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Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time
Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood," and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.
Invisible Man is a milestone in American literature, a book that has continued to engage readers since its appearance in 1952. A first novel by an unknown writer, it remained on the bestseller list for sixteen weeks, won the National Book Award for fiction, and established Ralph Ellison as one of the key writers of the century. The nameless narrator of the novel describes growing up in a black community in the South, attending a Negro college from which he is expelled, moving to New York and becoming the chief spokesman of the Harlem branch of "the Brotherhood," and retreating amid violence and confusion to the basement lair of the Invisible Man he imagines himself to be. The book is a passionate and witty tour de force of style, strongly influenced by T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land, Joyce, and Dostoevsky.
557 pages, Paperback
First published April 14, 1952
10811 people are currently reading
290048 people want to read
About the author
Ralph Ellison
92听books1,943听followersRalph Ellison was a scholar and writer. He was born Ralph Waldo Ellison in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, named by his father after Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ellison was 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). For The New York Times , the best of these essays in addition to the novel put him "among the gods of America's literary Parnassus." A posthumous novel, Juneteenth, was published after being assembled from voluminous notes he left after his death.
Ellison died of Pancreatic Cancer on April 16, 1994. He was eighty-one years old.
Ellison died of Pancreatic Cancer on April 16, 1994. He was eighty-one years old.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 9,200 reviews
March 20, 2008
Full disclosure: I wrote my master's thesis on Ellison's novel because I thought the first time that I read it that it is one of the most significant pieces of literature from the 20th century. Now that I teach it in my AP English class, I've reread it many times, and I'm more convinced than ever that if you are only going to read one book in your life, it should be this one. The unnamed protagonist re-enacts the diaspora of African-Americans from the South to the North--and the surreal experience of racism, rage, and manipulation rarely expressed with such force and eloquence. Ellison follows tried and true patterns from dramatic ritual to spell out his invisible man's journey from cocksure teenager to furious refugee hiding out in a basement in Harlem. The last lines of the book are haunting and almost hopeful through the despair.
May 29, 2023
welcome to...INVISIBLE MAY.
i've done it again. another impeccable pun combining the title of a seminal work with the month it currently is. another paragon of literature added to my currently reading. another several-week period that shall be spent reading it, one chapter at a time, daily.
it's another PROJECT LONG CLASSIC installment.
if saying you want to read long classics counts as reading them, i'm the smartest girl in the world. and now i'm reading them, also.
let's get started.
PROLOGUE
love to own a book for 8 years without ever picking it up and then immediately find it compulsively readable from the very first page. extremely cool nonsense behavior by me.
CHAPTER ONE
clear from the prologue this would be a solid read for me. clear from chapter one that it is going to be brutal and excellent.
CHAPTER TWO
the way the theme of what white people want and expect and reward in Black people here is shown and not told is brilliant. the dichotomy between how the intellectual student and the castout are treated by the millionaire...so fascinating.
CHAPTER THREE
kind of cool that there was very little that could ail you in old times that couldn't be cured by a glass of whiskey at a strip club.
CHAPTER FOUR
love a secret code.
CHAPTER FIVE
the OTHER thing is that, on top of everything else, this also has some of the most gorgeous and visual descriptions i've read in recent memory.
CHAPTER SIX
we're going to the big city!
CHAPTER SEVEN
it is very hard to come up with my goofy little entries for each day of this project when i think each chapter is very good and i keep finding myself taking it very seriously.
very.
CHAPTER EIGHT
okay cliffhanger!
it speaks to how invested i am in this that "something had to happen tomorrow, and it did. i got a letter" feels suspenseful to me.
CHAPTER NINE
a rich white daddy's boy telling our protagonist that he's the one who's "freed" while this spoiled kid is trapped, and that he can be his valet, since he really wants to help...
sheesh. "I could hardly get to sleep for dreaming of revenge" is the proper reaction to literally all of this.
CHAPTER 10
he's working in the Liberty White Paint factory...folks, we have officially moved into metaphor city.
CHAPTER 11
nothing is horror-movie-level scary like medical malpractice.
CHAPTER 12
"the cool splash of sleep" 鈥� that's so good.
nearly as good as this mary character and the idea of dumping a bucket of mop water on an actively preaching reverend.
CHAPTER 13
we're getting into the invisibility origin story. and also my origin story of accidentally reinventing the word "invisibleness" through a combination of parallel thinking and it being monday.
CHAPTER 14
it's party time!!!!
and the party is mostly an induction into the revolution. which is the best kind.
CHAPTER 15
breaking ugly decorations in a home should be the right of every single human. it's called the betterment of society 鈥� look it up.
also to throw things away? i thought that went without saying but then i encountered the plot of this chapter.
CHAPTER 16
let's get fired up!!!!! it's speech time!
CHAPTER 17
watching the beautiful and pastoral color-based descriptions switch to the same language and style for violence and suffering...wow.
CHAPTER 18
the worst kind of sabotage is when the person f*cking your sh*t up is not malicious. just dumb.
there's no coming back from that.
CHAPTER 19
the Woman Question? sounds like me asking my boyfriend why he loves me at the exact moment he's about to fall asleep, am i right? this guy gets it!
"And I wanted both to smash her and to stay with her..." little did ralph ellison know that in the future those would be synonyms.
CHAPTER 20
folks, i believe we are beginning to witness the titular invisibility.
CHAPTER 21
never mind. not yet. getting ahead of myself i guess.
CHAPTER 22
this has that specific high school assigned reading feeling of "I Am Culturally Relevant In A Way That May Fit The Syllabi Of Both Your History And Your English Classes." which is a bizarre sense to have in the midst of adult life.
CHAPTER 23
ah yes, literature's favorite problem-solving tactic: There Must Be A Woman Who Can Do This For Me
CHAPTER 24
welp.
crazy how you can be absolutely and totally on board for an entire book only for the penultimate chapter to just about lose you entirely.
CHAPTER 25
if we don't get invisible now, when will we.
we have found the time. and i fear i may be back on board.
EPILOGUE
and it all comes full circle.
OVERALL
this is a very clever and very incisive and very allegorical but still compelling plotwise book, which had one chapter i hated and 24 i truly enjoyed.
rating: 4
i've done it again. another impeccable pun combining the title of a seminal work with the month it currently is. another paragon of literature added to my currently reading. another several-week period that shall be spent reading it, one chapter at a time, daily.
it's another PROJECT LONG CLASSIC installment.
if saying you want to read long classics counts as reading them, i'm the smartest girl in the world. and now i'm reading them, also.
let's get started.
PROLOGUE
love to own a book for 8 years without ever picking it up and then immediately find it compulsively readable from the very first page. extremely cool nonsense behavior by me.
CHAPTER ONE
clear from the prologue this would be a solid read for me. clear from chapter one that it is going to be brutal and excellent.
CHAPTER TWO
the way the theme of what white people want and expect and reward in Black people here is shown and not told is brilliant. the dichotomy between how the intellectual student and the castout are treated by the millionaire...so fascinating.
CHAPTER THREE
kind of cool that there was very little that could ail you in old times that couldn't be cured by a glass of whiskey at a strip club.
CHAPTER FOUR
love a secret code.
CHAPTER FIVE
the OTHER thing is that, on top of everything else, this also has some of the most gorgeous and visual descriptions i've read in recent memory.
CHAPTER SIX
we're going to the big city!
CHAPTER SEVEN
it is very hard to come up with my goofy little entries for each day of this project when i think each chapter is very good and i keep finding myself taking it very seriously.
very.
CHAPTER EIGHT
okay cliffhanger!
it speaks to how invested i am in this that "something had to happen tomorrow, and it did. i got a letter" feels suspenseful to me.
CHAPTER NINE
a rich white daddy's boy telling our protagonist that he's the one who's "freed" while this spoiled kid is trapped, and that he can be his valet, since he really wants to help...
sheesh. "I could hardly get to sleep for dreaming of revenge" is the proper reaction to literally all of this.
CHAPTER 10
he's working in the Liberty White Paint factory...folks, we have officially moved into metaphor city.
CHAPTER 11
nothing is horror-movie-level scary like medical malpractice.
CHAPTER 12
"the cool splash of sleep" 鈥� that's so good.
nearly as good as this mary character and the idea of dumping a bucket of mop water on an actively preaching reverend.
CHAPTER 13
we're getting into the invisibility origin story. and also my origin story of accidentally reinventing the word "invisibleness" through a combination of parallel thinking and it being monday.
CHAPTER 14
it's party time!!!!
and the party is mostly an induction into the revolution. which is the best kind.
CHAPTER 15
breaking ugly decorations in a home should be the right of every single human. it's called the betterment of society 鈥� look it up.
also to throw things away? i thought that went without saying but then i encountered the plot of this chapter.
CHAPTER 16
let's get fired up!!!!! it's speech time!
CHAPTER 17
watching the beautiful and pastoral color-based descriptions switch to the same language and style for violence and suffering...wow.
CHAPTER 18
the worst kind of sabotage is when the person f*cking your sh*t up is not malicious. just dumb.
there's no coming back from that.
CHAPTER 19
the Woman Question? sounds like me asking my boyfriend why he loves me at the exact moment he's about to fall asleep, am i right? this guy gets it!
"And I wanted both to smash her and to stay with her..." little did ralph ellison know that in the future those would be synonyms.
CHAPTER 20
folks, i believe we are beginning to witness the titular invisibility.
CHAPTER 21
never mind. not yet. getting ahead of myself i guess.
CHAPTER 22
this has that specific high school assigned reading feeling of "I Am Culturally Relevant In A Way That May Fit The Syllabi Of Both Your History And Your English Classes." which is a bizarre sense to have in the midst of adult life.
CHAPTER 23
ah yes, literature's favorite problem-solving tactic: There Must Be A Woman Who Can Do This For Me
CHAPTER 24
welp.
crazy how you can be absolutely and totally on board for an entire book only for the penultimate chapter to just about lose you entirely.
CHAPTER 25
if we don't get invisible now, when will we.
we have found the time. and i fear i may be back on board.
EPILOGUE
and it all comes full circle.
OVERALL
this is a very clever and very incisive and very allegorical but still compelling plotwise book, which had one chapter i hated and 24 i truly enjoyed.
rating: 4
October 26, 2013
鈥淚 am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fibre and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible because people refuse to see me鈥hen they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination- indeed, everything and anything except me.鈥�
When I first read the book last year, the above quote really stood out to me. It seemed very Dostevskyan. It has taken a second reading for me to truly process the content of this book, and still I can鈥檛 exactly say I understand all the symbolism.
I really enjoy coming of age books and this one is no exception. The book starts off with the narrator attending a college in the American South. Due to some events I won鈥檛 get into he moves to Harlem to look for work. We see the maturing process of the narrator as he goes from being an innocent boy to one who begins to question his identity but can鈥檛 seem to reconcile it with his role as a black man in (racist) 1950s America. And like any coming-of-age story, there is a lot of interior and external conflict.
It鈥檚 hard to really summarize this book because so much goes on. Of course the main issue is about race and how it was for a person of colour living in a racist society at the time. The book also gets political when it outlines different possible approaches for racial integration, one more radical than the other.
All in all a great book, a book which I will probably have to read again (or discuss it with someone!) to understand it better.
When I first read the book last year, the above quote really stood out to me. It seemed very Dostevskyan. It has taken a second reading for me to truly process the content of this book, and still I can鈥檛 exactly say I understand all the symbolism.
I really enjoy coming of age books and this one is no exception. The book starts off with the narrator attending a college in the American South. Due to some events I won鈥檛 get into he moves to Harlem to look for work. We see the maturing process of the narrator as he goes from being an innocent boy to one who begins to question his identity but can鈥檛 seem to reconcile it with his role as a black man in (racist) 1950s America. And like any coming-of-age story, there is a lot of interior and external conflict.
It鈥檚 hard to really summarize this book because so much goes on. Of course the main issue is about race and how it was for a person of colour living in a racist society at the time. The book also gets political when it outlines different possible approaches for racial integration, one more radical than the other.
All in all a great book, a book which I will probably have to read again (or discuss it with someone!) to understand it better.
May 5, 2020
Invisible Man is an extremely well written and intelligent novel full of passion, fire and energy: it鈥檚 such a force to be reckoned with in the literary world, and not one to be taken lightly.
鈥淚 am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.鈥�
The biggest question the novel raises evolves around identity (or lack thereof) in a world that demands we conform and meet the expectations of others. The unnamed protagonist becomes invisible, well he feels invisible, because the world cannot accept his opinions, desires and intellectual freedom: he must think, act and talk in a way he is told; thus, his personality vanishes as he becomes what he must.
He cannot form his own identity because every time he creates a sense of individualism he is knocked back because his expression of self does no adhere to someone鈥檚 wishes. And this lack of self prevents him from finding any sense of belonging because wherever he goes he is not himself. And this isn鈥檛 just about blackness in the face of a white society. This isn鈥檛 just about the postcolonial state of slavery and hybrid identity in the face of a supposed freedom from the shackles that bound the blacks to their masters; this is about American society at large: it鈥檚 about the world at large.
鈥淲hen I discover who I am, I'll be free.鈥�
And that鈥檚 what makes the novel so powerfully emotive and raw. The narrator enters many different communities and societies, each of which impose an idea upon him about the way in which blacks should behave. Some argue for perpetuating the stereotypical uneducated negro, some suggest that the blacks should be violent and reclaim there lost African heritage and others suggest for science and rationality in dictating the future of blacks in America. In each instance the narrator finds himself detached and separate; he plays an inauthentic role in trying to adhere to ideas about himself that he does not feel are right.
So as he walks through the world lost and confused, dazed and downtrodden, he tries to find himself and fails miserably. The language Ellison tells the story through is remarkable and perceptive; he has a ridiculously keen ear for dialogue and speech patterns that allow the narrator to express himself in way that demonstrates his disillusionment with the world. He is not a happy man, and this is not a happy book. It bespeaks the blindness of society, ideology and those that profess to act in our best interests.
鈥淟ife is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.鈥�
As I write these words, I鈥檓 about to begin my second read of this spectacular novel. There鈥檚 just so much in here that one read is simply not enough.
鈥淚 am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.鈥�
The biggest question the novel raises evolves around identity (or lack thereof) in a world that demands we conform and meet the expectations of others. The unnamed protagonist becomes invisible, well he feels invisible, because the world cannot accept his opinions, desires and intellectual freedom: he must think, act and talk in a way he is told; thus, his personality vanishes as he becomes what he must.
He cannot form his own identity because every time he creates a sense of individualism he is knocked back because his expression of self does no adhere to someone鈥檚 wishes. And this lack of self prevents him from finding any sense of belonging because wherever he goes he is not himself. And this isn鈥檛 just about blackness in the face of a white society. This isn鈥檛 just about the postcolonial state of slavery and hybrid identity in the face of a supposed freedom from the shackles that bound the blacks to their masters; this is about American society at large: it鈥檚 about the world at large.
鈥淲hen I discover who I am, I'll be free.鈥�
And that鈥檚 what makes the novel so powerfully emotive and raw. The narrator enters many different communities and societies, each of which impose an idea upon him about the way in which blacks should behave. Some argue for perpetuating the stereotypical uneducated negro, some suggest that the blacks should be violent and reclaim there lost African heritage and others suggest for science and rationality in dictating the future of blacks in America. In each instance the narrator finds himself detached and separate; he plays an inauthentic role in trying to adhere to ideas about himself that he does not feel are right.
