Invisible Man | Ralph Ellison | Required reading in every sense

Invisible Man | Ralph Ellison | A Novel Deserving of High Acclaim

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Invisible Man

	Invisible Man Ralph Ellison Vintage, 1995 - 608 pages average customer review:based on 281 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Required reading in every sense

This is the most eagerly discussed book in my Philosophy in Literature class, because it raises questions of human identity, because it displays the complexity of race and culture, and because it is so very beautiful. It is an American masterpiece, standing beside and even above Bellow's "The Adventures of Augie March."

A Novel Deserving of High Acclaim

A nameless narrator reflects upon his life's journey after initially claiming to be an invisible man. He swallows his own blood, pride, and identity as he strives to succeed in a white man's world. When he transforms from an expelled college student to inspirational speaker, the narrator appears to have achieved his goal. Unfortunately, his submission to repeated and similar injustices ultimately forces him underground, his fleeting public reputation obliterated. The novel serves to reveal the faultiness of "natural integration." The narrator continuously changes his identity to adjust and compliment his surroundings. On one occasion, he literally accepts a different name. Booker T. Washington believed that passive assimilation, similar to that attempted by the narrator, could effectively merge racial cultures and gradually erase prejudice. However, the narrator's new name remains as anonymous to the reader as its predecessor, a lost label for an identity ignored. His tragic fall remains, in part, his own doing. The narrator's compliance with various leaders led him to become simply a tool, easily utilized and easily discarded. Ellison makes the point that this is the norm for people who refuse to actively protest their oppression. The depth within this unusual impression of the Civil Rights movement reflects intriguing work of troubling genius. Within the plot's paradoxical twists and turns, the narrator finds hidden aspects of seemingly straightforward people and principles. The destruction of this character's identity provokes haunting implications for each individual in response to a life unseen.

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Powerful stuff

"Invisible Man" is powerful reading. It's hard to know what to say about it that hasn't been said before, but I would agree with those who say it should be required reading for anyone who is interested in race, but also in the psychology of urban environments in America over the years. Ellison's ear for dialect is profoundly accurate. The voices of his characters ring true, and so they lend further credibility to the narrative as a whole. You buy it. You can tell Ellison isn't trying to flinch away from any of the realities he's observed, and he doesn't try to apply a gilt edge to the uglier aspects of any of his characters, black or white. This is the story of a man trying to figure out the meaning of his life, set within a society that, collectively, hasn't figured it out either. It is a story told by a writer of remarkable skill and insight.

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An insightful classic

This book is 19th on the Modern Library's best 100 novels of the 1900s. As a classic, much has been made of its importance as a study of racial identity in the 1930s. The narrator is a young black man. He is expelled from a southern university in the beginning of the novel when he is assigned the task of chauffeuring a visiting benefactor, a white man, to a school function. The benefactor asks to go for a drive, and the narrator gives him a tour of the rural south that is a little too scenic, one might say.

Thus expelled, the narrator heads to Harlem to seek work and a real-life education. There he becomes a member of The Brotherhood, a mixed-race organization that seems progressive at first. But as the narrator discovers time and again, it's more hype than enthusiasm to actually change the status quo. And despite the repeated offering of help from others, the narrator can only depend on himself. Because, as he realizes, to them he exists only in terms of his ability to help them and forward their cause. To them he is not a person. To them he is an invisible man.

THE INVISIBLE MAN is a book about the politics of racial identity, but framed in the context of the greater philosophical question of identity itself. The narrator, who conspicuously is never named, encounters time and time again the paradoxes of identity. Perceptions, deception, propaganda. The way an action can change a person's image in a community forever. The way a group can push for social change in principle but fail to back that in action (reality). And for the narrator, the paradox of learning more and more but having less and less a personal identity.

This is a book of questions more than it is answers. Insightful social commentary that is as relevant today as it was when it was written.

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The Invisible man

I believe the book the invisble man is a great book. Its a story about the narrorator (has no name). in the begigng of the book his grandfaher died. He always told him and gave him advice about pleasing the whit man. he always told him that the white man is always rite. there for through out the book, the narrator lives his life faking his identity to please the whiteman. the narrartor never finds his true self.

The main characters' include Brother Jack, Dr. Bledsoe, Mr. Norton, and the narrorator

Brother jack is the leader of the Brotherhood. He pretends to a good friend of the narrator, always helping him out and giving him advice in the beginning of the story. As the story unfolds, Brother Jack betrays his people and the narrator.

Dr. Bledsoewas the president of the university that the narrator attended. he appears to those who didn't know as a respectful, inspirational, and positive person. But the narrator learned that he was actually a selfish, ambitious, and treacherous person.

Mr. Norton was the wealthy trustee that the narrator guided through the university. he is also selfish and treats everone as talleys.

The narrorator is the main character in the book. He is a very vonerable character and is easy to be infulenced. he is called the invisble man because he feels that nobady sees him nor cares about him. he think nobody thinks hes exists.

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