Harlem Mind Streets

1991. Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.


Between the busy streets of Harlem and the vast emptiness of its unused sewage pipes, Ralph Ellison’s nameless protagonist in Invisible Man preferred the isolation of the underground pipes. Here, he no longer feared the cruel judgment of others, no longer maintained his guise of blind submission to please those in power. He may have been alone, but now that he felt free enough to accept his culture, he could understand who he truly was and could take pride in his identity at last.

Throughout this character’s life, he always felt an inner turmoil. He knew what he wanted to be-rich, intelligent, respected-yet, he felt that who he was, in other words, an African American, was holding him back. In many cases in his hometown in the South, this was true because though abolished, remnants of segregation still remained. Later on, when he moved to the North, specifically Harlem, race did not matter. However, he still carried his shame of his cultural identity and did everything in his power to push it to the side. He did not accept who he was. He was weak. He tried to compensate by gaining social status and power in the community, yet when it crumbled, he was again lost. When inadvertently enveloped in a race riot, he plummeted into an unlikely sanctuary; Harlem’s forgotten network of underground pipes. He wandered for days and realized the futility of his efforts to ignore his identity. He came to accept and embrace his culture.

Throughout the course of the story, the reader is able to make the connection between Harlem and darkness and the underground and light for right as he was falling underground, Harlem was thrown into social chaos. It was a dark, desperate time as the once homogeneous community was divided by race. The African Americans who lashed out at the white citizens felt justified in their actions and believed that they were protecting themselves and their families. They felt as if all of the actions of the white community had ulterior motives to establish superiority over the black community. Harlem mirrored the nagging thoughts and fallacies of the main character’s mind. Thus, it represented his inner turmoil as he struggled with acceptance.

The underground represented enlightenment and acceptance within the character. In the pipes underground, he was alone yet he felt free. He did not feel oppressed or inferior or helpless. He felt brave enough to examine who he was. He eventually took pride in his African American heritage and the reader notices that he is now a stronger character because of it. He was now confident in his identity.

In his time in Harlem, the character constantly felt that he was considered inferior because of his African American heritage. He spent years shunning it and he felt an inner turmoil since he did not want to accept who he was. It was only when he was completely isolated underground when he felt the courage to accept his heritage and take pride in it. Invisible Man’s predominant theme is the sense of identity. When contrasting between Harlem and its underground pipes, darkness and light, inner turmoil and confidence, Ellison argues that a strong sense of identity is not possible without acceptance that originates from within the individual himself.