Introduction of Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison, one of the best authors wrote Invisible Man. It was published
in 1952 and set new trends in the American African literature of those
times. The novel created a furor, winning the National Book Award in 1953
and creating a niche among the best English fictional works of the previous
century. Invisible Man outlines the story of an African American first-person
narrator who narrates his college ordeal of the battle royal and the attitude
of the white elite of the town toward the African American students. The
novel instantly proved a hit and became the best among the 20 th century’s
100 novels and an excellent bildungsroman (a literary genre that focuses
on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist coming of age).

Summary of Invisible Man

The storyline presents an anonymous African American young man who

happens to live in a basement with stolen electricity from the local grid
station. Fed up of the discrimination, he thinks about social invisibility and
ways to tackle it. He reflects upon his life as a teenager when living in a
Southern town after winning a scholarship for an African American college.
However, he has to participate in the battle royal to entertain the white
dignitaries in order to receive that scholarship against other African
American students.

It happens that he gets admission to that college and takes Mr. Norton, a
trustee of that college, to the slave apartments beyond the campus area.
By chance, he stops by the cabin owned by some Mr. Jim Trueblood who
has already created a brouhaha by impregnating both his wife and
daughter in his sleep. Norton shook by this scandalous issue, asks the
narrator to find him a drink. The narrator hurriedly drives him to the nearest
bar filled with prostitutes and mental patients. When they enter the bar, Mr.
Norton confronts mentally unsound people and prostitutes enjoying life.
The pandemonium forces him to take assistance from the orderly who,
while saving Mr. Norton, is injured due to the melee created by the people.
The young man, however, musters up the courage to pull Mr. Norton out of
this mess and take him back to the college campus.

When he returns to the college, he finds Dr. Bledsoe, the president, fuming
at his home for showing insolence in taking Mr. Norton to that part of the
campus. Therefore, he thinks it better to expel the narrator who, though
gets many recommendation letters from him to assist him in the job market
yet he does not succeed in laying his hands upon anything. Later, he learns
that Mr. Bledsoe has rather ruined his entire career in both education and
the job market when it was revealed by young Mr. Emerson to the narrator
that the so-called recommendation letters contained nothing good about
the narrator, also stating that he’s unfit for work and had no intention of re-
enrolling him in the college. So, the son of Mr. Emerson suggests he seek
work in a paint factory where he works in different departments temporarily.

During that time, he comes across Lucius Brockway, a paranoid chief, in

the boiler operating room. He comes to know that Lucius is obsessed with
the idea that the young man is after his job. This mistrust widens the chasm
between them, leading Brockway to exploit him and framing him in setting
an explosion in the boiler section. When he comes to his senses after this
episode, he finds himself in the hospital overhearing the doctors’ words that
he was a mental patient and subject to shock treatment. mental patient.

When the young man gets out of the hospital he heads for Harlem. While
walking on the streets of Harlem he faints and finds himself being taken in
by a kind old-fashioned lady Mary Rambo. She cooks for him, nurses him
back to health, and adopts him as her surrogate son. After this, he delivers
an impassioned speech that incites the crowd to attack the law
enforcement officials when an African American couple faces forced
eviction. When he flees, the Brotherhood leader, Jack chases him and
urges him to join hands with the group to help African Americans. His
joining the Brotherhood helps him understand his background. This takes
him into the politics of the Brotherhood but he comes to know that it is also
a white ploy from Ras the exhorter, though he feels unconvinced. Yet he
faces accusations of the same group for being over-ambitious. Again, he
faces criticism when the narrator delivers a rousing speech at Tod Clifton’s
funeral who went missing and was found selling dancing Sambo dolls on
the street. He was killed by the police while resisting the arrest.

Suspecting a chase by the Ras’s men, the narrator disguises by wearing a

hat and pair of sunglasses. As a result, he is repeatedly mistaken for a man
named Rinehart. Soon unrest takes on Harlem and the riots break out
which was detrimental to the Brotherhood to further its own aims. Seeing
no way out, he joins the gang of looters to find now Ras, the Destroyer.
When the young man sees Ras attacking him and urging others to lynch
him, he rather attacks Ras and escapes into an underground coal bin.
Although two white men catch and seal him in. Giving him enough time to
ponder over the racism he has experienced. During his hibernation inside
the coal bin, he states that the reason he is telling his story is that “who
knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?”. Finally, the
narrator realizes that even an invisible man has a socially responsible role
to play.

