Cultural Hybridity: Identity Crisis and Alienation in Ralph Ellison'sJuneteenth

Abstract

Ralph Ellison'sJuneteenthmovesaround cultural hybridity, which incorporates identity crisis of the hybrid subject, Adam Sunraider. The father of the protagonist has no definite identity although he grows up in black culture and spends his childhood under the care of black preacher, Hickman. When Sunraider becomes young, he feels identity crisis, moves towards North and becomes a racist Senator. After his shooting, he meets with daddy Hickman and tries to rejoin back to his past culture of South with out much success. The hybrid subjectwho always suffers from a sense of identity crisis, is alienated his previous culture. This thesis tries to show how loss of sense of belonging to the past culture leads to the character's sense of alienation and identity crisis. Even negotiation cannot give total satisfaction to the alienated subject, for he cannot completely assimilate to either of the culture: the past and the present, which make their claim upon him.