So as he walks through the world lost and confused, dazed and downtrodden, he tries to find himself and fails miserably. The language Ellison tells the story through is remarkable and perceptive; he has a ridiculously keen ear for dialogue and speech patterns that allow the narrator to express himself in way that demonstrates his disillusionment with the world. He is not a happy man, and this is not a happy book. It bespeaks the blindness of society, ideology and those that profess to act in our best interests.
鈥淟ife is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.鈥�
As I write these words, I鈥檓 about to begin my second read of this spectacular novel. There鈥檚 just so much in here that one read is simply not enough.
June 14, 2023
Read in 2018
鈥淚 am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.鈥�
Part a madman's rambling stream of consciousness, part a touching story of a confused young black man struggling with racial identity, Invisible Man is an important American classic. What made this novel special for me was the narration of Joe Morton. I rarely listen to audiobooks but I was lucky to get this one as an Audible offer. I am so glad I decided to listen to this book instead of reading it because the whole experience was enhanced by the wonderful narration. Highly recommended although I prefer Black Boy as a classic on race in US.
.鈥淲hat and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?鈥�
鈥淚 am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.鈥�
Part a madman's rambling stream of consciousness, part a touching story of a confused young black man struggling with racial identity, Invisible Man is an important American classic. What made this novel special for me was the narration of Joe Morton. I rarely listen to audiobooks but I was lucky to get this one as an Audible offer. I am so glad I decided to listen to this book instead of reading it because the whole experience was enhanced by the wonderful narration. Highly recommended although I prefer Black Boy as a classic on race in US.
.鈥淲hat and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?鈥�
July 15, 2019
鈥淲hen I discover who I am, I鈥檒l be free.鈥�
Reading "Invisible Man" during a visit to New York was a deeply touching experience. What an incredible bonus to be able to follow in the footsteps of the young man struggling with racial and political identity questions. The physical presence of New York life enhanced the reading, and the city added flavour and sound to the story. Hearing the noise, walking in the lights of the advertisements, seeing the faces from all corners of the world made the main character's confusion and freedom of identity choice evident. And being a stranger in New York myself, I turned into an invisible woman, taking in the atmosphere without being noticed.
Following the successes and misfortunes of the narrator, this novel shapes the identity of the reader as well. You can't escape the big questions built into the story.
What is reality? What is scientifically true? How do we approach our given environment? Are words more powerful than actions or vice versa? Is there a logical chain of causes and effects between verbal instigation and violent action? Is there objective justice? How do we define it?
The answers are not straight forward, but the narrator encourages the reader to try to embrace and understand the various changing shapes human beings take on over the course of their lives. It is better to live your own absurd life fully than to die for the absurdity of others' ideas:
鈥淚 was pulled this way and that for longer than I can remember. And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled. I am an invisible man.鈥�
Must-read!
Favourite quote:
鈥淟ife is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.鈥�
Postscript: Rereading this review in March 2017, after following the rapid change in America since last summer, I am filled with sadness that we can never take for granted that we have left a certain kind of populism and racist propaganda behind, and that human rights can still be treated with farcical disrespect. I won't return to New York for the time being. The novel, however, is more recommended than ever.
Reading "Invisible Man" during a visit to New York was a deeply touching experience. What an incredible bonus to be able to follow in the footsteps of the young man struggling with racial and political identity questions. The physical presence of New York life enhanced the reading, and the city added flavour and sound to the story. Hearing the noise, walking in the lights of the advertisements, seeing the faces from all corners of the world made the main character's confusion and freedom of identity choice evident. And being a stranger in New York myself, I turned into an invisible woman, taking in the atmosphere without being noticed.
Following the successes and misfortunes of the narrator, this novel shapes the identity of the reader as well. You can't escape the big questions built into the story.
What is reality? What is scientifically true? How do we approach our given environment? Are words more powerful than actions or vice versa? Is there a logical chain of causes and effects between verbal instigation and violent action? Is there objective justice? How do we define it?
The answers are not straight forward, but the narrator encourages the reader to try to embrace and understand the various changing shapes human beings take on over the course of their lives. It is better to live your own absurd life fully than to die for the absurdity of others' ideas:
鈥淚 was pulled this way and that for longer than I can remember. And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled. I am an invisible man.鈥�
Must-read!
Favourite quote:
鈥淟ife is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.鈥�
Postscript: Rereading this review in March 2017, after following the rapid change in America since last summer, I am filled with sadness that we can never take for granted that we have left a certain kind of populism and racist propaganda behind, and that human rights can still be treated with farcical disrespect. I won't return to New York for the time being. The novel, however, is more recommended than ever.
June 18, 2017
Most capital-G Great books can be a grim trudge, like doing homework. Invisible Man is one of the few Great books that's also relentlessly, unapologetically entertaining, full of brawls, explosions, double-crosses, and the exuberant mad. As a meditation on race, it's as fresh as if it had been first published yesterday. One of the most essential American novels ever written and only the best of the best can stand alongside it: Grapes of Wrath, Huckleberry Finn, To Kill A Mockingbird, True Grit.
May 14, 2025
Read this during a rainy spring week in my freezing walled-up patio room on Edgehill Road in Kingston, ON (the steep slope of it calling for such an artful architectural dodge on the part of my college digs' landlord) in 1973. I was cruising for another overdue psychiatric bruising with the stress of my courseload.
Henry Kissinger's overkill up the Mekong didn't help either.
Anyway, Invisible Man was the last of my required reading for my Modern Novel course towards my degree. As if I didn't need someone else to shake me brutally awake!
Invisible but deadly, the book was unintentionally an overdue addition to the planned adult demolition of my autism. I didn't think I needed another reason to hate myself...
Though apparently I did.
Now the modern world has turned blind. For the comfortable it is a blessing. In my autism (the world, as you know, judges it as immaturity) it is a curse.
I should have been comfortable, but kept peeking at life's underside - the side more obvious to the autistic.
In Elison's Harlem in the fifties (the world being blind to racial difference) it was obscene. Furthermore, the polite operative word for American blindness is now gentrification. Internet Gentrification comfortably screens out all differences.
Sex is the glue that holds all its comforts together.
The comfortable are blessed for life. The Aspie's jerky antsiness under sedation merely hides a traumatic nightmare. The nightmare is real. Elison's angry violence is a reflex reaction to a comfort that has never existed in his total nightmare.
It says GET REAL to the moral majority. Like, wakey, wakey. So which view is right?
Well, being autistic still (so many retreating segues later) I think the dream is in fact a nightmare, perhaps a total nightmare as in this book. That, at any rate, it was for me, awakening at 5AM this morning.
In that dream, its appalling debacle was, a voice said, the key to the bipolar curse in my life. And no, I don鈥檛 remember what the key was, except that it was deceitfully political in nature, like in the doomed political action of Elison鈥檚 novel, and intensely nightmarish.
The face of Medusa itself. Perhaps that's when I remembered Invisible Man!
***
This book was a winner of the National Book Reward in the early fifties.
Since then, for some reason, it has been dropped from published circulation in Canada -
Perhaps because the plot may be perceived as inciting racial violence -
And I am strangely not unhappy about this Medusa鈥檚 demise鈥�
For reasons of public safety:
And my own.
Henry Kissinger's overkill up the Mekong didn't help either.
Anyway, Invisible Man was the last of my required reading for my Modern Novel course towards my degree. As if I didn't need someone else to shake me brutally awake!
Invisible but deadly, the book was unintentionally an overdue addition to the planned adult demolition of my autism. I didn't think I needed another reason to hate myself...
Though apparently I did.
Now the modern world has turned blind. For the comfortable it is a blessing. In my autism (the world, as you know, judges it as immaturity) it is a curse.
I should have been comfortable, but kept peeking at life's underside - the side more obvious to the autistic.
In Elison's Harlem in the fifties (the world being blind to racial difference) it was obscene. Furthermore, the polite operative word for American blindness is now gentrification. Internet Gentrification comfortably screens out all differences.
Sex is the glue that holds all its comforts together.
The comfortable are blessed for life. The Aspie's jerky antsiness under sedation merely hides a traumatic nightmare. The nightmare is real. Elison's angry violence is a reflex reaction to a comfort that has never existed in his total nightmare.
It says GET REAL to the moral majority. Like, wakey, wakey. So which view is right?
Well, being autistic still (so many retreating segues later) I think the dream is in fact a nightmare, perhaps a total nightmare as in this book. That, at any rate, it was for me, awakening at 5AM this morning.
In that dream, its appalling debacle was, a voice said, the key to the bipolar curse in my life. And no, I don鈥檛 remember what the key was, except that it was deceitfully political in nature, like in the doomed political action of Elison鈥檚 novel, and intensely nightmarish.
The face of Medusa itself. Perhaps that's when I remembered Invisible Man!
***
This book was a winner of the National Book Reward in the early fifties.
Since then, for some reason, it has been dropped from published circulation in Canada -
Perhaps because the plot may be perceived as inciting racial violence -
And I am strangely not unhappy about this Medusa鈥檚 demise鈥�
For reasons of public safety:
And my own.
April 15, 2022
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man is a novel by Ralph Ellison, published by Random House in 1952.
The narrator, an unnamed black man, begins by describing his living conditions: an underground room wired with hundreds of electric lights, operated by power stolen from the city's electric grid. He reflects on the various ways in which he has experienced social invisibility during his life and begins to tell his story, returning to his teenage years.
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 乇賵夭 趩賴丕乇丿賴賲 賲丕賴 跇丕賳賵蹖賴 爻丕賱2016賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 乇丕賱賮 丕賱蹖爻賵賳 (丕賱蹖爻賳)貨 鬲賴乇丕賳: 噩賳诏賱鈥忊€� 爻丕賱1393禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖 鈥€忊€�= 爻丕賱2014賲鈥屬勜ж屫� 丿乇581氐貨 賲鬲賳 丕賳诏賱蹖爻蹖貙 丕賮爻鬲 丕夭 乇賵蹖 趩丕倬 爻丕賱1997賲貙 賳蹖賵蹖賵乇讴貨 賲賵囟賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 - 爻丿賴20賲
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丿乇亘丕乇賴 蹖 夭賳丿诏蹖 蹖讴 爻賷丕賴倬賵爻鬲 芦丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖禄 丕爻鬲貨 讴賴 亘賴 丿賱蹖賱 夭賳丿诏蹖 丿乇 噩丕賲毓賴 丕蹖 倬乇 丕夭 丿卮賲賳蹖 賵 禺卮讴 丕賳丿蹖卮蹖貙 丨爻 賴賵賷鬲 禺賵蹖卮 乇丕 丕夭 丿爻鬲 賲蹖丿賴丿貙 賵 丕賳诏丕乇 丿蹖诏乇 賵噩賵丿 亘蹖乇賵賳蹖 賳丿丕乇丿貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 讴鬲丕亘 芦乇丕賱賮 丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄 賴賲 亘乇丕蹖 賴賲蹖賳貙 丕蹖賳 賳丕賲 乇丕 亘乇丕蹖 讴鬲丕亘 禺賵蹖卮 亘乇诏夭蹖丿賴 丕賳丿貙 趩賵賳 亘丕賵乇 丿丕乇賳丿 丕蹖賳 賲乇丿 亘賴 乇丕爻鬲蹖 丿蹖诏乇 賵噩賵丿 賳丿丕乇丿貨 賳丕賲 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 丿乇 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲 讴賱丕爻蹖讴 噩賴丕賳貙 丿賵 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴鈥� 乇丕 亘賴 蹖丕丿 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫①堌必� 丕夭 亘蹖賳 丕蹖賳 丿賵 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴貙 卮丕蹖丿 芦丕趩.噩蹖 賵賱夭禄 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 蹖 芦丕賳诏賱蹖爻蹖禄 賲卮賴賵乇鬲乇 亘丕卮賳丿貨 丕蹖卮丕賳 讴鬲丕亘 禺賵蹖卮 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 乇丕貙 丿乇 賯丕賱亘 蹖讴 乇賲丕賳 毓賱賲蹖- 鬲禺蹖賱蹖 丿乇 爻丕賱1897賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 賲賳鬲卮乇 讴乇丿賳丿貨 讴鬲丕亘 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 丕孬乇 芦丕趩.噩蹖 賵賱夭禄貙 爻倬爻 丿乇 賯丕賱亘 賮蹖賱賲 賴賲 鬲賵賱蹖丿 賵 毓乇囟賴 卮丿貨 丕賲丕 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄貙 賳賵卮鬲賴鈥� 蹖 芦乇丕賱賮 丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄 丕爻鬲貨 芦丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴貙 賵 賲賳鬲賯丿 爻蹖丕賴倬賵爻鬲 芦丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖禄 亘賵丿賳丿貙 讴賴 丕夭 爻丕賱賴丕蹖 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 爻丿賴 蹖 亘蹖爻鬲賲 賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 (爻丕賱 鬲賵賱丿1914賲蹖賱丕丿蹖) 鬲丕 爻丕賱賴丕蹖 倬丕蹖丕賳蹖 丌賳 爻丿賴 (爻丕賱 丿乇诏匕卮鬲卮丕賳 丿乇 爻丕賱1994賲蹖賱丕丿蹖) 夭賳丿诏蹖 讴乇丿賴 丕賳丿貨 鬲丕讴蹖丿 亘乇 爻蹖丕賴倬賵爻鬲 亘賵丿賳 芦乇丕賱賮 丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄貙 毓賲丿蹖 丕爻鬲貨 趩賵賳 讴鬲丕亘 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 丕蹖卮丕賳貙 亘丕 鬲讴蹖賴 亘乇 鬲噩乇亘蹖丕鬲 蹖讴 爻蹖丕賴倬賵爻鬲 賳诏丕卮鬲賴 卮丿賴 丕爻鬲貨 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 賳賵卮鬲賴 蹖 芦丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄貙 蹖讴 鬲賮丕賵鬲 賲賴賲 亘丕 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 賳賵卮鬲賴 蹖 芦丕趩.噩蹖 賵賱夭禄 丿丕乇丿貨 丿乇 乇賲丕賳 芦丕趩.噩蹖 賵賱夭禄貙 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賲乇丿蹖 乇丕 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗃屬呚� 讴賴 亘賴 丕乇丕丿賴鈥� 蹖 禺賵丿貙 賵 亘丕 鬲讴蹖賴 亘乇 蹖讴 賲丕丿賴鈥� 蹖 卮蹖賲蹖丕蹖蹖貙 賳丕賲乇卅蹖 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 丕賲丕 芦丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄貙 亘賴 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇丕賳卮 賲乇丿蹖 乇丕 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫囐嗀� 讴賴 亘乇丕蹖 亘蹖鈥屫堌囒� 丿蹖诏乇丕賳 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 丿蹖丿賴 賳賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 亘爻蹖丕乇蹖 乇賲丕賳 芦丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄 乇丕貙 丕夭 乇賲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 鬲丕孬蹖乇诏匕丕乇 爻丿賴 蹖 亘蹖爻鬲賲 賲蹖賱丕丿蹖貙 丿乇 丿賮丕毓 丕夭 爻蹖丕賴倬賵爻鬲丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫з嗁嗀� 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 爻賴賲 亘爻夭丕蹖蹖 丿乇 賴賲賵丕乇 讴乇丿賳 賲爻蹖乇 乇卮丿 爻蹖丕爻蹖貙 賵 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 爻蹖丕賴倬賵爻鬲丕賳 芦丌賲乇蹖讴丕禄貙 胤蹖 丿賴賴鈥� 賴丕蹖 丕禺蹖乇 丿丕卮鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 亘乇丕蹖 賴賲蹖賳 賲丕噩乇丕爻鬲 讴賴 賲卮賴賵乇鬲乇蹖賳 噩賲賱賴鈥� 蹖 讴鬲丕亘 丕蹖賳 丕爻鬲: 芦賲賳 賳丕賲乇卅蹖 賴爻鬲賲貨 毓賱鬲卮 賴賲 亘爻蹖丕乇 爻丕丿賴 丕爻鬲貨 賴蹖趩鈥屭┴� 賳賲蹖鈥屫堌з囏� 賲乇丕 亘亘蹖賳丿.禄貨
賳賯賱 丕夭 賲鬲賳 讴鬲丕亘: (賲賳 丕夭 丕蹖賳讴賴 倬丿乇亘夭乇诏 賵 賲丕丿乇亘夭乇诏賲 亘乇丿賴 亘賵丿賴鈥屫з嗀� 卮乇賲賳丿賴 賳蹖爻鬲賲貨 丕賲丕 丕夭 丕蹖賳讴賴 蹖讴亘丕乇 亘禺丕胤乇 亘乇丿賴 亘賵丿賳 丌賳賴丕貙 丕丨爻丕爻 卮乇賲賳丿诏蹖 讴乇丿賲 卮乇賲賳丿賴鈥� 丕賲.)貨 倬丕蹖丕賳 賳賯賱
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 09/04/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 25/01/1401賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
Invisible Man is a novel by Ralph Ellison, published by Random House in 1952.
