It has been said that we learn most from the cruelty of others, in Ellison’s novel the Invisible Man, the unnamed narrator experiences cruel disillusionments from his societal situations such as his partaking in the royal blindfold, which motivates him to join the Brotherhood where he experiences snarky remarks and riots from Ras and the death of beloved Tod Clifton. This cruelty motivates the narrator to take action and eventually leads to him finding his true identity and true purpose in society.
Humility and physical abuse isn’t an ideal situation for anyone however it’s one of the first memories the narrator recalls when referring to his college experience. In the royal battle the narrator is told to fight blindfolded in a ring with other rising college students, then is told to crawl on an electrocuted rug to pick up money to top all that off the narrator then had to deliver a speech, the reward being college…show more content… Cruelty from others and from the society, as a whole, pushed the narrator to step out of his bounds and making a bigger stand in the community. This novel involves tremendous amounts of the cruelty from society on segregation during the 1930’s this setting pushes the movements the narrator gets involved in, with the desire to make the world less hateful and cruel for blacks. Cruelty illuminates the distress African Americans went through and it backed the motivation for the narrator’s actions joining the royal battle and understanding the humiliating pieces of entertainment African Americans were seen as, in joining the Brotherhood putting together the funeral for Tod Clifton, and undergoing the rude, cruel comments from Ras. Cruelty from society led to the narrator’s motivation to stand up from himself and acting on his own with no higher authority to put a halt to his