Major Themes in Invisible Man

1. Invisibility: Invisible Man shows the assumed or real invisibility of the

narrator who assumes that he is invisible because people have
refused to see him. In the quest to prove his assumptions true, he
takes up this unique identity through constant self-denial. Despite
belonging to the Southern part, he covers his African heritage through
passing in terms of habits and ideological thinking. Later, when he
takes Rinehart as his name, he takes another turn in his life, finding
that staying invisible has its bonuses. However, his meeting with that
person shows him that he can pursue his goals without thinking about
invisibility. It is because invisibility has robbed him of his identity that
he vows to create.
2. Racial Identity: The theme of racial identity emerges in the character
of the anonymous narrator, who despite his efforts to stay invisible,
wants some type of identity about his race and ethnicity. Wherever he
goes, he needs something to make himself a figure to be reckoned
with. People expect that he should either follow Booker T.
Washington or Southern cultural-rich heritage instead of staying
invisible. When he finally comes to terms with life, he feels that he
must meet the expectations of the people to show his true Southern
heritage.
3. Slavery: Slavery and its baggage is another thematic strand that
pervades the novel. Although the anonymous narrator demonstrates
that by keeping himself invisible, he may escape this curse, it still
stays with him as without this he does not have his true identity. The
briefcase that he wins in the battle royal becomes a symbol of this
heritage that he needs to carry with him. However, he is fed up with
this symbolic heritage. He gets rid of it by the end and throws it away
in return for some type of his self-identity.
4. Racism: Racism and racial discrimination hamper the progress of an
individual in a way that it becomes difficult for him to assume an
identity. The anonymous narrator stays invisible for some time to see
 how the people around him react and later joins the Brotherhood to
show his heritage and escape this racism. However, each time he
finds that it is they, the African Americans, who should learn to
behave. Finally, he seems that his attempt for his own definition
would earn dividends if he has his self-identity as joining
organizations is useless unless the person has his identity.
5. Identity: Invisible Man presents the theme of identity that if a person
has no self-identity, society disregards his role whether it is invisibility
or some tangible role. When the narrator assumes his invisibility, he
seems to have been lost in the maze of society but when he starts
joining organizations, he sees that all organizations use individuals
for their own interests. Even the Brotherhood does not holdup behind.
Therefore, he comes to the point that he should have his own identity
instead of staying in the assumed invisibility.
6. Ideology: The anonymous narrator has shown through his story that
organizational ideology cannot represent a multidimensional
individual who has his own identity that does not merge in such
monolithic entities. He has experienced it it is like him who has been
unable to merge in the Brotherhood. Although Booker T.
Washington’s ideological background and the relationship with the
Brotherhood make it clear to him, he does not take these things at
face value and seeks his identity to demonstrate his rich Southern
heritage and ideology.
7. Power: The novel shows that power lies in organizations, collections,
and institutions. When the anonymous narrator stays alone, he thinks
that his invisibility will bless him with some advantage yet he sees
that the power lies somewhere else at the top. The same goes for the
Brotherhood that works for the interests of the elite class, white, while
the ideology of Booker T. Washinton, too, has been hijacked.
Therefore, he comes to the conclusion that he needs power and for
this needs his own identity.
8. Stereotyping: Although the thematic strand of the limitations of race
is too apparent, the anonymous narrator shows it amply when he
could not progress through his invisibility as well as through his
participation in the racial-specific organization. However, he soon
comes to know that he belongs to the African American heritage and
this stereotyping has hampered his progress not only in education but
also in the job market, for he is expelled on the same ground on
which his progress has been hampered through reference letters.
 9. Dreams: The anonymous narrator shows harboring several dreams
when he vies to join the college, get admission but is expelled on the
flimsy ground of taking Mr. Norton to the wrong place. His dreams
further face downfall when the reference letters prove another
roadblock. When he sees the vision of Armstrong, his slave memory
takes it to another level, making him slave to his own past, destroying
his dreams.