The narrator, an unnamed black man, begins by describing his living conditions: an underground room wired with hundreds of electric lights, operated by power stolen from the city's electric grid. He reflects on the various ways in which he has experienced social invisibility during his life and begins to tell his story, returning to his teenage years.
鬲丕乇蹖禺 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 禺賵丕賳卮: 乇賵夭 趩賴丕乇丿賴賲 賲丕賴 跇丕賳賵蹖賴 爻丕賱2016賲蹖賱丕丿蹖
毓賳賵丕賳: 賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴: 乇丕賱賮 丕賱蹖爻賵賳 (丕賱蹖爻賳)貨 鬲賴乇丕賳: 噩賳诏賱鈥忊€� 爻丕賱1393禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖 鈥€忊€�= 爻丕賱2014賲鈥屬勜ж屫� 丿乇581氐貨 賲鬲賳 丕賳诏賱蹖爻蹖貙 丕賮爻鬲 丕夭 乇賵蹖 趩丕倬 爻丕賱1997賲貙 賳蹖賵蹖賵乇讴貨 賲賵囟賵毓 丿丕爻鬲丕賳賴丕蹖 賳賵蹖爻賳丿诏丕賳 丕蹖丕賱丕鬲 賲鬲丨丿賴 丌賲乇蹖讴丕 - 爻丿賴20賲
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丿乇亘丕乇賴 蹖 夭賳丿诏蹖 蹖讴 爻賷丕賴倬賵爻鬲 芦丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖禄 丕爻鬲貨 讴賴 亘賴 丿賱蹖賱 夭賳丿诏蹖 丿乇 噩丕賲毓賴 丕蹖 倬乇 丕夭 丿卮賲賳蹖 賵 禺卮讴 丕賳丿蹖卮蹖貙 丨爻 賴賵賷鬲 禺賵蹖卮 乇丕 丕夭 丿爻鬲 賲蹖丿賴丿貙 賵 丕賳诏丕乇 丿蹖诏乇 賵噩賵丿 亘蹖乇賵賳蹖 賳丿丕乇丿貨 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 讴鬲丕亘 芦乇丕賱賮 丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄 賴賲 亘乇丕蹖 賴賲蹖賳貙 丕蹖賳 賳丕賲 乇丕 亘乇丕蹖 讴鬲丕亘 禺賵蹖卮 亘乇诏夭蹖丿賴 丕賳丿貙 趩賵賳 亘丕賵乇 丿丕乇賳丿 丕蹖賳 賲乇丿 亘賴 乇丕爻鬲蹖 丿蹖诏乇 賵噩賵丿 賳丿丕乇丿貨 賳丕賲 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 丿乇 丕丿亘蹖丕鬲 讴賱丕爻蹖讴 噩賴丕賳貙 丿賵 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴鈥� 乇丕 亘賴 蹖丕丿 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫①堌必� 丕夭 亘蹖賳 丕蹖賳 丿賵 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴貙 卮丕蹖丿 芦丕趩.噩蹖 賵賱夭禄 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 蹖 芦丕賳诏賱蹖爻蹖禄 賲卮賴賵乇鬲乇 亘丕卮賳丿貨 丕蹖卮丕賳 讴鬲丕亘 禺賵蹖卮 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 乇丕貙 丿乇 賯丕賱亘 蹖讴 乇賲丕賳 毓賱賲蹖- 鬲禺蹖賱蹖 丿乇 爻丕賱1897賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 賲賳鬲卮乇 讴乇丿賳丿貨 讴鬲丕亘 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 丕孬乇 芦丕趩.噩蹖 賵賱夭禄貙 爻倬爻 丿乇 賯丕賱亘 賮蹖賱賲 賴賲 鬲賵賱蹖丿 賵 毓乇囟賴 卮丿貨 丕賲丕 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄貙 賳賵卮鬲賴鈥� 蹖 芦乇丕賱賮 丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄 丕爻鬲貨 芦丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴貙 賵 賲賳鬲賯丿 爻蹖丕賴倬賵爻鬲 芦丌賲乇蹖讴丕蹖蹖禄 亘賵丿賳丿貙 讴賴 丕夭 爻丕賱賴丕蹖 賳禺爻鬲蹖賳 爻丿賴 蹖 亘蹖爻鬲賲 賲蹖賱丕丿蹖 (爻丕賱 鬲賵賱丿1914賲蹖賱丕丿蹖) 鬲丕 爻丕賱賴丕蹖 倬丕蹖丕賳蹖 丌賳 爻丿賴 (爻丕賱 丿乇诏匕卮鬲卮丕賳 丿乇 爻丕賱1994賲蹖賱丕丿蹖) 夭賳丿诏蹖 讴乇丿賴 丕賳丿貨 鬲丕讴蹖丿 亘乇 爻蹖丕賴倬賵爻鬲 亘賵丿賳 芦乇丕賱賮 丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄貙 毓賲丿蹖 丕爻鬲貨 趩賵賳 讴鬲丕亘 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 丕蹖卮丕賳貙 亘丕 鬲讴蹖賴 亘乇 鬲噩乇亘蹖丕鬲 蹖讴 爻蹖丕賴倬賵爻鬲 賳诏丕卮鬲賴 卮丿賴 丕爻鬲貨 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 賳賵卮鬲賴 蹖 芦丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄貙 蹖讴 鬲賮丕賵鬲 賲賴賲 亘丕 芦賲乇丿 賳丕賲乇卅蹖禄 賳賵卮鬲賴 蹖 芦丕趩.噩蹖 賵賱夭禄 丿丕乇丿貨 丿乇 乇賲丕賳 芦丕趩.噩蹖 賵賱夭禄貙 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賲乇丿蹖 乇丕 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗃屬呚� 讴賴 亘賴 丕乇丕丿賴鈥� 蹖 禺賵丿貙 賵 亘丕 鬲讴蹖賴 亘乇 蹖讴 賲丕丿賴鈥� 蹖 卮蹖賲蹖丕蹖蹖貙 賳丕賲乇卅蹖 賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 丕賲丕 芦丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄貙 亘賴 禺賵丕賳卮诏乇丕賳卮 賲乇丿蹖 乇丕 賳卮丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫囐嗀� 讴賴 亘乇丕蹖 亘蹖鈥屫堌囒� 丿蹖诏乇丕賳 丕爻鬲貙 讴賴 丿蹖丿賴 賳賲蹖鈥屫促堌� 亘爻蹖丕乇蹖 乇賲丕賳 芦丕賱蹖爻賵賳禄 乇丕貙 丕夭 乇賲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 鬲丕孬蹖乇诏匕丕乇 爻丿賴 蹖 亘蹖爻鬲賲 賲蹖賱丕丿蹖貙 丿乇 丿賮丕毓 丕夭 爻蹖丕賴倬賵爻鬲丕賳 賲蹖鈥屫з嗁嗀� 丕蹖賳 讴鬲丕亘 爻賴賲 亘爻夭丕蹖蹖 丿乇 賴賲賵丕乇 讴乇丿賳 賲爻蹖乇 乇卮丿 爻蹖丕爻蹖貙 賵 丕噩鬲賲丕毓蹖 爻蹖丕賴倬賵爻鬲丕賳 芦丌賲乇蹖讴丕禄貙 胤蹖 丿賴賴鈥� 賴丕蹖 丕禺蹖乇 丿丕卮鬲賴 丕爻鬲貨 亘乇丕蹖 賴賲蹖賳 賲丕噩乇丕爻鬲 讴賴 賲卮賴賵乇鬲乇蹖賳 噩賲賱賴鈥� 蹖 讴鬲丕亘 丕蹖賳 丕爻鬲: 芦賲賳 賳丕賲乇卅蹖 賴爻鬲賲貨 毓賱鬲卮 賴賲 亘爻蹖丕乇 爻丕丿賴 丕爻鬲貨 賴蹖趩鈥屭┴� 賳賲蹖鈥屫堌з囏� 賲乇丕 亘亘蹖賳丿.禄貨
賳賯賱 丕夭 賲鬲賳 讴鬲丕亘: (賲賳 丕夭 丕蹖賳讴賴 倬丿乇亘夭乇诏 賵 賲丕丿乇亘夭乇诏賲 亘乇丿賴 亘賵丿賴鈥屫з嗀� 卮乇賲賳丿賴 賳蹖爻鬲賲貨 丕賲丕 丕夭 丕蹖賳讴賴 蹖讴亘丕乇 亘禺丕胤乇 亘乇丿賴 亘賵丿賳 丌賳賴丕貙 丕丨爻丕爻 卮乇賲賳丿诏蹖 讴乇丿賲 卮乇賲賳丿賴鈥� 丕賲.)貨 倬丕蹖丕賳 賳賯賱
鬲丕乇蹖禺 亘賴賳诏丕賲 乇爻丕賳蹖 09/04/1400賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 25/01/1401賴噩乇蹖 禺賵乇卮蹖丿蹖貨 丕. 卮乇亘蹖丕賳蹖
February 20, 2015
"If social protest is antithetical to art," Ellison stated in an interview with The Paris Review, "what then shall we make of Goya, Dickens, and Twain?" I found the interview stimulating, especially since Ellison's narrator's voice seemed to reach across the pages of this book and coalesce with the myriad of current events. "Perhaps, though, this thing cuts both ways," Ellison continued in the interview, "the Negro novelist draws his blackness too tightly around him when he sits down to write鈥攖hat鈥檚 what the antiprotest critics believe鈥攂ut perhaps the white reader draws his whiteness around himself when he sits down to read. He doesn鈥檛 want to identify himself with Negro characters in terms of our immediate racial and social situation, though on the deeper human level identification can become compelling when the situation is revealed artistically." And here is when things get controversial, when some will stop reading, because to speak of race relations in America is to risk offending. Yet how can you not, when you've just watched someone you love go out for an early morning jog only to head back seconds later, with mounting nervousness, just to grab an ID?
Artistic revelation, yes, this is how I would describe this novel. "Though invisible, 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." Only a few protagonists can bind you, hands and feet, to their inner thoughts like this narrator can; only a few chosen writers can combine dramatic dialogue with self-exploratory meanderings and controlled prose that vividly reveals the life of one black man in America. Consider the metaphorical language Fitzgerald dazzles us with in The Great Gatsby; think about the clairvoyance of George Orwell in 1984,how he produced scripted scenes that came to life years later; remember the racial debate in William Styron's Sophie's Choice,recall the language and riveting voice of Toni Morrison's main character in Home,and you will have considered this novel.
How can we not discuss race relations when a young boy just bled to death on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, his body left on the cold cement as a spectacle for hours, when even serial killers are fed elegant meals before they're executed in semi-private rooms? How can you not talk about the invisible man who was choked to death on the streets for selling loose cigarettes, even as he screamed, I can't breathe; or how about the invisible young man who was shot to death for strolling in his own neighborhood, wearing a hoodie? I could continue with the list that has been growing since the past year. "Right now in this country, with its many national groups, all the old heroes are being called back to life--Jefferson, Jackson, Pulaski, Garibaldi, Booker T. Washington, Sun Yat-sen, Danny O'Connell, Abraham Lincoln and countless others are being asked to step once again upon the stage of history鈥estruction lies ahead unless things are changed. And things must be changed." I get chills when I think that those words were written years ago, and yet they are relevant today.
You don't talk about these things around peers-- it's a no-no, like speaking of religion or politics. Instead, when you must censor the confusing and nauseating moments you have once you consider how such tensions affect your life, you turn to books. I reached for this book off my shelf and Ellison's words placed within me a sense of understanding and calm like no other writer could at this moment (this makes me take a moment of silence for non-readers). This book is devastatingly beautiful in its cold-hearted truth and individual perceptions. This narrator grows and develops from a young, black, college boy who has not been around his white counterparts, to a learned young man who slowly understands his invisibility and most importantly, understands how everyone--black and white--contributes to his invisibility. It is simply a story of self-discovery as seen from the perspective of a black character. Both tragic and enlightening, it is rife with imagery, unique cadence, "dialect," and rhythmic expose (and a few choice words that could be off-putting for some). I'm glad I chose it and it chose me.
Artistic revelation, yes, this is how I would describe this novel. "Though invisible, 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." Only a few protagonists can bind you, hands and feet, to their inner thoughts like this narrator can; only a few chosen writers can combine dramatic dialogue with self-exploratory meanderings and controlled prose that vividly reveals the life of one black man in America. Consider the metaphorical language Fitzgerald dazzles us with in The Great Gatsby; think about the clairvoyance of George Orwell in 1984,how he produced scripted scenes that came to life years later; remember the racial debate in William Styron's Sophie's Choice,recall the language and riveting voice of Toni Morrison's main character in Home,and you will have considered this novel.
How can we not discuss race relations when a young boy just bled to death on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, his body left on the cold cement as a spectacle for hours, when even serial killers are fed elegant meals before they're executed in semi-private rooms? How can you not talk about the invisible man who was choked to death on the streets for selling loose cigarettes, even as he screamed, I can't breathe; or how about the invisible young man who was shot to death for strolling in his own neighborhood, wearing a hoodie? I could continue with the list that has been growing since the past year. "Right now in this country, with its many national groups, all the old heroes are being called back to life--Jefferson, Jackson, Pulaski, Garibaldi, Booker T. Washington, Sun Yat-sen, Danny O'Connell, Abraham Lincoln and countless others are being asked to step once again upon the stage of history鈥estruction lies ahead unless things are changed. And things must be changed." I get chills when I think that those words were written years ago, and yet they are relevant today.
You don't talk about these things around peers-- it's a no-no, like speaking of religion or politics. Instead, when you must censor the confusing and nauseating moments you have once you consider how such tensions affect your life, you turn to books. I reached for this book off my shelf and Ellison's words placed within me a sense of understanding and calm like no other writer could at this moment (this makes me take a moment of silence for non-readers). This book is devastatingly beautiful in its cold-hearted truth and individual perceptions. This narrator grows and develops from a young, black, college boy who has not been around his white counterparts, to a learned young man who slowly understands his invisibility and most importantly, understands how everyone--black and white--contributes to his invisibility. It is simply a story of self-discovery as seen from the perspective of a black character. Both tragic and enlightening, it is rife with imagery, unique cadence, "dialect," and rhythmic expose (and a few choice words that could be off-putting for some). I'm glad I chose it and it chose me.
