Importance of a Name

            For every human being, a name is a distinct part of their identity.  The importance of a name is stressed in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings By Maya Angelou and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.  Angelou's white employer makes a habit of dehumanizing servants by changing their names.  In a similar way, in the battle royal scene of Invisible Man, Ellison's unnamed protagonist is only referred to by a host of racial epithets.  Taking away the names of these characters serves to dehumanize them.  By focusing on the importance of names, these authors show how white society takes advantage of the humanity of African Americans for its convenience and entertainment by removing their names.

            For Maya Angelou, a name is an affirmation of identity.  She shows a special appreciation for her name, especially when spoken by loved ones such as her mother:  "My name was beautiful when she said it" (2159).  Angelou takes her mother's pronunciation of her name and contrasts it with that of Miss Cullinan, her employer who "couldn't even pronounce my name correctly" (2165), instead simply calling her "Margaret." A slave's names was often changed from an African name to an anglicized name for the convenience of the master.  Mrs. Cullinan's habit of changing names, like a slavery era master's, had the effect of denying the cultural heritage of their slaves.  They deny the culture of a person for the sake of making their name easier to pronounce. 

            According to Angelou, every person she knew "had a hellish horror of being 'called out of his name'" (2166).  This is because being called another name was the opposite of the affirmation of identity that a name allowed.  When someone like Glory is called a different name and accepts it, they are accepting a denial of their claim to humanity and individuality.  Not only this, but they are letting that identity be dictated by white society.  Angelou affirms that names have weight and meaning, and are all the more important to African Americans due to "centuries of their having been called niggers, jigs, dinges, blackbirds, crows, boots, and spooks" (2166).

            Derogatory names have been used during slavery to replace the names of slaves, and thus make them in some ways dehumanized and indistinguishable from each other.  As one slave could be referred to simply as "nigger," so too could another.  This idea is prevalent in Ellison's Invisible Man through his unnamed protagonist.  He embodies a figurative invisibility that makes society unable to see him.  His name plays into this concept during the battle royale as he is only referred to as "that ginger-colored nigger" (1558).  The closest to a specific name the narrator comes to is when one of the men tells him "'That's right, Sambo'" (1561).  These names mean only one thing to the whites at the battle royal: the narrator is black.  Beyond that there is no desire to know anything more about him. 

            Not having a name or identity is reinforced as the narrator gives his speech to a crowd of laughing white men who care little for what he is actually saying.  Their care of his speech comes only in laughing at his words.  Unlike Angelou, however, this lack of identity sometimes works in the favor of the narrator as he uses his status as "invisible" to fool society into thinking he is something that he is not.  This identity is still something that is contrary to who he is.  What he is seen as is different than what he really is.  Although the invisible man is an identity imposed upon him, he embraces his identity: "I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind" (1548).
            For both authors, a name is an affirmation of identity and something to be proud of. To have it changed is to be nothing, and to have no name is in some ways to be in a lower place.  As the invisible man is black and the men at the battle royal have no desire to know anything else about him, so too does Mrs. Cullinan only see Margeurite as the servant.  None see these people as individuals, and any word, whether it be a bastardization of a name or a racial epithet, is considered just as good as another to refer to a person of color.  For Angelou a name is something you answer to.  Changing your name without your consent shows what you are willing to tolerate.  Answering to another name means giving in to the society that gave you the name.  Ellison manages to find positives in this type of situation, but still uses the lack of a name to illustrate the negativity of white attitudes toward African Americans.