Shedding the Fear in the Invisible ManThe Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison, explores the issues of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness through the protagonist; The invisible man. The Invisible Man does not give a name. Ellison explores how it is not possible to obtain inalienable rights without freedom from life's obstacles, especially from one's fears. Several important characters influence the protagonist. One of the main characters is Dr. Bledsoe, who is the president of the school. Dr. Bledsoe had a major effect on the main character, because the protagonist idolizes him. “He was everything I hope to be” (Ellison 99), but Dr. Bledsoe degrades him when we say “Why, the dumbest black bastard in the cotton field knows the only way to please a white man is to tell him one lie" (Emerson 137) and calls him a nigger. Furthermore, the protagonist's grandfather had a major effect on him. The protagonist's grandfather's last word, "Live in the lion's mouth" (Ellison 16) has a lasting effect on him throughout much of the novel. Finally, and most importantly, Ras the Destroyer, whom the Protagonist fears and who along with Dr. Bledsoe in a separate meeting calls him "an educated fool" (Ellison 140). The Protagonist's first encounter with his fears occurs when his grandfather tells the Protagonist to go against the white man by "overcoming them with yeses" (Emerson 16). These words haunt the protagonist when he is expelled from college. When Dr. Bledsoe kicks him out of college, the protagonist reflects on his grandfather's last words "undermine them with smiles, accept them to death^" (Emerson 16). For a moment, the protagonist wonders if his grandfather might be right. However... half the paper... I won't let it rest. He states that “I am an invisible man and this put me in a hole or showed me the hole I was in^.” (Ellison Epilogue). This is an effective metaphor, because that's where life left him. As a German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, stated, "A serpent that does not shed its skin will perish." The protagonist realized that he had to shed his metaphorical skin of fear and denial of being a Negro to gain his inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The freedom he gets from shedding his skin is that he knows he is free to be himself without the fear of not being accepted. Works Cited Ellison, Ralph. The invisible man. New York, Vintage BooksLatu, Susan. School website. 1998. Phillips, Elizabeth C. "Monarch Notes" Ralph Ellison The Invisible Man. New York, monarch