In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political

factor. Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to the theme.
Then write a well-developed essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and
what the cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim.

In Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the main characters life journey enduring oppression,
racism, racial divisions, and an unwarranted lobotomy prompt him to relive his most jarring
traumatic experiences. The narrator is always undeterred in detailing the gruesome events that
shape his life, which at times can become absurd. Furthermore, the writing carries a sentimental
undertone, perhaps for the longing to have changed the past and made different choices to have
avoided ending up in the traumatic situations. Additionally, I.s insistence on recounting the
trauma he went through and further making cynical comments on his innocence at the time, his
naivete, and his metaphorical blindness makes for a conflict of identity, the major theme of the
work.

Moreover, I. is, indeed, motivated by the cruelty inflicted upon him to recount his trauma
whilst making social commentary on the perpetrators of violence, oppression, and racism. Also,
by crudely detailing his intense experiences, he is making a social commentary on the tolerance
of violence and cruelty in America. I. is angry and desperate to expose his perpetrators as a way
to come to terms with what happened to him and who he became. Furthermore, the cruelty
depicted in the novel acts as a contrast to a recurring motif that I. is attached to: light. In once
scene, I. is bleeding out into a river after being brutally injured by members of his brotherhood,
under the full glory of the sun. The fact that the narrator specifically mentioned the blazing sun
while this traumatic event was transpiring is an allusion to what he is doing by recounting his
story: exposing the brotherhood and the brutality they inflicted on one of their own.

Additionally, the cruelty inflicted on him by both, the embodiments of white supremacy
and I.s own brotherhood of African-Americans, characterizes his suffering as an outcast in
either side of the social norm. In this manner, I. explains the reasons why he becomes an outcast
in the end, uncared for and forgotten. Furthermore, I.s own tolerance for cruelty and abuse are a
sad result of the cruelty he endured, appealing to the readers sense of justice and morality.
However, in every retelling of his past, I. mentions the presence of light, and unabashedly details
the gruesome experiences, whether to shock the reader with the perpetrators insensitivity to
violence and cruelty