Invisible Man, a novel by Ralph Ellison, explores the social and intellectual challenges faced by African Americans in the early 20th century, addressing themes such as black nationalism and individuality. Published in 1952, the narrative follows an unnamed protagonist who feels socially invisible as he navigates the complexities of his identity against a backdrop of racial tensions and societal expectations. The story illustrates his journey of self-discovery and disillusionment while highlighting the broader issues of race and identity in America.

1. Norton Scientific: Invisible Man
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By: BRAD KEPLER

2. ReeseOathmore's OnSugar Site - Invisible Man is a novel
written by Ralph Ellison, and the only one that he published
during his lifetime (his other novels were published
posthumously). It won him the National Book Award in 1953. The
novel addresses many of the social and intellectual issues facing
African-Americans in the early twentieth century, including
black nationalism, the relationship between black identity and
Marxism, and the reformist racial policies of Booker T.
Washington, as well as issues of individuality and personal
identity.
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Invisible Man nineteenth on its list
of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.Time
magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language
Novels from 1923 to 2005.[1]Historical backgroundIn his introduction to
the 30th Anniversary Edition of Invisible Man,[2] Ellison says that he
started writing the book in a barn in Waitsfield, Vermont in the
summer of 1945 while on sick leave from the Merchant Marine and that
the novel continued to preoccupy him in various parts of New York
City. In an interview in The Paris Review 1955,[3] Ellison states that the
book took five years to complete with one year off for what he termed
an "ill-conceived short novel." Invisible Man was published as a whole
in 1952; however, copyright dates show the initial publication date as
1947, 1948, indicating that Ellison had published a section of the book
prior to full publication.

3. That section was the famous "Battle
Royal" scene, which had been shown Ellison had read this poem as a freshman at the
to Cyril Connolly, the editor of Tuskegee Institute and was immediately
Horizon magazine by Frank Taylor, impressed by The Waste Land's ability to
one of Ellison's early merge his two greatest passions, that of music
supporters.Ellison states in his and literature, for it was in The Waste Land
National Book Award acceptance that he first saw jazz set to words. When asked
speech that he considered the later what he had learned from the poem,
novel's chief significance to be its Ellison responded: imagery, and also
experimental attitude. Rejecting the improvisation—techniques he had only before
idea of social protest—as Ellison seen in jazz.Ellison always believed that he
would later put it—he did not want would be a musician first and a writer second,
to write another protest novel, and and yet even so he had acknowledged that
also seeing the highly regarded writing provided him a "growing satisfaction."
styles of Naturalism and Realism too It was a "covert process," according to Ellison:
limiting to speak to the broader "a refusal of his right hand to let his left hand
issues of race and America, Ellison know what it was doing."[5][edit] Plot
created an open style, one that did introductionInvisible Man is narrated in the
not restrict his ideas to a movement first person by the protagonist, an unnamed
but was more free-flowing in its African American man who considers himself
delivery. What Ellison finally settled socially invisible. His character may have been
on was a style based heavily upon inspired by Ellison's own life.
modern symbolism. It was the kind
of symbolism that Ellison first
encountered in the poem The Waste
Land,[4] by T. S. Eliot.

4. The narrator may be conscious of his
audience, writing as a way to make From this underground perspective, the
himself visible to mainstream culture; narrator attempts to make sense out of his
the book is structured as if it were the life, experiences, and position in American
narrator's autobiography although it society.[edit] Plot summaryIn the beginning,
begins in the middle of his life.The the main character lives in a small town in the
story is told from the narrator's South. He is a model student, even being
present, looking back into his past. named his high school's valedictorian. Having
Thus, the narrator has hindsight in written and delivered an excellent paper
how his story is told, as he is already about the struggles of the average black man,
aware of the outcome.In the Prologue, he gets to tell his speech to a group of white
Ellison's narrator tells readers, "I live men, who force him to participate in a series
rent-free in a building rented strictly to of degrading events. After finally giving his
whites, in a section of the basement speech, he gets a scholarship to an all-black
that was shut off and forgotten during college that is clearly modeled on the
the nineteenth century." In this secret Tuskegee Institute.During his junior year at
place, the narrator creates the college, the narrator takes Mr. Norton, a
surroundings that are symbolically visiting rich white trustee, on a drive in the
illuminated with 1,369 lights. He says, country. He accidentally drives to the house of
"My hole is warm and full of light. Yes, Jim Trueblood, a black man living on the
full of light. I doubt if there is a college's outskirts, who impregnated his own
brighter spot in all New York than this daughter. Trueblood, though disgraced by his
hole of mine, and I do not exclude fellow blacks, has found greater support from
Broadway." The protagonist explains whites.
that light is an intellectual necessity for
him since "the truth is the light and
light is the truth."