Here beneath the deep indigo sky, here, alive with looping swifts and darting moths, here in the hereness of the night not yet lighted by the moon that looms blood-red behind the chapel like a fallen sun, its radiance shedding not upon the here-dusk of twittering bats, nor on the there-night of cricket and whippoorwill, but focused short-rayed upon our place of convergence; and we drifting forward with rigid motions, limbs stiff and voices now silent, as though on exhibit even in the dark, and the moon a white man's bloodshot eye.
September 15, 2020
Invisible Man is unique.
I went in without really having any expectations other than knowing that it was a classic novel addressing the trials and tribulations faced by the black community in the mid-1900s. While it is that, the experience of the tragic hero of the novel is very bizarre, trippy, and somewhat unexpected. It is told in a way to make sure it reflects on a variety of possible experiences a black man might face during the time period. But, because Ellison is covering so many in one book and they are delivered in such quick succession, your head might be spinning before it is done.
I was surprised at how accessible the writing is. Sometimes I am nervous going into a classic worried that I will be spending more time getting comfortable with the writing style than actually absorbing the story. With Invisible Man, the writing and narrative are very easy to follow, and it only requires a little extra concentration because of the sudden narrative jumps.
A lot of the frustrations encountered by our protagonist sound very familiar to what is encountered in America today. Maybe some of it a bit different because times have changed, but it is still concerning that a story written 70 years ago can feel so current. I will equate my feelings on this to a discussion I had with my wife about the show Mad Men. For those who have not seen it, the main storylines are always affected by what is happening in America in the late 50s and 60s. We noted how amazing it is how all the plots around the handling of racial inequality do not sound much different than today. Many may look at the news and say 鈥淲ow, 2020 is crazy! I cannot believe what the response to racial inequality has become!鈥� But, if you take the time to look back, it has been this way for a long time 鈥� you may just not have been listening or watching close enough!
A very good book worth checking out 鈥� both because it is a good and interesting story, but also because of the message it has to share.
I went in without really having any expectations other than knowing that it was a classic novel addressing the trials and tribulations faced by the black community in the mid-1900s. While it is that, the experience of the tragic hero of the novel is very bizarre, trippy, and somewhat unexpected. It is told in a way to make sure it reflects on a variety of possible experiences a black man might face during the time period. But, because Ellison is covering so many in one book and they are delivered in such quick succession, your head might be spinning before it is done.
I was surprised at how accessible the writing is. Sometimes I am nervous going into a classic worried that I will be spending more time getting comfortable with the writing style than actually absorbing the story. With Invisible Man, the writing and narrative are very easy to follow, and it only requires a little extra concentration because of the sudden narrative jumps.
A lot of the frustrations encountered by our protagonist sound very familiar to what is encountered in America today. Maybe some of it a bit different because times have changed, but it is still concerning that a story written 70 years ago can feel so current. I will equate my feelings on this to a discussion I had with my wife about the show Mad Men. For those who have not seen it, the main storylines are always affected by what is happening in America in the late 50s and 60s. We noted how amazing it is how all the plots around the handling of racial inequality do not sound much different than today. Many may look at the news and say 鈥淲ow, 2020 is crazy! I cannot believe what the response to racial inequality has become!鈥� But, if you take the time to look back, it has been this way for a long time 鈥� you may just not have been listening or watching close enough!
A very good book worth checking out 鈥� both because it is a good and interesting story, but also because of the message it has to share.
May 19, 2014
The writing is hypnotic in Invisible Man and the dread all-pervasive. Every time I sat down to read a bit more, I was sucked into the prose, even though it made me deeply uneasy and worried about what was going to happen next.
It is stark, it is poetic, it is difficult, and it is rewarding.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in 欧宝娱乐 policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at
It is stark, it is poetic, it is difficult, and it is rewarding.
Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in 欧宝娱乐 policy and enforcement. You can read why I came to this decision here.
In the meantime, you can read the entire review at
June 18, 2024
鈥溌縌u茅 hice yo para ser tan negro, para ser tan triste?鈥� (Black and blue)Soy hombre, una persona de raza blanca viviendo en un pa铆s de blancos, sin deficiencias f铆sicas ni ps铆quicas rese帽ables y perteneciente a una clase media m谩s o menos acomodada. Soy capaz de indignarme y/o conmoverme con las escenas de humillaci贸n y escarnio que tan bien relata Ellison, pero no me es nada f谩cil llegar a comprender en toda su magnitud lo que aqu铆 se cuenta, lo que supone vivir como un ciudadano de tercera en un mundo dominado por aquellos que te usan, humillan y niegan toda posibilidad de reivindicaci贸n, que te tratan como si fueras nadie, un hombre invisible. Personas que para sobrevivir tendr谩n que adoptar una m谩scara que acabar谩 formando parte de su propia personalidad, obligados a medir constantemente sus palabras, sus acciones y hasta sus propios pensamientos y sentimientos, a tener cuidado con todo y con todos. Un estado de cosas que se complica aun m谩s al tener que convivir con el servilismo acomodaticio de muchos que en su misma situaci贸n la soportan resignadamente, cuando no la fomentan y la consolidan, o con los que c铆nicamente la aceptan y la utilizan en beneficio propio. Y todav铆a m谩s si uno se siente, como el narrador y protagonista de la novela, responsable de tal estado de cosas y con la necesidad de ponerle remedio.
鈥淭e ense帽aron a aceptar la insensatez de los viejos como el que tienes ante ti, incluso en el caso de que los considerases unos lamentables payasos. Te ense帽aron a actuar como si les respetaras y reconocieras en ellos una autoridad y un poder que tienen en tu mundo la misma naturaleza que la autoridad y el poder de los blancos ante los que ellos se humillan y mendigan, a los que ellos temen, aman e imitan. E incluso te ense帽aron a aceptar la actitud de esta gente cuando furiosos o despectivos o ebrios de poder te amenazaban con un l谩tigo o un palo, sin que t煤 pudieras permitirte contestar su ataque sino tan s贸lo evitar sus golpes...鈥�Junto a esta cuesti贸n racial, trasladable a cualquier otro campo de marginaci贸n social, la novela trata el problema de la organizaci贸n de la lucha contra tal estado de cosas y en c贸mo funcionaban (funcionan) estas organizaciones. La cr铆tica es furibunda, quiz谩 demasiado.
La mucha inocencia y optimismo que caracterizaba la lucha obrera de principios del siglo pasado, plasmada en frases como 鈥淒铆a llegar谩 en que el trabajo y la diversi贸n sean una misma cosa, porque reinstauraremos el placer en el trabajo鈥� , se mezclaba con el f茅rreo control del pensamiento y la dura disciplina de partido que ve铆a todo cuestionamiento como una traici贸n a los fines y a las ideas. Un control y una disciplina cuyas consecuencias eran m谩s sangrantes en cuanto que muchas veces respond铆an exclusivamente al ego y a las ambiciones de quienes lo ejerc铆an.
鈥淎hora s茅 que los hombres se diferencian entre s铆, que la vida est谩 infinitamente dividida y diversificada, y que s贸lo en la diversidad cabe hallar el equilibrio verdadero.鈥�La novela es dura y po茅tica, valiente pol铆ticamente, febril emocionalmente y m谩s que notable literariamente hablando. No comparto en absoluto la opini贸n de aquellos que califican su lectura de dif铆cil o pesada. Es todo lo contrario, la novela est谩 repleta de escenas emocionantes en m谩s de un sentido, de grandes di谩logos y, aunque abundan las reflexiones y disquisiciones pol铆ticas y sociales, tambi茅n hay acci贸n, intriga y suspense. Una gran obra.
November 7, 2016
I put off reading this book for years, intimidated by its length and its venomous reputation. When I finally dove in, I definitely found lots of venom but lots of anti-venom too. Lurking behind all the nihilism in the title and particularly the struggles during his college years is a hidden (invisible?) optimism and dark humor I felt. In the US soon post-Obama, we have definitely moved forward superficially in the battle for equality and yet, Ferguson happened, Trump is happening and racism is still ever-present - rather than bodies hanging from trees from the Invisible Man's past, we are still in the car burning and rioting of the Invisible Man's "present" and have not moved on. This book made me once again interrogate my own feelings on racism and challenge my "id茅es re莽us". It remains a text that is vibrant and relevant. I would recommend following this with Roth's The Human Stain which is another incredibly written novel about how Coleman Silk(zwieg) tries to be come invisible. If only the US would truly look into the deeper causes of racism, perhaps it would prevent another disaster like that of this present election cycle and I would not want to be invisible myself.
April 21, 2017
This is such an amazingfantasticincredible book. If I were making a list of the 10 Best Novels About America, this would be at the top.*
I first read Invisible Man in a college literature course, and my 19-year-old self liked it, but rereading it now was a really powerful experience. I definitely appreciated it more and admired Ellison's vision. This novel is the story of a black man in America. We never learn our narrator's name and we don't know what he looks like, but he feels invisible because of his color.
When we meet our narrator, he is living alone in an underground room in a building near Harlem. He tells stories from his life, and we see all the times he was treated unfairly, misunderstood, wronged, stereotyped, and ill-used. A good example is a famous early scene known as the "Battle Royal." Our narrator, who was a high school student at the time, was tricked into a boxing match, fighting other young black men, all of whom are blindfolded. The scene is horrifying and gut-wrenching for the way the white bystanders dehumanize the young men, laughing when they are brutally injured, and then rob them of their promised pay.
In the stories, we see how our narrator tried to play by the rules and work hard, but he is constantly thwarted or manages to make a misstep, because so many of the rules are unwritten. Another memorable scene is when our narrator, who is a good public speaker, catches the notice of a group called the Brotherhood and is asked to help better the conditions for residents of Harlem. Like so many of his other experiences, our narrator is misused and misled, and he has to think fast to survive. By the end of the book (which is also the beginning), we see how much faith he has lost in his situation ever improving. Our young narrator had such high hopes and grand ambitions! Now he's abandoned in a forgotten room, with electric light his only companion.
Truly, it's impossible to summarize the breadth of stories in this novel. There is so much meaning and symbolism in everything that happens to our narrator -- at one point, the poor man gets trapped in an underground coal bin and nearly starves to death -- that I can understand why this book is so widely assigned in literature courses. Lots to discuss!
I listened to this on audio, narrated by the actor Joe Morton, and it was an incredible performance. I highly recommend this novel, and if you like audiobooks, I encourage you to check out Morton's version. A very high five stars for Ralph Ellison.
*Note: As soon as I typed the words "10 Best Novels About America," my mind started racing to decide what else I'd put on the list. Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, for sure. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby would make the cut. Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, obviously. Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter would be good for the Puritan element. Wharton's The Age of Innocence and Connell's Mrs. Bridge are personal favorites. Mark Twain should probably get some billing. Hmm... I need to get Native American representation, plus something about the immigrant experience. If you have suggestions to round out the list, please share.
Opening Paragraph
"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination -- indeed, everything and anything except me."
Favorite Quotes
"What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?"
"I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest."
"And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own."
"I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself."
"For, like almost everyone else in our country, I started out with my share of optimism. I believed in hard work and progress and action, but now, after first being 'for' society and then 'against' it, I assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude is very much against the trend of the times. But my world has become one of infinite possibilities. What a phrase - still it's a good phrase and a good view of life, and a man shouldn't accept any other; that much I've learned underground. Until some gang succeeds in putting the world in a strait jacket, its definition is possibility."
I first read Invisible Man in a college literature course, and my 19-year-old self liked it, but rereading it now was a really powerful experience. I definitely appreciated it more and admired Ellison's vision. This novel is the story of a black man in America. We never learn our narrator's name and we don't know what he looks like, but he feels invisible because of his color.
When we meet our narrator, he is living alone in an underground room in a building near Harlem. He tells stories from his life, and we see all the times he was treated unfairly, misunderstood, wronged, stereotyped, and ill-used. A good example is a famous early scene known as the "Battle Royal." Our narrator, who was a high school student at the time, was tricked into a boxing match, fighting other young black men, all of whom are blindfolded. The scene is horrifying and gut-wrenching for the way the white bystanders dehumanize the young men, laughing when they are brutally injured, and then rob them of their promised pay.
In the stories, we see how our narrator tried to play by the rules and work hard, but he is constantly thwarted or manages to make a misstep, because so many of the rules are unwritten. Another memorable scene is when our narrator, who is a good public speaker, catches the notice of a group called the Brotherhood and is asked to help better the conditions for residents of Harlem. Like so many of his other experiences, our narrator is misused and misled, and he has to think fast to survive. By the end of the book (which is also the beginning), we see how much faith he has lost in his situation ever improving. Our young narrator had such high hopes and grand ambitions! Now he's abandoned in a forgotten room, with electric light his only companion.
Truly, it's impossible to summarize the breadth of stories in this novel. There is so much meaning and symbolism in everything that happens to our narrator -- at one point, the poor man gets trapped in an underground coal bin and nearly starves to death -- that I can understand why this book is so widely assigned in literature courses. Lots to discuss!
I listened to this on audio, narrated by the actor Joe Morton, and it was an incredible performance. I highly recommend this novel, and if you like audiobooks, I encourage you to check out Morton's version. A very high five stars for Ralph Ellison.
*Note: As soon as I typed the words "10 Best Novels About America," my mind started racing to decide what else I'd put on the list. Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, for sure. Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby would make the cut. Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, obviously. Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter would be good for the Puritan element. Wharton's The Age of Innocence and Connell's Mrs. Bridge are personal favorites. Mark Twain should probably get some billing. Hmm... I need to get Native American representation, plus something about the immigrant experience. If you have suggestions to round out the list, please share.
Opening Paragraph
"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination -- indeed, everything and anything except me."
Favorite Quotes
"What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?"
"I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest."
"And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own."
"I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself."
"For, like almost everyone else in our country, I started out with my share of optimism. I believed in hard work and progress and action, but now, after first being 'for' society and then 'against' it, I assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude is very much against the trend of the times. But my world has become one of infinite possibilities. What a phrase - still it's a good phrase and a good view of life, and a man shouldn't accept any other; that much I've learned underground. Until some gang succeeds in putting the world in a strait jacket, its definition is possibility."
February 16, 2009
after an almost intolerably harrowing and intense first chapter, this book is a major letdown. of obvious historical importance, but an inferior and turgid work of literature in which every character but the protagonist is reduced to an over-simplified archetype meant to represent a particular demographic of american society.
what i found most interesting, however, is that despite having lived another forty-two years, ellison never published another novel. from wikipedia:
In 1967, Ellison experienced a major house fire at his home in Plainfield, Massachusetts, in which he claimed 300 pages of his second novel manuscript were lost. This assertion is disproved in the 2007 biography of Ellison by Arnold Rampersand鈥� 鈥llison ultimately wrote over 2000 pages of this second novel, most of them by 1959. He never finished.
incredible, huh? one is reminded of malcolm lowry who wrote the (unfuckingbelievably great) masterpiece Under the Volcano in 1947 and never published again. at the time of lowry鈥檚 death many half-completed manuscipts were discovered which were meant to be part of a multi-volume cycle of novels of which he was too mad and drunk to properly control.
interesting to wonder what it is that separates those people who struggle to produce a single work from those who seem to vomit the stuff out 鈥� what separates a lowry from an updike? a vermeer from a picasso? a fassbinder from a kubrick?
and then there are those artists who clearly had a single vision and despite laying it all out... they continue. when i'm global dictator i鈥檓 planning on putting a stop to this. paul auster is at the top of the list. he's sent to siberia and everything after new york trilogy is 鈥榙isappeared鈥�.
anyone have any more suggestions?
