Liberty Paints
E945051
Liberty Paints is a fictional paint company in Ralph Ellison’s novel "Invisible Man," symbolizing the hypocrisy and racial oppression underlying ostensibly white, democratic American institutions.
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional company
ⓘ
literary entity ⓘ |
| appearsInWork | Invisible Man NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| associatedWithTheme |
assimilation
ⓘ
capitalism ⓘ identity ⓘ industrial labor ⓘ power ⓘ race ⓘ violence ⓘ |
| colorSymbolism |
white paint covering black base
ⓘ
whiteness constructed from Blackness ⓘ |
| countryOfFictionalSetting |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| createdByAuthor | Ralph Ellison NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| depictsPowerRelation | white management over Black labor ⓘ |
| employsCharacter |
Invisible Man (protagonist)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Lucius Brockway NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| firstPublicationContext | Invisible Man (1952 novel) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genreContext |
African American literature
ⓘ
social protest novel ⓘ |
| hasNarrativeEvent | factory explosion involving the narrator ⓘ |
| hasProduct | Optic White paint NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasSceneType | factory setting ⓘ |
| hasWorkLocationInFiction | New York City NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| knownFor | Optic White paint NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| linkedConcept |
American Dream critique
ⓘ
ideology of whiteness ⓘ invisibility of Black people in American society ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | mid-20th-century American literature ⓘ |
| medium | novel ⓘ |
| mottoOrSlogan | If It’s Optic White, It’s the Right White ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction |
to dramatize racial exploitation in the workplace
ⓘ
to expose contradictions in American democracy ⓘ to illustrate the invisibility of Black workers ⓘ |
| partOf | the early New York episodes of Invisible Man ⓘ |
| represents |
ostensibly democratic American institutions
ⓘ
the commodification of race ⓘ the myth of racial purity ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
erasure of Black identity
ⓘ
exploitation of Black labor ⓘ hypocrisy in American democracy ⓘ racial oppression ⓘ racism in American institutions ⓘ the gap between American ideals and reality ⓘ white supremacy ⓘ |
| usedAs |
allegory of institutional racism
ⓘ
critique of corporate America ⓘ |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.