5. After hearing Trueblood's story and giving
Trueblood a hundred dollar bill, Mr. At any rate, insight into Bledsoe's
Norton faints, then asks for some alcohol to knowledge of the events and the narrator's
help his condition, prompting the narrator future at the campus is somewhat
to take him to a local tavern. At the Golden prolonged as an important visitor arrives.
Day tavern, Norton passes in and out of The narrator views a sermon by the highly
consciousness as World War I veterans respected Reverend Homer A. Barbee.
being treated at the nearby mental hospital Barbee, who is blind, delivers a speech
for various mental health issues occupy the about the legacy of the college's founder,
bar and a fight breaks out among them. with such passion and resonance that he
One of the veterans claims to be a doctor comes vividly alive to the narrator; his voice
and tends to Mr. Norton. The dazed and makes up for his blindness. The narrator is
confused Mr. Norton is not fully aware of so inspired by the speech that he feels
what’s going on, as the veteran doctor impassioned like never before to contribute
chastises the actions of the trustee and the to the college's legacy. However, all his
young black college student. Through all dreams are shattered as a meeting with
the chaos, the narrator manages to get the Bledsoe reveals his fate. Fearing that the
recovered Mr. Norton back to the campus college's funds will be jeopardized by the
after a day of unusual events.Upon incidents that occurred, Bledsoe
returning to the school he is fearful of the immediately expels the narrator. While the
reaction of the day's incidents from college Invisible Man once aspired to be like
president Dr. Bledsoe. Bledsoe, he realizes that the man has
portrayed himself as a black stereotype in
order to succeed in the white-dominated
society.

6. This serves as the first epiphany
among many in the narrator realizing He is also extremely loyal to the company's
his invisibility. This epiphany is not owner, who once paid him a personal visit.
yet complete when Bledsoe gives him When the narrator tells him about a union
several letters of recommendation to meeting he happened upon, Brockway is
help him get a job under the outraged, and attacks him. They fight, and
assumption that he could return upon Brockway tricks him into turning a wrong valve
earning enough money for the next and causing a boiler to explode. Brockway
semester. Upon arriving in New York, escapes, but the narrator is hospitalized after
the narrator distributes the letters the blast. While recovering, the narrator
with no success. Eventually, the son of overhears doctors discussing him as a mental
one of the people to whom he sent a health patient. He learns through their
letter takes pity on him and shows discussion that shock treatment has been
him an opened copy of the letter; it performed on him.After the shock treatments,
reveals that Bledsoe never had any the narrator attempts to return to his residence
intentions of letting the narrator when he feels overwhelmed by a certain
return and sent him to New York to dizziness and faints on the streets of Harlem.
get rid of him.Acting upon the son's He is taken to the residence of a kind, old-
suggestion, the narrator eventually fashioned woman by the name of Mary. Mary
gets a job in the boiler room of a paint is down-to-earth and reminds the narrator of
factory in a company renowned for its his relatives in the South and friends at the
white paints. The man in charge of college.
the boiler room, Lucius Brockway, is
extremely paranoid and thinks that
the narrator has come to take his job.

7. Mary somewhat serves as a mother
figure for the narrator. While living Ras tells this to the narrator and Tod
there, he happens upon an eviction Clifton, a youth leader of the
of an elderly black couple and makes
an impassioned speech decrying the
Brotherhood, neither of whom seem to
action. Soon, however, police arrive, be swayed by his words.When he returns
and the narrator is forced to escape to Harlem, Tod Clifton has disappeared.
over several building tops. Upon When the narrator finds him, he realizes
reaching safety, he is confronted by a that Clifton has become disillusioned
man named Jack who followed him
and implores him to join a group with the Brotherhood, and has quit.
called The Brotherhood that is a Clifton is selling dancing Sambo dolls on
thinly veiled version of the the street, mocking the organization he
Communist Party and claims to be once believed in. He soon dies. At
committed to social change and Clifton's funeral, the narrator rallies
betterment of the conditions in
Harlem. The narrator agrees.The crowds to win back his former
narrator is at first happy to be widespread Harlem support and delivers
making a difference in the world, a rousing speech. However, he is
"making history," in his new job. criticized in a clandestine meeting with
While for the most part his rallies go Brother Jack and other members for not
smoothly, he soon encounters
trouble from Ras the Exhorter, a being scientific in his arguments at the
fanatical black nationalist in the vein funeral; angered, he begins to argue in
of Marcus Garvey who believes that retaliation, causing Jack to lose his
the Brotherhood is controlled by temper and accidentally make his glass
whites. eye fly out of one of his sockets.

8. The narrator realizes that the half- However, he soon realizes the cost of
blind Jack has never really seen him
either.He buys sunglasses and a hat
this action: Ras becomes a powerful
as a disguise, and is mistaken for a demagogue. After escaping Ras (by
man named Rinehart in a number throwing a spear Ras had acquired
of different scenarios: first, as a through the leader's jaw, permanently
lover, then, a hipster, a gambler, a sealing it), the narrator is attacked by a
briber, and, finally, as a reverend. couple of people who trap him inside a
He sees that Rinehart has adapted coal-filled manhole/basement, sealing
to white society, at the cost of his
him off for the night and leaving him
own identity.He decides to take his
grandfather's dying advice to
alone to finally confront the demons of
"overcome 'em with yeses, his mind: Bledsoe, Norton, and Jack.At
undermine 'em with grins, agree the end of the novel, the narrator is
'em to death and destruction. . ." ready to resurface because "overt
and "yes" the Brotherhood to death, action" has already taken place. This
by making it appear that the could be that, in telling us the story, the
Harlem membership is thriving narrator has already made a political
when in reality it is crumbling.
statement where change could occur.
Storytelling, then, and the preservation
of history of these invisible individuals
is what causes political change.