(mention post-smiths morrissey and you're immediately unfriended)
what i found most interesting, however, is that despite having lived another forty-two years, ellison never published another novel. from wikipedia:
In 1967, Ellison experienced a major house fire at his home in Plainfield, Massachusetts, in which he claimed 300 pages of his second novel manuscript were lost. This assertion is disproved in the 2007 biography of Ellison by Arnold Rampersand鈥� 鈥llison ultimately wrote over 2000 pages of this second novel, most of them by 1959. He never finished.
incredible, huh? one is reminded of malcolm lowry who wrote the (unfuckingbelievably great) masterpiece Under the Volcano in 1947 and never published again. at the time of lowry鈥檚 death many half-completed manuscipts were discovered which were meant to be part of a multi-volume cycle of novels of which he was too mad and drunk to properly control.
interesting to wonder what it is that separates those people who struggle to produce a single work from those who seem to vomit the stuff out 鈥� what separates a lowry from an updike? a vermeer from a picasso? a fassbinder from a kubrick?
and then there are those artists who clearly had a single vision and despite laying it all out... they continue. when i'm global dictator i鈥檓 planning on putting a stop to this. paul auster is at the top of the list. he's sent to siberia and everything after new york trilogy is 鈥榙isappeared鈥�.
anyone have any more suggestions?
(mention post-smiths morrissey and you're immediately unfriended)
August 16, 2021
鈥淚t鈥檚 not an important novel. I failed of eloquence and many of the immediate issues are rapidly fading away.鈥� said Ralph Ellison in an interview after Invisible Man was published in 1952 and was showered with praise & won the National Book Award (& since then is a regular in lists of greatest 20th century novels.)
Regarding the fading away of immediate issues : in one episode, a black guy is chased by a cop, turns and lands a punch on the cop, who falls, points his gun and shoots the black guy dead. This whole sequence up to and including the community鈥檚 outrage and the local politician鈥檚 grandstanding has been replicated beat for beat in all those recent police killings (and the next one when it comes) in the USA. The duplication was stunning. So with respect, Ralph was wrong about the fading away of some of his issues. Unfortunately.
WHERE DO I BEGIN
This is quite a tough book to review. It鈥檚 big and very loud. There is a long winding road our unnamed young black man takes from true believer to bitter cynic, and this happens not once but twice.
You could say he is an invisible man, not seen as a real person by anyone, and at the same time, it takes him a long time to see through the fabrications of other people. I guess you could say that!
Firstly he gets disillusioned with his black college 鈥� specifically with the nasty unprincipled Principal. Then he moves to Harlem and gets employed by the Communist Party, which RE calls the Brotherhood, and I鈥檓 not so sure he joins as a true believer, but he gets on board with the program :
We recognised no loose ends, everything could be controlled by our science. Life was all pattern and discipline.
But he fairly quickly sees that
I was simply a material, a natural resource to be used
And further, that when it comes to black people, the CP weren鈥檛 enlightened at all :
Outside the Brotherhood we were outside history; but inside it they didn鈥檛 see us. It was a hell of a state of affairs, we were nowhere
THE B WORD
About half of this large novel is about our guy and his struggles inside the Brotherhood, and sorry to say, the reader gets awfully tired of this B word. Maybe it is supposed to be a humorous exaggeration of the way communists talked, but it wears thin:
鈥淏e more specific, Brother,鈥� Brother Garnett, a white Brother, said .
and
Now several brothers started to speak at once, and Brother Jack knocked for order. 鈥淏rothers, please!鈥� Brother Jack said.
WHAT THE NEW YORK TIMES SAID AT THE TIME
Parts of it consist of long and impassioned, sometimes hysterical, reveries which are frequently highly obscure. Other parts still seem grotesquely exaggerated or repetitious. And these strange interludes are overwritten in an ultra pretentious, needlessly fancy way. Spasms of torrential rhetoric, they obscure the point of some of Mr. Ellison's symbolic incidents and check temporarily the swift course of his story.
(it sounds like a one-star review, but they actually did like it!)
This is a book full of big talkers, and none bigger than our embattled narrator 鈥� really, it鈥檚 him doing all the talking. And it is perfectly true that RE loves to conjure up towering piles of lurid anguished frothy clogged meditations at the drop of a hat. It gives a stop-start feeling to the whole thing. Maybe this is sacrilegious, but it could possibly might be that some of the more repetitious bitter self-accusations could have been snipped.
LINGUISTIC NOTE
There is one f word, one more surprising c word, and several mentions of people being 鈥渕otherfoulers鈥�, which I haven鈥檛 come across anywhere else. Also one mention of the word 鈥済roovy鈥� in an approbatory sense. Also : 鈥淵ou black and beautiful!鈥� on p301.
CONFRONTING STEREOTYPES
There are stereotypes everywhere you look. There is the toadying stooge Dr Bledsoe. There is a character Ras the Exhorter, who promotes Black Nationalism. There is an older black woman who briefly turns into the mother he never had. There is a white woman who wants our guy to pretend to rape her. There are the party apparatchiks, especially Brother Jack, sincere programmed robots the lot of them. There are looters and rioters from central casting. Hopping and skipping and ducking and diving, always in a mad rush, our guy spends the whole novel trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
Eventually he decides the best place to be is in a basement underground, hiding from the world.
It鈥檚 such a melancholy image.
Regarding the fading away of immediate issues : in one episode, a black guy is chased by a cop, turns and lands a punch on the cop, who falls, points his gun and shoots the black guy dead. This whole sequence up to and including the community鈥檚 outrage and the local politician鈥檚 grandstanding has been replicated beat for beat in all those recent police killings (and the next one when it comes) in the USA. The duplication was stunning. So with respect, Ralph was wrong about the fading away of some of his issues. Unfortunately.
WHERE DO I BEGIN
This is quite a tough book to review. It鈥檚 big and very loud. There is a long winding road our unnamed young black man takes from true believer to bitter cynic, and this happens not once but twice.
You could say he is an invisible man, not seen as a real person by anyone, and at the same time, it takes him a long time to see through the fabrications of other people. I guess you could say that!
Firstly he gets disillusioned with his black college 鈥� specifically with the nasty unprincipled Principal. Then he moves to Harlem and gets employed by the Communist Party, which RE calls the Brotherhood, and I鈥檓 not so sure he joins as a true believer, but he gets on board with the program :
We recognised no loose ends, everything could be controlled by our science. Life was all pattern and discipline.
But he fairly quickly sees that
I was simply a material, a natural resource to be used
And further, that when it comes to black people, the CP weren鈥檛 enlightened at all :
Outside the Brotherhood we were outside history; but inside it they didn鈥檛 see us. It was a hell of a state of affairs, we were nowhere
THE B WORD
About half of this large novel is about our guy and his struggles inside the Brotherhood, and sorry to say, the reader gets awfully tired of this B word. Maybe it is supposed to be a humorous exaggeration of the way communists talked, but it wears thin:
鈥淏e more specific, Brother,鈥� Brother Garnett, a white Brother, said .
and
Now several brothers started to speak at once, and Brother Jack knocked for order. 鈥淏rothers, please!鈥� Brother Jack said.
WHAT THE NEW YORK TIMES SAID AT THE TIME
Parts of it consist of long and impassioned, sometimes hysterical, reveries which are frequently highly obscure. Other parts still seem grotesquely exaggerated or repetitious. And these strange interludes are overwritten in an ultra pretentious, needlessly fancy way. Spasms of torrential rhetoric, they obscure the point of some of Mr. Ellison's symbolic incidents and check temporarily the swift course of his story.
(it sounds like a one-star review, but they actually did like it!)
This is a book full of big talkers, and none bigger than our embattled narrator 鈥� really, it鈥檚 him doing all the talking. And it is perfectly true that RE loves to conjure up towering piles of lurid anguished frothy clogged meditations at the drop of a hat. It gives a stop-start feeling to the whole thing. Maybe this is sacrilegious, but it could possibly might be that some of the more repetitious bitter self-accusations could have been snipped.
LINGUISTIC NOTE
There is one f word, one more surprising c word, and several mentions of people being 鈥渕otherfoulers鈥�, which I haven鈥檛 come across anywhere else. Also one mention of the word 鈥済roovy鈥� in an approbatory sense. Also : 鈥淵ou black and beautiful!鈥� on p301.
CONFRONTING STEREOTYPES
There are stereotypes everywhere you look. There is the toadying stooge Dr Bledsoe. There is a character Ras the Exhorter, who promotes Black Nationalism. There is an older black woman who briefly turns into the mother he never had. There is a white woman who wants our guy to pretend to rape her. There are the party apparatchiks, especially Brother Jack, sincere programmed robots the lot of them. There are looters and rioters from central casting. Hopping and skipping and ducking and diving, always in a mad rush, our guy spends the whole novel trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
Eventually he decides the best place to be is in a basement underground, hiding from the world.
It鈥檚 such a melancholy image.
May 27, 2019
An American classic.
Not just a great African-American novel but a great American novel on the level of , and .
Written in the early 1950s and with a narrative power as great as any of our finest writers, Ralph Ellison proclaims himself to be one of our best. Crafting metaphor, simile, stream of consciousness, poetry, surrealism, absurdism, and a variety of narrative devices, Ellison鈥檚 masterwork must be read.
Using a narrator who is never named but from whose perspective Ellison explores themes of nationalism, race, identity, gender, equality, political reform and the rule of law. The style will remind some of Dostoyevsky鈥檚 while the political and social commentary are reminiscent of Steinbeck and early Jack London.
We follow our narrator from a rural Southern origin, through an unsuccessful term in college to the multi-cultural and politically active streets of Harlem. There this natural leader and orator finds that he is nonetheless 鈥渋nvisible鈥�: minimized and marginalized in the outer world even while being effective amongst 鈥淭he Brotherhood鈥�, Ellison鈥檚 amalgam of socialist / communist / progressive street wise organizations.
As smooth, original and innovative as jazz, Ellison鈥檚 great contribution to twentieth century literature should be on a list of books that should be read at least once in a lifetime.
Not just a great African-American novel but a great American novel on the level of , and .
Written in the early 1950s and with a narrative power as great as any of our finest writers, Ralph Ellison proclaims himself to be one of our best. Crafting metaphor, simile, stream of consciousness, poetry, surrealism, absurdism, and a variety of narrative devices, Ellison鈥檚 masterwork must be read.
Using a narrator who is never named but from whose perspective Ellison explores themes of nationalism, race, identity, gender, equality, political reform and the rule of law. The style will remind some of Dostoyevsky鈥檚 while the political and social commentary are reminiscent of Steinbeck and early Jack London.
We follow our narrator from a rural Southern origin, through an unsuccessful term in college to the multi-cultural and politically active streets of Harlem. There this natural leader and orator finds that he is nonetheless 鈥渋nvisible鈥�: minimized and marginalized in the outer world even while being effective amongst 鈥淭he Brotherhood鈥�, Ellison鈥檚 amalgam of socialist / communist / progressive street wise organizations.
As smooth, original and innovative as jazz, Ellison鈥檚 great contribution to twentieth century literature should be on a list of books that should be read at least once in a lifetime.
March 22, 2016
I have been seeing this on friends feeds lately. I read this for a college seminar African American History of the 1930s and 1940s. It was quite an interesting class as the demographics were literally half African American and half Caucasian, thus spurring provocative discussions. Our professor had us read Ellison's masterpiece and even though I do not remember it in its entirety, I remember the protagonist meeting Booker T Washington, George Washington Carver, discussing the talented tenth and black universities, the back to Africa movement, etc. All in all, Invisible Man stands out as one of the top three books I read in college and I will have to reread it when I have the time.
March 10, 2025
Wow. All I can say to preface this mini review is that this is a masterpiece to end all masterpieces.
I first read this masterpiece of systemic racism and its hideous legacy in high school English. It was my introduction to black authors that would define my reading and teaching life, a book that would change my life.
Every English teacher out there from high school to graduate school level out there should recommend this text for anyone who loves a good story, a reading challenge, a puzzlement of sorts, and finally, a true novel that was relevant then, and relevant now especially in the light of Black Lives Matter, the death of George Floyd, and the sentencing of his murderer.
As Ellison writes, "perhaps only the unbelievable could be believed. Perhaps the truth was always a lie" (Ellison 498).
I think out of all the modern African American texts out there, Invisible Man should be required reading that serves as one of today's essential important books. I would say Invisible Man should lead the pack of novels about how to find an antiracist self, and how that systemic racism is still a hideous legacy that needs to be discussed in all educational forums.
For me, it's part of this list: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Native Son, The Bluest Eye, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Passing, and The Fire Next Time.
Ellison's protagonist is bleak, bold and defiant. His anger and his experiences of constant racial aggressions beginning from the infamous Battle Royale, and his search for an identity up in Harlem will stay with you.
The language of the novel is paced slowly then bites you when you least expect it, pouncing like an angry cat lying in wait, "I moved with the crowd, the sweat pouring off me, listening to the grinding roar of traffic, the growing sound of a record shop loudspeaker blaring a languid blues" (Ellison 443). This is an example of where Ellison writes of a setting that is loaded, hot and humid filled with jazz and rage.
The narrator writes the truth of what its like to be a black man in America, "it was a normal mistake of which many are guilty, he thought he was a man, and that men were not meant to be pushed around. But it was hot downtown, and he forgot his history" (Ellison 457).
The narrator's story is a series of bizarre circumstantial events that begin in the South, to the North- and is often victimized with a series of aggressions that were meant to keep him down because of his race.
From the fateful Battle Royale, where he participates in a fight to receive money; his fateful encounter with Mr. Norton, his expulsion by Dr. Bledsoe and his joining of a brotherhood similar to that of the Black Panthers in real life, the Narrator witnesses one traumatic event too many.
An example is his witnessing of Brother Clifton being shot by a police officer in the subway and no one wants to do anything about it- is extremely reminiscent of what continues to happen today to our black men.
The novel is timeless in its insistence to be a catalyst for change, though the work is always going to be a struggle, "an unarmed man was killed, a brother, a leading member shot down by a policeman" (Ellison 466).
That haunting final question, "I speak for you?" is one of the most brilliant summing up of the events of the novel, symbolic of the vicious cycle of harm that continues to pervade the black community by their racist counterparts.
I first read this masterpiece of systemic racism and its hideous legacy in high school English. It was my introduction to black authors that would define my reading and teaching life, a book that would change my life.
Every English teacher out there from high school to graduate school level out there should recommend this text for anyone who loves a good story, a reading challenge, a puzzlement of sorts, and finally, a true novel that was relevant then, and relevant now especially in the light of Black Lives Matter, the death of George Floyd, and the sentencing of his murderer.
As Ellison writes, "perhaps only the unbelievable could be believed. Perhaps the truth was always a lie" (Ellison 498).
I think out of all the modern African American texts out there, Invisible Man should be required reading that serves as one of today's essential important books. I would say Invisible Man should lead the pack of novels about how to find an antiracist self, and how that systemic racism is still a hideous legacy that needs to be discussed in all educational forums.
For me, it's part of this list: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Native Son, The Bluest Eye, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Passing, and The Fire Next Time.
