Award Date

12-15-2025

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Committee Member

Jessica Teague

Second Committee Member

Vincent Perez

Third Committee Member

Tanachai Mark Padoongpatt

Fourth Committee Member

Constancio Arnaldo

Number of Pages

68

Abstract

What is America to the (in)visible and nameless? America has beckoned dreamers from far and wide to taste the American Dream. Yet America’s inherent biases and racism prevent these dreamers from reaching their “American Dream.” The promises of this nebulous dream inspired many immigrants and U.S. citizens alike to strive for socioeconomic mobility in the hopes of a better life. Even so, my readings of Filipino author Carlos Bulosan’s America Is in the Heart (1943) and African American author Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) suggest that there is a hefty price to pay for their sense of American belonging: a loss of identity. In this thesis, I examine how the protagonists of Bulosan and Ellison’s novels—Allos and the invisible man—struggled through the racialized American landscape of the 1930s and 1940s to assert their American identity. These two canonical works of American literature have yet to be analyzed together, especially within the framework of the model minority myth and double consciousness. By examining the prose of a Filipino and an African American author together, I contend that race and gender create (in)visibility and complicate Allos’ and the invisible man’s attempts to claim their American identity. According to Bulosan and Ellison, what is the appeal of being visible in the White world? In what ways do the model minority myth and double consciousness connect to the struggles of (in)visibility? How does their protagonists’ detachment from a name demonstrate the powers of (in)visibility? Does visibility contribute to the fulfillment of Allos and the invisible man’s American Dream(s)? My thesis addresses these questions through textual analysis and the application of critical race theories— the model minority myth and the concept of double consciousness.

Keywords

(In)Visibility; Bulosan Carlos; Double Conciousness; Ellison Ralph; Masculinity; Model Minority Myth

Disciplines

African American Studies | American Studies | Asian American Studies | Comparative Literature | Race and Ethnicity

File Format

PDF

File Size

683 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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Available for download on Tuesday, December 15, 2026


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