Invisible Man 隐形人

Ralph Waldo Ellison

(March 1, 1914

–

April 16, 1994) was an American

novelist

,

literary critic

,

scholar

and

writer

. He was born in

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

. Ellison is best known for his novel

Invisible

Man

,

which

won

the

National

Book

Award

in

1953

.

He

also

wrote

Shadow

and

Act

(

1964

), a collection of political, social and critical essays, and

Going to the Territory

(

1986

).

Invisible

Man

is

a

1952

novel

written

by

Ralph

Ellison

.

It

addresses

many

of

the

social

and

intellectual

issues

facing

African-Americans

early

in

the

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.

Invisible

Man

won

the

U.S.

National

Book

Award

for

Fiction

in

1953.

[1]

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.

[2

Plot introduction

Invisible

Man

is

autobiographically

narrated

in

the

first

person

by

the

protagonist,

an

unnamed

African American man who considers himself socially invisible. Ellison conceived his narrator as

a spokesman for black Americans of the time

Ellison struggled to find a style appropriate to his vision. Wanting to avoid writing

than

another

novel

of

racial

protest,

he

settled

on

a

narrator

had

been

forged

in

the

underground of American experience and yet managed to emerge less angry than ironic.

end, he modeled his narrator after the nameless narrator of

Dostoevsky

's

Notes From Underground,

which similarly applies irony and paradox toward far-reaching social criticism.

[10]

The

story

is

told

from

the

narrator's

present,

looking

back

into

his

past.

Thus,

the

narrator

has

hindsight in how his story is told, as he is already aware of the outcome.

In

the

Prologue,

Ellison's

narrator

tells

readers,

live

rent-free

in

a

building

rented

strictly

to

whites, in a section of the basement that was shut off and forgotten during the nineteenth century.

In this secret place, the narrator creates surroundings that are symbolically illuminated with 1,369

lights from the electric company Monopolated Light & Power. He says,

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

.

him

since

truth

is

the

light

and

light

is

the

truth.

From

this

underground

perspective,

the

narrator attempts to make sense out of his life, experiences, and position in American society.

Plot summary

The narrator begins telling his story with the claim that he is an ―invisible man.‖ His invisibility,

he

says,

is

not

a

physical

condition

—

he

is

not

literally

invisible

—

but

is

rather

the

result

of

the

refusal of others to see him. He says that because of his invisibility, he has been hiding from the

world, living underground and stealing electricity from the Monopolated Light & Power Company.

He burns 1,369 light bulbs simultaneously and listens to

Louis Armstrong

’s ―

(What Did I Do to

Be So) Black and Blue

‖ on a phonograph. He says that he has gone underground in order to write

the story of his life and invisibility.

As a young man, in the late 1920s or early 1930s, the narrator lived in the South. Because he is a

gifted public speaker, he is invited to give a speech to a group of important white men in his town.

The men reward him with a briefcase containing a scholarship to a prestigious black college, but

only after humiliating him by forcing him to fight in a ―battle royal‖ in which he is pitted against

other

young

black

men,

all

blindfolded,

in

a

boxing

ring.

After

the

battle

royal,

the

white

men

force

the

youths

to

scramble

over

an

electrified

rug

in

order

to

snatch

at

fake

gold

coins.

The

narrator

has

a

dream

that

night

in

which he

imagines

that

his

scholarship

is actually

a

piece

of

paper reading ―To Whom It May Concern . . . Keep T

his Nigger-

Boy Running.‖

Three

years

later,

the

narrator

is

a

student

at

the

college.

He

is

asked

to

drive

a

wealthy

white

trustee of the college, Mr. Norton, around the campus. Norton talks incessantly about his daughter,

then shows an undue interest in the narrative of Jim Trueblood, a poor, uneducated black man who

impregnated

his

own

daughter.

After

hearing

this

story,

Norton

needs

a

drink,

and

the

narrator

takes him to the Golden Day, a saloon and brothel that normally serves black men. A fight breaks

out among a group of mentally imbalanced black veterans at the bar, and Norton passes out during

the chaos. He is tended by one of the veterans, who claims to be a doctor and who taunts both

Norton and the narrator for their blindness regarding race relations.

Back at the college, the narrator listens to a long, impassioned sermon by the Reverend Homer A.

Barbee

on

the

subject

of

the

college’s

Founder,

whom

the

blind

Barbee

glorifies

with

poetic

language. After the sermon, the narrator is chastised by the college president, Dr. Bledsoe, who

has learned of the narrator’s misadventures with Norton at the old slave quarters and the Golden

Day. Bledsoe rebukes the narrator, saying that he should have shown the white man an idealized

version

of

black

life.

He

expels

the

narrator,

giving

him

seven

letters

of

recommendation

addressed to the college’s white trustees in New York City, and sends him there in search of a job.

The narrator travels to the bright lights and bustle of 1930s Harlem, where he looks unsuccessfully

for work. The letters of recommendation are of no help. At last, the narrator goes to the office of

one of his letters’ addressees, a trustee named Mr. Emerson. There he meets Emerson’s son, who

opens the letter and tells the narrator that he has been betrayed: the letters from Bledsoe actually

portray the narrator as dishonorable and unreliable. The young Emerson helps the narrator to get a

low-

paying job at the Liberty Paints plant, whose trademark color is ―Optic White.‖ The narrator

briefly serves as an assistant to Lucius Brockway, the black man who makes this white paint, but

Brockway

suspects

him

of

joining

in

union

activities

and

turns

on

him.

The

two

men

fight,

neglecting the paint- making; consequently, one of the unattended tanks explodes, and the narrator

is knocked unconscious.

The narrator wakes in the paint factory’s hospital, having temporarily lost his memory and ability

to speak. The white doctors seize the arrival of their unidentified black patient as an opportunity to

conduct electric shock experiments. After the narrator recovers his memory and leaves the hospital,

he collapses on the street. Some black community members take him to the home of Mary, a kind

woman who lets him live with her for free in Harlem and nurtures his sense of black heritage. One

day, the narrator witnesses the eviction of an elderly black couple from their Harlem apartment.

Standing

before

the

crowd

of

people

gathered

before

the

apartment,

he

gives

an

impassioned

speech

against

the

eviction.

Brother

Jack

overhears

his

speech

and

offers

him

a

position

as

a

spokesman for the Brotherhood, a political organization that allegedly works to help the socially

oppressed. After initially rejecting the offer, the narrator takes the job in order to pay Mary back

for her hospitality. But the Brotherhood demands that the narrator take a new name, break with his

past, and move to a new apartment. The narrator is inducted into the Brotherhood at a party at the