Ellison's protagonist is bleak, bold and defiant. His anger and his experiences of constant racial aggressions beginning from the infamous Battle Royale, and his search for an identity up in Harlem will stay with you.
The language of the novel is paced slowly then bites you when you least expect it, pouncing like an angry cat lying in wait, "I moved with the crowd, the sweat pouring off me, listening to the grinding roar of traffic, the growing sound of a record shop loudspeaker blaring a languid blues" (Ellison 443). This is an example of where Ellison writes of a setting that is loaded, hot and humid filled with jazz and rage.
The narrator writes the truth of what its like to be a black man in America, "it was a normal mistake of which many are guilty, he thought he was a man, and that men were not meant to be pushed around. But it was hot downtown, and he forgot his history" (Ellison 457).
The narrator's story is a series of bizarre circumstantial events that begin in the South, to the North- and is often victimized with a series of aggressions that were meant to keep him down because of his race.
From the fateful Battle Royale, where he participates in a fight to receive money; his fateful encounter with Mr. Norton, his expulsion by Dr. Bledsoe and his joining of a brotherhood similar to that of the Black Panthers in real life, the Narrator witnesses one traumatic event too many.
An example is his witnessing of Brother Clifton being shot by a police officer in the subway and no one wants to do anything about it- is extremely reminiscent of what continues to happen today to our black men.
The novel is timeless in its insistence to be a catalyst for change, though the work is always going to be a struggle, "an unarmed man was killed, a brother, a leading member shot down by a policeman" (Ellison 466).
That haunting final question, "I speak for you?" is one of the most brilliant summing up of the events of the novel, symbolic of the vicious cycle of harm that continues to pervade the black community by their racist counterparts.
February 11, 2017
Well......I can't say I enjoyed this novel, but I don't think I was supposed to. It's more of a send a message to the reader type classic.
First published in 1953, an unnamed narrator and INVISIBLE MAN tells his life stories of fear, or maybe uncertainty is a better word of his place in the world. As a young and very naive black student, he proceeds through his tumultuous life while constantly haunted by his grandfather's dying words.
The beginning chapters share how (OMG!) he was treated in a Harlem basement just prior to being awarded a "scholarship to a state college for Negroes" for his important and memorable high school speech, but memorable for me was how he ever redelivered the speech in the horrific condition he was in at the time.
Our protagonist is a young man who tries to do everything according to the rules, but disaster always seems to follow him around causing chaos and big trouble. Believe me when I say this dude cannot get a break. He can't even dispose of trash without being hassled; he just goes on and on from one catastrophe to another, and all he wants is an education....a job...to be relevant...and to be visible.
Filled with treachery, dirty tricks and acts of betrayal, INVISIBLE MAN is a memorable and insightful must read especially as we look at our society today.
1953 National Book Award winner.
January 25, 2008
This is strongly reminiscent of German Expressionist drama from the early 20th century. It suffers from an inability to actually characterize anyone beyond the protagonist. Every other character is crushed by the need to represent a whole class or demographic. All of the other figures are episodes in his life, his personal development, his realization of society's deep-seated decay and his inexorable (and predictable) movement towards disillusionment. Which is to say that it is a heavy-handed, young, stereotype filled book.
Yes, it is a worthy historical object. Yes, it is an interesting foil to other pieces of American literature (which does not have too many books of this variety); but I don't think it deserves great praise if it is judged on its own merits. The prose is nothing special, the dialect isn't handled with particular grace, it has an irritating tendency to state the obvious and to self-interpret and the author actually takes the time to call attention to the fact that he is choosing to rant at you for the last five pages--a total admission of weakness.
I am, however, giving it two stars in the "it was okay" sort of fashion. I'm not upset that I read it. I just won't read it again, teach it or reccommend it to anyone.
Yes, it is a worthy historical object. Yes, it is an interesting foil to other pieces of American literature (which does not have too many books of this variety); but I don't think it deserves great praise if it is judged on its own merits. The prose is nothing special, the dialect isn't handled with particular grace, it has an irritating tendency to state the obvious and to self-interpret and the author actually takes the time to call attention to the fact that he is choosing to rant at you for the last five pages--a total admission of weakness.
I am, however, giving it two stars in the "it was okay" sort of fashion. I'm not upset that I read it. I just won't read it again, teach it or reccommend it to anyone.
May 15, 2016
This book was brilliant. I'm tempted to stop right there, because what else can be said? If I hadn't known that the novel was published in 1952, I would have sworn it was a contemporary tale. Does that mean Ralph Ellison was ahead of his time, or that time has stood still and nothing has changed in 64 years? So many of the quotes and positions of The Brotherhood could be taken right out of the mouths of our current crop of politicians on both sides of the U.S. presidential race today that it chilled me to the bone.
Some favorite quotes:
"My God, boy! You're black and living in the South - did you forget how to lie?"
"Play the game, but don't believe in it...that much you owe yourself. Even if it lands you in a straitjacket or padded cell. Play the game, but play it your own way. "
"Be your own father, young man. And remember, the world is possibility if only you'll discover it."
"They got all this machinery, but that ain't everything; we are the machines inside the machine."
"What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do? What a waste, what a senseless waste!"
"For the first time, lying there in the dark, I could glimpse the possibility of being more than a member of a race."
"And I knew it was better to live out one's own absurdity than to die for that of others"
"Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many....."
I choose to use Mr. Ellison ' s words instead of my own, but I will repeat my first statement: This book is brilliant.
Some favorite quotes:
"My God, boy! You're black and living in the South - did you forget how to lie?"
"Play the game, but don't believe in it...that much you owe yourself. Even if it lands you in a straitjacket or padded cell. Play the game, but play it your own way. "
"Be your own father, young man. And remember, the world is possibility if only you'll discover it."
"They got all this machinery, but that ain't everything; we are the machines inside the machine."
"What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do? What a waste, what a senseless waste!"
"For the first time, lying there in the dark, I could glimpse the possibility of being more than a member of a race."
"And I knew it was better to live out one's own absurdity than to die for that of others"
"Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many....."
I choose to use Mr. Ellison ' s words instead of my own, but I will repeat my first statement: This book is brilliant.
February 18, 2025
The invisibility of the 鈥渋nvisible man鈥� who narrates this classic American novel is social, not physical; it has nothing to do with science fiction or H.G. Wells. While Ralph Ellison begins Invisible Man (1953) by having his narrator state, 鈥淚 am an invisible man,鈥� he makes sure to have his narrator offer a quick precautionary stipulation: 鈥淣o, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids 鈥� and I might even be said to possess a mind鈥� (p. 3). Clearly, we are quite a long way from the insane Dr. Griffin of Wells鈥檚 The Invisible Man (1897), and from his synthesized invisibility serum.
Invisible Man鈥檚 narrator explains that, as an African American, he is 鈥渋nvisible鈥imply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you sometimes see in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination 鈥� indeed, anything and everything except me鈥� (p. 3). When members of the white majority see him, in other words, all they see is skin tone, along with whatever negative stereotypes they have come to associate with that skin tone. They don鈥檛 see him. That is why he is 鈥渋nvisible.鈥�
The narrator lives underground, in an overlooked space within a whites-only building. As he breaks segregationist laws, so he steals light 鈥� 1,369 light bulbs鈥� worth of light 鈥� from a power company that he refers to as Monopolated Light & Power. 鈥淲ithout light I am not only invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one鈥檚 form is to live a death. I myself, after existing some twenty years, did not become alive until I discovered my invisibility鈥� (p. 6).
Most of the book takes the form of an extended flashback. Growing up in a small Southern town, the narrator recalls, he heard a great deal of advice from a great many people, but the advice he remembers is what his grandfather once told him: 鈥淪on, after I鈥檓 gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy鈥檚 country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion鈥檚 mouth. I want you to overcome 鈥檈m with yeses, undermine 鈥檈m with grins, agree 鈥檈m to death and destruction, let 鈥檈m swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open鈥� (p. 15). The grandfather鈥檚 attitude of resistance contrasts with the accommodationist mindset that the narrator observes in other sectors of his community.
Graduating from high school, the narrator, with other young African American men, is summoned to a gathering of the town鈥檚 elite white men. There, the young men are forced to participate in a 鈥渂attle royal,鈥� a free-for-all fight for money that turns out to be worthless. Only after participating in the humiliating 鈥渂attle royal鈥� is the narrator given a scholarship to the state鈥檚 college for African American students.
The narrator鈥檚 time at the unnamed college may reflect Ellison鈥檚 own time at Tuskegee Institute, where he found that the institute鈥檚 nominal egalitarianism masked a decidedly class-conscious way of thinking among students and faculty alike. At one point, the narrator recalls with particular vividness 鈥渢he bronze statue of the college Founder, the cold Father symbol, his hands outstretched in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil that flutters in hard, metallic folds above the face of a kneeling slave; and I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place 鈥� whether I am witnessing a revelation, or a more efficient binding鈥� (p. 35).
At first, the narrator excels at his studies, and even hopes that he might become a leader of his town鈥檚 African American community, like the college鈥檚 president, Dr. Bledsoe. The narrator鈥檚 description of Dr. Bledsoe, along with capturing the poetic qualities of Ellison鈥檚 prose, provides a sense of the narrator鈥檚 hopes for his own future at that time:
Going upstairs I visualized Dr. Bledsoe, with his broad globular face that seemed to take its form from the fat pressing from the inside, which, as air pressing against the membrane of a balloon, gave it shape and buoyancy. 鈥淥ld Bucket-Head,鈥� some of the fellows called him. I never had. He had been kind to me from the first, perhaps because of the letters which the school superintendent had sent to him when I arrived. But more than that, he was the example of everything I hoped to be: Influential with wealthy men all over the country; consulted in matters concerning the race; a leader of his people; the possessor of not one, but two Cadillacs; a good salary and a soft, good-looking and creamy-complexioned wife. What was more, while black and bald and everything white folks poked fun at, he had achieved power and authority; had, while black and wrinkle-headed, made himself of more importance in the world than most Southern white men. They could laugh at him but they couldn鈥檛 ignore him. (pp. 99-101)
Recall, however, the narrator鈥檚 words from the beginning of the novel: 鈥淚 am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man!鈥� (p. 15) The narrator鈥檚 hopes that a degree from the college will propel him toward a life of respectability, or even prominence, are undone when he is trusted with the task of driving one of the college鈥檚 white Northern trustees, a Mr. Norton, from one college function to another. Through a combination of circumstances, the narrator ends up inadvertently taking Mr. Norton to the proverbial wrong side of the tracks 鈥� the part of African American life in that town that Dr. Bledsoe does not want anyone from the college to see.
The narrator and Norton end up at a bar patronized by sex workers and patients from the nearby insane asylum. One of those patients, accosting Mr. Norton, takes on a role similar to that of the wise fools from Shakespeare鈥檚 plays, telling Norton that the narrator has 鈥淸a]lready鈥earned to repress not only his emotions but his humanity. He鈥檚 invisible, a walking personification of the Negative, the most perfect achievement of your dreams, sir! The mechanical man!鈥� (p. 93) That theme of social invisibility is thus once again reinforced.
Expelled from the college by an angry Dr. Bledsoe, the narrator moves north and settles in Harlem. He secures employment at a paint factory called Liberty Paints 鈥� and notes how the values of his new employer emphasize the anomaly of his position as a black man in a society that valorizes whiteness. His boss, a man named Kimbro, exults in how white the company鈥檚 鈥淥ptic White鈥� paint is 鈥� calling it 鈥渁s white as George Washington鈥檚 Sunday-go-to-meetin鈥� wig鈥� and adding that 鈥淚t鈥檚 the purest white that can be found. Nobody makes a paint any whiter. This batch is heading for a national monument!鈥� (p. 201). The narrator鈥檚 initial and understandable disillusionment 鈥� 鈥淭o hell with the whole thing鈥鈥檒l find another job鈥� (p. 205) 鈥� gives way to resignation, and to an attempt to make a go of working at the paint factory; but a jealous co-worker鈥檚 machinations result in a disastrous accident that leaves the narrator jobless and hospitalized.
At this grim point in the narrator鈥檚 life, his only source of stability is a kind woman named Mary who offers him a place to stay. But then things change for him once again: an impromptu speech that he makes inspires a spirit of resistance among a crowd watching an unjust eviction, and gains the narrator the attention of the leaders of a Marxist group that calls itself 鈥渢he Brotherhood.鈥� Invited to a meeting of the group鈥檚 leadership, the narrator finds that, among the group鈥檚 prominently Anglo leaders, he is once again invisible: 鈥淚 felt extremely uncomfortable, although after brief glances no one paid me any special attention. It was as though they hadn鈥檛 seen me 鈥� as though I were here, and yet not here鈥� (p. 300).
The Brotherhood leaders鈥� discussions of having 鈥渂anded together in brotherhood鈥�, because 鈥淭oo many have been dispossessed of their heritage鈥� (p. 303) seem inspiring to the narrator in some ways 鈥� but there are some troubling notes. He overhears a woman asking whether the narrator should be 鈥渁 little blacker鈥�, and is understandably outraged by what he has heard: 鈥淪o she doesn鈥檛 think I鈥檓 black enough. What does she want, a black-face comedian?...Maybe she wants to see me sweat coal, tar, ink, shoe polish, graphite. What was I 鈥� a man, or a natural resource?鈥� (pp. 301, 303)
It is comparably troubling when Brother Jack, a leader of the Brotherhood, tells the narrator that 鈥淵ou shall be the new Booker T. Washington, but even greater than he鈥� (p. 307). In Ellison鈥檚 time, as before and after, Washington was an important but also a problematic figure 鈥� often charged with acquiescing in the segregationist mindset of leading Southern whites in order to secure greater economic access, for African Americans, to industrial and service jobs. The narrator resists being associated with Washington, but ultimately does agree to join the Brotherhood, and is given an apartment, a salary, and a variety of assignments to encourage 鈥渞evolutionary consciousness鈥� within the Harlem community.
The assignment is not an easy one 鈥� Harlem and its people face many challenges, and there are others competing for influence. Among them is a militant black nationalist named Ras the Exhorter, who angrily rejects the Brotherhood鈥檚 calls for interracial cooperation and calls for violent confrontation. Yet the narrator鈥檚 skills as a rhetor make him an effective spokesman for the Brotherhood, and he gains a great deal of attention 鈥� too much attention, for the liking of some Brotherhood members.
At one point, the narrator gives an interview to a journalist, making a Brotherhood member named Wrestrum jealous. Wrestrum subsequently launches accusations, before the Brotherhood leadership, that the narrator 鈥渁ims to control the movement uptown. He wants to be a dictator!鈥� (p. 400) The accusation is unfounded and nonsensical, but the leaders of the Brotherhood declare that the narrator must leave Harlem and begin lecturing on women鈥檚 issues downtown. This reassignment is profoundly disillusioning for the narrator; he states that 鈥淏eing removed from Harlem was a shock, but one which would hurt them as much as me, for鈥y value to the Brotherhood鈥epended upon my complete frankness and honesty in stating the community鈥檚 hopes and hates, fears and desires鈥� (p. 406).
Tod Clifton, an African American member of the Brotherhood, and a young man of particular strength and promise, leaves the Brotherhood and later is killed by police; tension in the community increases, and the narrator publicly expresses his own grief and that of Harlem, displeasing the Brotherhood leadership. When the narrator explains to Hambro, an attorney who mentored him in his early days with the Brotherhood, that he is worried about the district because 鈥渢hings are getting out of hand. Ras鈥檚 men tried to rough me up tonight and our strength is steadily going to hell鈥�, Hambro replies that 鈥淭hat鈥檚 regrettable鈥ut there鈥檚 nothing to be done about it that wouldn鈥檛 upset the larger plan. It鈥檚 unfortunate, Brother, but your members will have to be sacrificed鈥� (p. 500).