Major Characters in Invisible Man

1. Narrator: The first-person narrator is the protagonist of the novel. He

first gives a hint about himself and his invisibility in the Prologue and
later narrates the events about his joining and leaving different
groups such as the Brotherhood and others on one or the other
pretexts. However, due to his African American lineage, he comes to
the conclusion about the white supremacist superior structure they
have built to keep them subservient, though, he believes in
Armstrong and Booker T. Washington’s philosophy, yet he comes
across as white conspiracy whatever he does or plans to do. His plan
to study on scholarship fails when Mr. Norton creates issues for him
after he takes him to the wrong places when taking to the areas
beyond college premises. To keep his invisibility unharmed, he takes
up different names during this entire process but finally comes to the
conclusion that his underground life has not given him any benefit.
2. Mr. Norton: This wealthy white trustee of the college, where the
narrator gets admission with a scholarship, meets the narrator when
he visits the college. The narrator takes him to the college visit driving
his vehicle but mistakenly takes him to some places that he does not
like despite his supposed kindness for the narrator and his race. Mr.
Norton expels the narrator from the college as a part of revenge or
disapproval against the narrator. Mr. Norton also demonstrates, his
duplicity when he confronts him in the end.
3. Ras the Destroyer or the exhorter: This second significant
character appears when the narrator joins the Brotherhood. In the
beginning, he’s known as Ras the exhorter, who incites race riots and
creating hatred among other races with powerful speaking skills. He
becomes the narrator’s sworn enemy for not taking part in the
violence against the whites. His supporters appear here and there to
thrash the opponents and make them submit to their demands of
standing up to white superiority and domination. His domination of
 Harlem takes an upper hand when the Brotherhood retreats from the
mainland.
4. Dr. Bledsoe: Dr. Bledsoe is a very clever and shrewd president of
the college reserved for the African American people. However, he
keeps this shrewdness away from his public reputation and
demonstrates subservience to his white masters whenever the
situation arises. However, when it comes to the narrator, he does not
feel any pity or conscience in destroying his future by expelling him
after he shows Mr. Norton the reality of life around campus. His
letters of reference for future employers prove disastrous for him.
5. Grandfather: The Grandfather in the novel often creeps into the
narrator’s thoughts, making him think about his last words that remind
him about his presence and his place in the world of white
domination. However, the narrator does not think his words, reflecting
his lifelong wisdom of acquiescing to the demands of the white. He
later feels that his Grandfather’s words about him have proven true.
6. Jim Trueblood: A poor sharecropper, Jim’s fortune plummet when
Mr. Norton visits him with the narrator. His harrowing tale of
impregnating his own daughter has made him a notorious character
in the vicinity though strangely the whites shower munificence on him
after this notoriety.
7. Tatlock: Tatlock and the narrator fall out after all the other boys are
thrown out of the ring during the fight. As the biggest one, he does
not resort to fake punching but does real punching and knocks out
the narrator. He proves a symbol of raw force and courage.
8. Superintendent: The superintendent in the novel invites the narrator
for the speech but does not acknowledge his achievement. However,
the narrator does not feel the bad taste, as he presents him a
scholarship to the college.
9. Mr. Emerson: Mr. Emerson is an important character, as he comes
into contact with the narrator when he meets him with reference to
the letter. It, however, happens that his son intervenes and points out
to the narrator about the intention of Bledsoe by giving him reference
letters.
10. Reverend Barbee: This mobile speaker is all praise for the
college founders and trustees for showing generosity toward the
African American community through their donations. A buddha-like
figure, he encourages the narrator to love his college despite facing
humiliating expulsion.
Writing Style of Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison adopted the jazz style in this novel, proving it could be
rendered into fiction. It is, however, based on sights as the narrator goes
through the ordeals one by one. He has carefully chosen words, showing
mastery of diction by putting the words at appropriate places, creating
refrains after every few lines. In fact, this style shifts from the prologue to
onward to another style with long and formal sentences and then again to
informality and colloquialism of the Southerners. Constant use of wordplay,
rhyme, slogan, and paradoxes has created Ellison’s own unique style that
is hard to imitate and hard to ignore.

