an identity to get along that is a pretend on top of their real identity, keeping their real ideas and actions invisible.

This is patent when June is no longer angry at Waverly and realizes, "I snarl tired and foolish, as if I had been running to escape someone chasing me, only to look behind and discover there was no one there" (Tan 1989, 207).

and practices in order to fit in with "regular" Americans. Some of the daughters wholly reject their heritage and their mothers' Chinese traditionalistic values, while others embrace them. Some try to form a complicated mix of white, American ideas and values and traditional Chinese ones. The women often suffer low self-esteem because they are considered strange or superstitious or something derogatory to mainstream Americans. As one mother laments, "I wanted my children to have the outdo combination: American circumstances and Chinese character. How could I issue these things do not mix?" (Tan 1989, 259).

Hughes, L. A Dream Deferred. Viewed on Oct 21, 2004: http://www.cswnet.com/~menamc/langston.htm, 1.

The link between invisibility and low self-esteem is readily apparent in both The Joy Luck Club and Invisible Man. When one is subjected to external pressures from parents, educators, and mainstream society to conform, one often experiences lo
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