The impact of this realization that there are limits to the supposedly race-blind comradeship of the Brotherhood is, for the narrator, overwhelming:
[I]t was dead quiet. I looked at the angular composure of [Hambro鈥檚] face, searching for the sincerity of his words. I could feel some deep change. It was as though my discovery鈥ad opened a gulf between us over which, though we sat within touching distance, our voices barely carried and then fell flat, without an echo. I tried to shake it away, but still the distance, so great that neither could grasp the emotional tone of the other, remained. (p. 500)
It is sad to see the depth of the narrator's disillusionment as he sees how, in the name of "theory," an organization to which he has given so much of his life is ready to throw under the proverbial bus an entire community of living people who are facing real injustices and challenges. In effect, the Brotherhood has revealed its willingness to declare the entire community of Harlem "invisible." It is one of the saddest moments in a novel that is filled with sad moments.
The community moves closer to the prospect of violence 鈥� reminding the reader of a passage toward the beginning of Invisible Man, when the narrator states that when one is invisible, 鈥淵ou ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you鈥檙e a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And, alas, it鈥檚 seldom successful鈥� (p. 3). Ras the Exhorter reinvents himself as Ras the Destroyer, and eventually the reader learns of the specific events that drove the novel鈥檚 narrator underground.
Invisible Man is one of the greatest American novels ever written 鈥� a classic examination of the African American experience. It is a novel that everyone, and certainly every American, should read.
Invisible Man鈥檚 narrator explains that, as an African American, he is 鈥渋nvisible鈥imply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you sometimes see in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination 鈥� indeed, anything and everything except me鈥� (p. 3). When members of the white majority see him, in other words, all they see is skin tone, along with whatever negative stereotypes they have come to associate with that skin tone. They don鈥檛 see him. That is why he is 鈥渋nvisible.鈥�
The narrator lives underground, in an overlooked space within a whites-only building. As he breaks segregationist laws, so he steals light 鈥� 1,369 light bulbs鈥� worth of light 鈥� from a power company that he refers to as Monopolated Light & Power. 鈥淲ithout light I am not only invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one鈥檚 form is to live a death. I myself, after existing some twenty years, did not become alive until I discovered my invisibility鈥� (p. 6).
Most of the book takes the form of an extended flashback. Growing up in a small Southern town, the narrator recalls, he heard a great deal of advice from a great many people, but the advice he remembers is what his grandfather once told him: 鈥淪on, after I鈥檓 gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy鈥檚 country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion鈥檚 mouth. I want you to overcome 鈥檈m with yeses, undermine 鈥檈m with grins, agree 鈥檈m to death and destruction, let 鈥檈m swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open鈥� (p. 15). The grandfather鈥檚 attitude of resistance contrasts with the accommodationist mindset that the narrator observes in other sectors of his community.
Graduating from high school, the narrator, with other young African American men, is summoned to a gathering of the town鈥檚 elite white men. There, the young men are forced to participate in a 鈥渂attle royal,鈥� a free-for-all fight for money that turns out to be worthless. Only after participating in the humiliating 鈥渂attle royal鈥� is the narrator given a scholarship to the state鈥檚 college for African American students.
The narrator鈥檚 time at the unnamed college may reflect Ellison鈥檚 own time at Tuskegee Institute, where he found that the institute鈥檚 nominal egalitarianism masked a decidedly class-conscious way of thinking among students and faculty alike. At one point, the narrator recalls with particular vividness 鈥渢he bronze statue of the college Founder, the cold Father symbol, his hands outstretched in the breathtaking gesture of lifting a veil that flutters in hard, metallic folds above the face of a kneeling slave; and I am standing puzzled, unable to decide whether the veil is really being lifted, or lowered more firmly in place 鈥� whether I am witnessing a revelation, or a more efficient binding鈥� (p. 35).
At first, the narrator excels at his studies, and even hopes that he might become a leader of his town鈥檚 African American community, like the college鈥檚 president, Dr. Bledsoe. The narrator鈥檚 description of Dr. Bledsoe, along with capturing the poetic qualities of Ellison鈥檚 prose, provides a sense of the narrator鈥檚 hopes for his own future at that time:
Going upstairs I visualized Dr. Bledsoe, with his broad globular face that seemed to take its form from the fat pressing from the inside, which, as air pressing against the membrane of a balloon, gave it shape and buoyancy. 鈥淥ld Bucket-Head,鈥� some of the fellows called him. I never had. He had been kind to me from the first, perhaps because of the letters which the school superintendent had sent to him when I arrived. But more than that, he was the example of everything I hoped to be: Influential with wealthy men all over the country; consulted in matters concerning the race; a leader of his people; the possessor of not one, but two Cadillacs; a good salary and a soft, good-looking and creamy-complexioned wife. What was more, while black and bald and everything white folks poked fun at, he had achieved power and authority; had, while black and wrinkle-headed, made himself of more importance in the world than most Southern white men. They could laugh at him but they couldn鈥檛 ignore him. (pp. 99-101)
Recall, however, the narrator鈥檚 words from the beginning of the novel: 鈥淚 am nobody but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man!鈥� (p. 15) The narrator鈥檚 hopes that a degree from the college will propel him toward a life of respectability, or even prominence, are undone when he is trusted with the task of driving one of the college鈥檚 white Northern trustees, a Mr. Norton, from one college function to another. Through a combination of circumstances, the narrator ends up inadvertently taking Mr. Norton to the proverbial wrong side of the tracks 鈥� the part of African American life in that town that Dr. Bledsoe does not want anyone from the college to see.
The narrator and Norton end up at a bar patronized by sex workers and patients from the nearby insane asylum. One of those patients, accosting Mr. Norton, takes on a role similar to that of the wise fools from Shakespeare鈥檚 plays, telling Norton that the narrator has 鈥淸a]lready鈥earned to repress not only his emotions but his humanity. He鈥檚 invisible, a walking personification of the Negative, the most perfect achievement of your dreams, sir! The mechanical man!鈥� (p. 93) That theme of social invisibility is thus once again reinforced.
Expelled from the college by an angry Dr. Bledsoe, the narrator moves north and settles in Harlem. He secures employment at a paint factory called Liberty Paints 鈥� and notes how the values of his new employer emphasize the anomaly of his position as a black man in a society that valorizes whiteness. His boss, a man named Kimbro, exults in how white the company鈥檚 鈥淥ptic White鈥� paint is 鈥� calling it 鈥渁s white as George Washington鈥檚 Sunday-go-to-meetin鈥� wig鈥� and adding that 鈥淚t鈥檚 the purest white that can be found. Nobody makes a paint any whiter. This batch is heading for a national monument!鈥� (p. 201). The narrator鈥檚 initial and understandable disillusionment 鈥� 鈥淭o hell with the whole thing鈥鈥檒l find another job鈥� (p. 205) 鈥� gives way to resignation, and to an attempt to make a go of working at the paint factory; but a jealous co-worker鈥檚 machinations result in a disastrous accident that leaves the narrator jobless and hospitalized.
At this grim point in the narrator鈥檚 life, his only source of stability is a kind woman named Mary who offers him a place to stay. But then things change for him once again: an impromptu speech that he makes inspires a spirit of resistance among a crowd watching an unjust eviction, and gains the narrator the attention of the leaders of a Marxist group that calls itself 鈥渢he Brotherhood.鈥� Invited to a meeting of the group鈥檚 leadership, the narrator finds that, among the group鈥檚 prominently Anglo leaders, he is once again invisible: 鈥淚 felt extremely uncomfortable, although after brief glances no one paid me any special attention. It was as though they hadn鈥檛 seen me 鈥� as though I were here, and yet not here鈥� (p. 300).
The Brotherhood leaders鈥� discussions of having 鈥渂anded together in brotherhood鈥�, because 鈥淭oo many have been dispossessed of their heritage鈥� (p. 303) seem inspiring to the narrator in some ways 鈥� but there are some troubling notes. He overhears a woman asking whether the narrator should be 鈥渁 little blacker鈥�, and is understandably outraged by what he has heard: 鈥淪o she doesn鈥檛 think I鈥檓 black enough. What does she want, a black-face comedian?...Maybe she wants to see me sweat coal, tar, ink, shoe polish, graphite. What was I 鈥� a man, or a natural resource?鈥� (pp. 301, 303)
It is comparably troubling when Brother Jack, a leader of the Brotherhood, tells the narrator that 鈥淵ou shall be the new Booker T. Washington, but even greater than he鈥� (p. 307). In Ellison鈥檚 time, as before and after, Washington was an important but also a problematic figure 鈥� often charged with acquiescing in the segregationist mindset of leading Southern whites in order to secure greater economic access, for African Americans, to industrial and service jobs. The narrator resists being associated with Washington, but ultimately does agree to join the Brotherhood, and is given an apartment, a salary, and a variety of assignments to encourage 鈥渞evolutionary consciousness鈥� within the Harlem community.
The assignment is not an easy one 鈥� Harlem and its people face many challenges, and there are others competing for influence. Among them is a militant black nationalist named Ras the Exhorter, who angrily rejects the Brotherhood鈥檚 calls for interracial cooperation and calls for violent confrontation. Yet the narrator鈥檚 skills as a rhetor make him an effective spokesman for the Brotherhood, and he gains a great deal of attention 鈥� too much attention, for the liking of some Brotherhood members.
At one point, the narrator gives an interview to a journalist, making a Brotherhood member named Wrestrum jealous. Wrestrum subsequently launches accusations, before the Brotherhood leadership, that the narrator 鈥渁ims to control the movement uptown. He wants to be a dictator!鈥� (p. 400) The accusation is unfounded and nonsensical, but the leaders of the Brotherhood declare that the narrator must leave Harlem and begin lecturing on women鈥檚 issues downtown. This reassignment is profoundly disillusioning for the narrator; he states that 鈥淏eing removed from Harlem was a shock, but one which would hurt them as much as me, for鈥y value to the Brotherhood鈥epended upon my complete frankness and honesty in stating the community鈥檚 hopes and hates, fears and desires鈥� (p. 406).
Tod Clifton, an African American member of the Brotherhood, and a young man of particular strength and promise, leaves the Brotherhood and later is killed by police; tension in the community increases, and the narrator publicly expresses his own grief and that of Harlem, displeasing the Brotherhood leadership. When the narrator explains to Hambro, an attorney who mentored him in his early days with the Brotherhood, that he is worried about the district because 鈥渢hings are getting out of hand. Ras鈥檚 men tried to rough me up tonight and our strength is steadily going to hell鈥�, Hambro replies that 鈥淭hat鈥檚 regrettable鈥ut there鈥檚 nothing to be done about it that wouldn鈥檛 upset the larger plan. It鈥檚 unfortunate, Brother, but your members will have to be sacrificed鈥� (p. 500).
The impact of this realization that there are limits to the supposedly race-blind comradeship of the Brotherhood is, for the narrator, overwhelming:
[I]t was dead quiet. I looked at the angular composure of [Hambro鈥檚] face, searching for the sincerity of his words. I could feel some deep change. It was as though my discovery鈥ad opened a gulf between us over which, though we sat within touching distance, our voices barely carried and then fell flat, without an echo. I tried to shake it away, but still the distance, so great that neither could grasp the emotional tone of the other, remained. (p. 500)
It is sad to see the depth of the narrator's disillusionment as he sees how, in the name of "theory," an organization to which he has given so much of his life is ready to throw under the proverbial bus an entire community of living people who are facing real injustices and challenges. In effect, the Brotherhood has revealed its willingness to declare the entire community of Harlem "invisible." It is one of the saddest moments in a novel that is filled with sad moments.
The community moves closer to the prospect of violence 鈥� reminding the reader of a passage toward the beginning of Invisible Man, when the narrator states that when one is invisible, 鈥淵ou ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you鈥檙e a part of all the sound and anguish, and you strike out with your fists, you curse and you swear to make them recognize you. And, alas, it鈥檚 seldom successful鈥� (p. 3). Ras the Exhorter reinvents himself as Ras the Destroyer, and eventually the reader learns of the specific events that drove the novel鈥檚 narrator underground.
Invisible Man is one of the greatest American novels ever written 鈥� a classic examination of the African American experience. It is a novel that everyone, and certainly every American, should read.
November 25, 2012
You should read this. You really should. It was eye opening, challenging, insightful, unsettling.... It made me think and research and discuss. It made me wish I had a teacher and classroom full of students to help me through it. It was refreshingly honest and bold and eloquent.
I struggled with this rating because my experience of reading this book was difficult and laborious. I think some context about the work would have helped me to engage. I wasn't sure what I was delving into when I started - only knowing that it was a book on the top 100 greatest American novels of all times. I spent the first half of the novel orienting myself to what the author was trying to do. It was jarring and confusing reading the book without the anchor of historical importance, literary context, etc... By the last quarter, I was fascinated and moved... but up until that point I found myself lost and often dreading opening the book.
With books of this type, books of cultural importance, books with deep symbolism and message, I find it helpful to have a preparation in reading it. My experience of the book was skewed because I went in expecting a good story but found instead a story that was heavily symbolic and in every turn. It took me a while to get my focus off the plausibility or likability of the story and characters and onto the message the book was trying to convey. I wonder if my experience would have been better had I known what I was reading. The plot was a framework on which to hang the ideas. The plot was secondary. I made a great error by skipping the introduction.
I often avoid reading the back of books or reviews or even the introduction before hand because they give away the story. However, here is a book where I did myself a great disservice by skipping all that. If I were going to be very responsible - I would start again on page one and reread this book from the platform on which I now stand.... but... its 600 pages and I've got a to-read list a mile long. I want to say that I will attempt this book again in the future knowing what I know now... but I can't promise.
In the meantime, I plan to read introductions more often.
This book not only taught me and challenged me on issues of race relations, questions of identity, problems with ideology, etc... but it challenged my understanding of what it means to be a good reader. I read this book wrong and therefore I nearly wasted it.
I struggled with this rating because my experience of reading this book was difficult and laborious. I think some context about the work would have helped me to engage. I wasn't sure what I was delving into when I started - only knowing that it was a book on the top 100 greatest American novels of all times. I spent the first half of the novel orienting myself to what the author was trying to do. It was jarring and confusing reading the book without the anchor of historical importance, literary context, etc... By the last quarter, I was fascinated and moved... but up until that point I found myself lost and often dreading opening the book.
With books of this type, books of cultural importance, books with deep symbolism and message, I find it helpful to have a preparation in reading it. My experience of the book was skewed because I went in expecting a good story but found instead a story that was heavily symbolic and in every turn. It took me a while to get my focus off the plausibility or likability of the story and characters and onto the message the book was trying to convey. I wonder if my experience would have been better had I known what I was reading. The plot was a framework on which to hang the ideas. The plot was secondary. I made a great error by skipping the introduction.
I often avoid reading the back of books or reviews or even the introduction before hand because they give away the story. However, here is a book where I did myself a great disservice by skipping all that. If I were going to be very responsible - I would start again on page one and reread this book from the platform on which I now stand.... but... its 600 pages and I've got a to-read list a mile long. I want to say that I will attempt this book again in the future knowing what I know now... but I can't promise.
In the meantime, I plan to read introductions more often.