Analysis of Literary Devices in Invisible Man 

1. Action: The main action of the novel comprises the anonymous

narrator’s narrative about his admission on scholarship, his expulsion,
and then invisibility that ends when he learns things about living in
reality.
2. Anaphora: Invisible Man shows the use of anaphora. For example,
i. My hole is warm and full of light. Yes, full of light. I doubt if there is a
brighter spot in all New York than this hole of mine, and I do not
exclude Broadway. Or the Empire State Building on a photographer’s
dream night. But that is taking advantage of you. Those two spots are
among the darkest of our whole civilization — pardon me, our whole
culture (an important distinction, I’ve heard) — which might sound like
a hoax, or a contradiction, but that (by contradiction, I mean) is how
the world moves: Not like an arrow, but a boomerang. (Beware of
those who speak of the spiral of history; they are preparing a
boomerang. Keep a steel helmet handy.) I know; I have been
boomeranged across my head so much that I now can see the
darkness of lightness. And I love light. Perhaps you’ll think it strange
that an invisible man should need light, desire light, love light. But
maybe it is exactly because I am invisible. (Prologue)
The sentence shows the repetitious use of some phrases and words
such as “full of light” “a boomerang” and “light.”
3. Antagonist: Invisible Man shows Mr. Norton, Brother Jack, Dr.
Bledsoe, and Ras the Exhorter as the antagonists who raise
obstacles in the path of the narrator.
4. Allusion: There are various examples of allusions given in the novel.
i. I am in the great American tradition of tinkers. That makes me kin to
 Ford, Edison and Franklin. Call me, since I have a theory and a
concept, a “thinker-tinker.” (Prologue)
ii. I’d like to hear five recordings of Louis Armstrong playing and
singing “What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue” — all at the same
time. Sometimes now I listen to Louis while I have my favorite dessert
of vanilla ice cream and sloe gin. (Prologue)
iii. With Louis Armstrong one half of me says, “Open the window and
let the foul air out,” while the other says, “It was good green corn
before the harvest.” (Epilogue)
The first allusion is about the American founding fathers and
scientists and the second and the third are about Louis Armstrong.
5. Conflict: The are two types of conflicts in the novel. The first one is
the external conflict that is going on between the whites and the
African American community and the second is between the narrator
and his mental thinking about his invisibility.
6. Characters: Invisible Man presents both static as well as dynamic
characters. The young narrator is a dynamic character as he faces
transformation during his growth. However, the rest of the characters
do Mr. Norton, Dr. Bledsoe, Rinehart, and Brother Jack.
7. Climax: The climax takes place when the anonymous narrator loses
his illusion about his success and invisibility.
8. Foreshadowing: The novel shows the following examples of
foreshadowing:
i. I spoke automatically and with such fervor that I did not realize that
the men were still talking and laughing until my dry mouth, filling up
with blood from the cut, almost strangled me. (Chapter-1)
ii. “Out of a sense of my destined role,” Mr. Norton said shakily. “I felt,
and I still feel, that your people are in some important manner tied to
my destiny.”(Chapter-3)
These examples from Invisible Man clearly foreshadow the coming
events.
9. Hyperbole: Hyperbole or exaggeration occurs in the novel at various
places. For example,
i. Two men stood directly in front of me, one speaking with intense
earnestness. “. . . and Johnson hit Jeffries at an angle of 45 degrees
from his lower left lateral incisor, producing an instantaneous blocking
of his entire thalamic rine, frosting it over like the freezing unit of a
refrigerator, thus shattering his autonomous nervous system and
rocking the big brick-laying creampuff with extreme hyperspasmic
muscular tremors. (Chapter-3)
 ii. Now, now, Hester.” “Okay, okay . . . But what y’all doing looking
like you at a funeral? Don’t you know this is the Golden Day?” she
staggered toward me, belching elegantly and reeling. (Chapter-3)
Not only are these sentences hyperbolic, but also they show how the
narrator thinks.
10. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things
involving their five senses. For example,
i. The wheel felt like an alien thing in my hands as I followed the white
line of the highway. Heat rays from the late afternoon sun arose from
the gray concrete, shimmering like the weary tones of a distant bugle
blown upon still midnight air. (Chapter-4)
ii. It was a clear, bright day when I went out, and the sun burned
warm upon my eyes. Only a few flecks of snowy cloud hung high in
the morning blue sky, and already a woman was hanging wash on a
roof. I felt better walking along. A feeling of confidence grew. Far
down the island the skyscrapers rose tall and mysterious in the thin,
pastel haze. (Chapter-9).
iii. The elevator dropped me like a shot and I went out and walked
along the street. The sun was very bright now and the people along
the walk seemed far away. I stopped before a gray wall where high
above me the headstones of a church graveyard arose like the tops
of buildings. (Chapter-9)
These passages from the novel show that Ellison has used a variety
of images such as the image of sound, color, and sight.
11. Metaphor: Invisible Man shows good use of various
metaphors. For example,
i. Nor is my invisibility exactly a matter of a bio-chemical accident to
my epidermis. (Prologue)
ii. … this barren land after Emancipation,” he intoned, “this land of
darkness and sorrow, of ignorance and degradation, where the hand
of
brother had been turned against brother, father against son, and son
against
father; where master had turned against slave and slave against
master;
where all was strife and darkness, an aching land.. (Chapter-5)
iii. Booker Washington was resurrected today at a certain eviction in
Harlem. He came out from the anonymity of the crowd and spoke to
the people. So you see, I don’t joke with you. Or play with words
either. There is a scientific explanation for this phenomenon — as our
 learned brother has graciously reminded me — you’ll learn it in time,
but whatever you call it the reality of the world crisis is a fact.
( Chapter-7)
The first example compares invisibility with his bodily situation, the
second the land with different situations, and the third Booker T.
Washington with a phenomenon.
12. Mood: The novel presents a usual mood but turns to
nightmares and dreams that the anonymous narrator sees but deep
down it is tragic and serious.
13. Motif: Most important motifs of the novel are invisibility,
blindness, and jazz.
14. Narrator: The novel is narrated in the first-person point of view
and the narrator, who is a protagonist and an anonymous African
American young man.
15. Protagonist: The anonymous narrator is the protagonist of the
novel. The novel starts with his entry into the world and moves
forward as he gets admission to the college and then leaves it after
his expulsion.
16. Rhetorical Questions: The novel shows good use of rhetorical
questions at several places. For example,
i. ‘The harder we fought the more threatening the men became. And
yet, I had begun to worry about my speech again. How would it go?
Would they recognize my ability? What would they give me?
(Chapter-1)
ii. I have never seen, runs with liquid chalk – creating
iii. another ambiguity to puzzle my groping mind: Why is a bird-soiled
statue more commanding than one that is clean? (Chapter-2)
iv. He gave the impression that he understood much and spoke out of
knowledge far deeper than appeared on the surface of his words.
Perhaps it was only the knowledge that he had escaped by the same
route as I. But what had he to fear? I had made the speech, not he.
That girl in the apartment had said that the longer I remained unseen
the longer I’d be effective, which didn’t make much sense either. But
perhaps that was why he had run. He wanted to remain unseen and
effective. Effective at what? (Chapter-14)
This example shows the use of rhetorical questions posed by
different characters not to elicit answers but to stress the underlined
idea.
17. Setting: The setting of the novel is the American South, the city
of New York.
18. Simile: The novel shows good use of various similes. For
example,
i. A tomtom beating like heart-thuds began drowning out the trumpet,
filling my ears. (Prologue)
ii. About eighty-five years ago they were told that they were free,
united with others of our country in everything pertaining to the
common good, and, in everything social, separate like the fingers of
the hand. (Chapter-1)
iii. I remembered the admiration and fear he inspired in everyone on
the campus; the pictures in the Negro press captioned “EDUCATOR,”
in type that exploded like a rifle shot, his face looking out at you with
utmost confidence. (Chapter-6)
These are similes as the use of the word “like” shows the comparison
between different things.