This book not only taught me and challenged me on issues of race relations, questions of identity, problems with ideology, etc... but it challenged my understanding of what it means to be a good reader. I read this book wrong and therefore I nearly wasted it.
February 28, 2020
鈥淚 remember that I'm invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.鈥�
鈥� Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
I can't believe I waited so long to read this. But part of me thinks I needed to wait to read this. Maybe, and this is hard to admit, maybe I wasn't ready for Ralph Ellison's masterpiece in my twenties or thirties. It was a fever dream. A jazz narrative. A hallucination of pain, beauty, struggle, and life. It was a Hegelian dialectic. It was a black whale just as real as Melville's Moby Dick. It still has me firmly in its grip. There are scenes in this book that are burnt into my mind and tattooed on my soul.
鈥� Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
I can't believe I waited so long to read this. But part of me thinks I needed to wait to read this. Maybe, and this is hard to admit, maybe I wasn't ready for Ralph Ellison's masterpiece in my twenties or thirties. It was a fever dream. A jazz narrative. A hallucination of pain, beauty, struggle, and life. It was a Hegelian dialectic. It was a black whale just as real as Melville's Moby Dick. It still has me firmly in its grip. There are scenes in this book that are burnt into my mind and tattooed on my soul.
July 5, 2022
At times a harsh, surreal, hilarious sequence of humiliations of a unnamed black boy from the South who is forced to seek refuge in Harlem; he connects with a leftist brotherhood, makes a career in this movement, but soon again falls from his pedestal and learns to see the hypocrisy of people and organizations. He decides now to stay 'invisible' and live an underground life.
This book reminded me of Dostoevsky's , with its almost unbearable openness, and Celine's , with its unadulterated negativity. The style is dazzling and at the same time concise. Only at the end I was a bit disappointed: after the apocalyptic scenes of riots and plunder the story expires on a false note, because we again turn to the starting point.
This is a harsh testimony of discrimination against African Americans in American society in the years 1940-50, but by extension it refers to all the 'little'/'invisible' people, even in our present society (migrants, refugees ...) and in some way also an illustration of Sartre's "L'Enfer c'est les autres". But still it ends with a clear call for commitment and action. No doubt, one of the great novels of the 20th century.
This book reminded me of Dostoevsky's , with its almost unbearable openness, and Celine's , with its unadulterated negativity. The style is dazzling and at the same time concise. Only at the end I was a bit disappointed: after the apocalyptic scenes of riots and plunder the story expires on a false note, because we again turn to the starting point.
This is a harsh testimony of discrimination against African Americans in American society in the years 1940-50, but by extension it refers to all the 'little'/'invisible' people, even in our present society (migrants, refugees ...) and in some way also an illustration of Sartre's "L'Enfer c'est les autres". But still it ends with a clear call for commitment and action. No doubt, one of the great novels of the 20th century.
May 17, 2016
I鈥檓 embarrassed to admit that for many years I thought this book was the basis for the Claude Rains movie in which his wardrobe consisted largely of sunglasses and Ace wrap. Once disabused of that notion, I still was slow to read it because the title suggested a character that, while not literally invisible, was of so little importance that his very existence wasn鈥檛 noted by others. Obviously, this is a treatise on racism and, as I already know that racism is bad, what鈥檚 the point of reading it?
Fortunately, I read it anyway and found it to be a stunningly brilliant book, the National Book Award winning story of an unnamed young black man鈥檚 rise and fall as a community organizer in Harlem during the 1930s and 40s. It does have a lot to say about racism but does so without finger pointing or animosity, displaying it in all its forms, from the ultra-degrading smoker scene in chapter two to the ill-conceived gaffs by well-meaning acquaintances and Brother Jack鈥檚 imperious 鈥淭he brother does not sing!鈥� In places it felt as if no page was without some subtle, or unsubtle, slight being rendered to the point where I thought of the old torture called death by a thousand cuts.
While no assessment of the black experience in America would be complete without a discussion of racism, Invisible Man is so much more than that. I could talk for hours about the many, many fascinating ideas that Ellison imparts, but I will settle for describing one chapter out of the many great ones Ellison created. In this chapter, our narrator has managed to find a job at a paint factory. Approaching the building he sees a sign that says 鈥淜EEP AMERICA PURE WITH LIBERTY PAINTS鈥�. Nothing more is said about the sign but I immediately flashed on a conversation in which a woman once told my aunt that 鈥淚t鈥檚 so rare these days to find someone who is pure鈥� (pronounced PEW-uhh). From there it was an easy leap to picture a Klan rally with a fiery orator expressing the need to 鈥渒eep America pew-uhh鈥�. Once on the job, our narrator is tasked with mixing Optic White paint, a paint so white you can paint a chunka coal and you鈥檇 have to crack it open with a sledge hammer to prove it wasn鈥檛 white clear through鈥�. The joke, though is that in order to make this 鈥榩urest white that can be found鈥� paint, you have to add to it 10 drops, no more and no less, of dead black dope. Again, Ellison makes no comment as to the absurdity of this but he didn鈥檛 need to for the day hasn鈥檛 passed since I read that chapter that I haven鈥檛 pondered and theorized what he meant by it.
Bottom line: Ralph Ellison is one of those brilliant authors who doesn鈥檛 tell his readers what to think but he tells you a story and lets you run with it. I suspect I will be running for a long time to come.
Fortunately, I read it anyway and found it to be a stunningly brilliant book, the National Book Award winning story of an unnamed young black man鈥檚 rise and fall as a community organizer in Harlem during the 1930s and 40s. It does have a lot to say about racism but does so without finger pointing or animosity, displaying it in all its forms, from the ultra-degrading smoker scene in chapter two to the ill-conceived gaffs by well-meaning acquaintances and Brother Jack鈥檚 imperious 鈥淭he brother does not sing!鈥� In places it felt as if no page was without some subtle, or unsubtle, slight being rendered to the point where I thought of the old torture called death by a thousand cuts.
While no assessment of the black experience in America would be complete without a discussion of racism, Invisible Man is so much more than that. I could talk for hours about the many, many fascinating ideas that Ellison imparts, but I will settle for describing one chapter out of the many great ones Ellison created. In this chapter, our narrator has managed to find a job at a paint factory. Approaching the building he sees a sign that says 鈥淜EEP AMERICA PURE WITH LIBERTY PAINTS鈥�. Nothing more is said about the sign but I immediately flashed on a conversation in which a woman once told my aunt that 鈥淚t鈥檚 so rare these days to find someone who is pure鈥� (pronounced PEW-uhh). From there it was an easy leap to picture a Klan rally with a fiery orator expressing the need to 鈥渒eep America pew-uhh鈥�. Once on the job, our narrator is tasked with mixing Optic White paint, a paint so white you can paint a chunka coal and you鈥檇 have to crack it open with a sledge hammer to prove it wasn鈥檛 white clear through鈥�. The joke, though is that in order to make this 鈥榩urest white that can be found鈥� paint, you have to add to it 10 drops, no more and no less, of dead black dope. Again, Ellison makes no comment as to the absurdity of this but he didn鈥檛 need to for the day hasn鈥檛 passed since I read that chapter that I haven鈥檛 pondered and theorized what he meant by it.
Bottom line: Ralph Ellison is one of those brilliant authors who doesn鈥檛 tell his readers what to think but he tells you a story and lets you run with it. I suspect I will be running for a long time to come.
September 13, 2022
[update 4/27/2019]: I've spent years figuring out how to review this and maybe I'll never be satisfied, but here is an excerpt from elsewhere on this site: Though I had been reading a fair amount of books given to me up to the winter of 2004-2005, It would be an assignment to do a report on that would make me open my eyes to the world (and my place in it) in-general, and make me a serious book-reader in-particular. I do not consider myself a "bibliophile" at that time, but I was now on my way.
I have always felt it difficult to describe the impact that had on me, but it woke me from my dogmatic slumber. I had, as most did, gone through a world in which I knew things were more precarious arbitrarily cruel for me because my ethnicity, but I did not truly question鈥攐r should I say had the question put to me why this was in such an intense way. In truth, I was not aware enough to question why or what it meant to go through life as a black man鈥� always having a set of rules to go by that were different from鈥he 鈥渕ainstream鈥� Americans that I heard of on T.V. Life in my neighborhood was a precarious one in which danger and the threat of death was the ever-present miasma. Into this I sat down and opened a borrowed, beat-up copy of Invisible Man and read that incredible first paragraph of the prologue:
By the time I had read the whole prologue, I was Godsmacked. I had felt like lightning had been written into my soul and was trying to understand what I had read. I was coming into my 14th year on this Earth and had never read any lines like that in my life. Maybe in the Bible there were epic passages close to that, but to find something that summed-up what my鈥攁nd many peoples around me鈥攍ife looked like and I had only read the first twelve pages of the novel. After a few months just reading that prologue and finally feeling confident enough to go on, I proceeded to read the rest of the novel and decided that I must read everything by this man and understand how to understand the world as he did.
[update 9/27/2013: OH BOY, seems like this book has made the ...and yes human stupidity is involved. I have never made it a secret on this site that I am a HUGE fan of this book. When I found out that this book had been banned by Randolph County [school board], North Carolina for not having any "merit", on the weekend before banned books week, the irony could not be more incredible. The book details the personal, cultural, and existential alienation and forced invisibility of the main character and others like him. It won the National Book Award in 1953 beating out Earnest Hemingway's and John Steinbeck's . It has been ranked in almost every list of greatest novels of the 20th century and is one of, if not the greatest, novel of post-war America. The fact that this book could be banned in the 21st century means that it is still important and the themes it brings up more alive than when it was written. The thing about banning a book is that you usually increase interest in it that way and it was no exception here as demand for the book doubled days after it was banned. What surprised me was how forceful and decisive public outcry was that only 10 days after it was banned(5-2 vote), the ban itself was overturned(6-1 vote). So it seems our nameless narrator can, for the time being, come out of his "hole" in Randolph County, NC.]
[Original Review]
...I don't know where to began with this one. I guess everyone who likes to read has that one book. This book is that to me. Before I read this book I didn't know that I had a opinion or view on anything really especially not race or politics. I picked this book up in the 8th grade as apart of an assignment I had to do on the author and my aunt just happened to have a beat up copy of this book. Let's just say that it opened my eyes to the world around me and I still can't fathom the impact that this book has had on me. I have read many books since some could be considered "better" but I still hold this book (closest) in my heart and well I know this isn't a proper review (I may yet do one of those later) this is a book I would not have to think twice on recommending to anyone.
I have always felt it difficult to describe the impact that had on me, but it woke me from my dogmatic slumber. I had, as most did, gone through a world in which I knew things were more precarious arbitrarily cruel for me because my ethnicity, but I did not truly question鈥攐r should I say had the question put to me why this was in such an intense way. In truth, I was not aware enough to question why or what it meant to go through life as a black man鈥� always having a set of rules to go by that were different from鈥he 鈥渕ainstream鈥� Americans that I heard of on T.V. Life in my neighborhood was a precarious one in which danger and the threat of death was the ever-present miasma. Into this I sat down and opened a borrowed, beat-up copy of Invisible Man and read that incredible first paragraph of the prologue:
鈥�I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination -- indeed, everything and anything except me.鈥�
By the time I had read the whole prologue, I was Godsmacked. I had felt like lightning had been written into my soul and was trying to understand what I had read. I was coming into my 14th year on this Earth and had never read any lines like that in my life. Maybe in the Bible there were epic passages close to that, but to find something that summed-up what my鈥攁nd many peoples around me鈥攍ife looked like and I had only read the first twelve pages of the novel. After a few months just reading that prologue and finally feeling confident enough to go on, I proceeded to read the rest of the novel and decided that I must read everything by this man and understand how to understand the world as he did.
[update 9/27/2013: OH BOY, seems like this book has made the ...and yes human stupidity is involved. I have never made it a secret on this site that I am a HUGE fan of this book. When I found out that this book had been banned by Randolph County [school board], North Carolina for not having any "merit", on the weekend before banned books week, the irony could not be more incredible. The book details the personal, cultural, and existential alienation and forced invisibility of the main character and others like him. It won the National Book Award in 1953 beating out Earnest Hemingway's and John Steinbeck's . It has been ranked in almost every list of greatest novels of the 20th century and is one of, if not the greatest, novel of post-war America. The fact that this book could be banned in the 21st century means that it is still important and the themes it brings up more alive than when it was written. The thing about banning a book is that you usually increase interest in it that way and it was no exception here as demand for the book doubled days after it was banned. What surprised me was how forceful and decisive public outcry was that only 10 days after it was banned(5-2 vote), the ban itself was overturned(6-1 vote). So it seems our nameless narrator can, for the time being, come out of his "hole" in Randolph County, NC.]
[Original Review]
...I don't know where to began with this one. I guess everyone who likes to read has that one book. This book is that to me. Before I read this book I didn't know that I had a opinion or view on anything really especially not race or politics. I picked this book up in the 8th grade as apart of an assignment I had to do on the author and my aunt just happened to have a beat up copy of this book. Let's just say that it opened my eyes to the world around me and I still can't fathom the impact that this book has had on me. I have read many books since some could be considered "better" but I still hold this book (closest) in my heart and well I know this isn't a proper review (I may yet do one of those later) this is a book I would not have to think twice on recommending to anyone.
May 4, 2013
A powerful novel; one of the must reads. Written shortly after the Second World War it is the classic study of invisibility; what it means not be be "seen" in society. Set in the US it is an unflinching analysis of racism at all levels of society. The unnamed narrator starts in the South at college and continues in New York. Ellison pours into his writing his frustrations with the attitude of the left in America just after the Second World War.
There are some memorable characters, I would like to have seen more of Ras, who was a fascinating and complex character. There is a rich vein of humour in the book, but there is a brutal realism as well. The opening of the book is one of its great strengths as Ellison sets the stall for the whole novel. The narrator's initial hopes are gradually dashed and disillusionment very slowly sets in. He sees the suffering of those around him and the practical effects of racism and discovers he has a voiceand can move people. What to do with that voice? This is where the Brotherhood comes in.
The Brotherhood is a left-wing/Marxist organisation commited to radical change in society and Ellison is reflecting his own experiences with the left. The narrator is given a job with the Brotherhood, to assist with their efforts in Harlem. The Brotherhodd have sections which deal with different aspects of their work and the committee dictates policy and practice. The narrator is taken out of poverty and given a new flat, but is bound by policies which he does not always understand. At one point the narrator is taken away from Harlem to work on the issue of women's rights because the committee disapproves of some of his actions. The incendiary climax can clearly be seen coming, but is no less shocking and poignant; the futility of it all is striking. The real villains are the Brotherhood. The racists are, well, racist and behave as you would expect. However the Brotherhood are about equality and change in society and ought to know better, but they turn out to be just as racist and lacking in compassion as the rest.
I remember being involved in debates in my youth concerning left wing politics. Whether it was race, gender, sexuality, the environment; everything was secondary to the primacy of how Marx said things should happen in terms of revolution and change; economic issues were always primary. Others issues when it came down to it were irrelevant, a great mistake as Ellison powerfully shows. The Brotherhood use the race issue when it suits them and discard it when it does not without a thought for the people involved.
I'd like to say that things are completely different to when this was written; in many ways times have changed, but there are still indicators that old attitudes may be dormant rather than gone. When times are difficult people still vote for those who play on fears and prjudice (the last few days in the UK have shown that); outsiders are still stereotyped. That is what makes this book and Ellison's message so important.
There are some memorable characters, I would like to have seen more of Ras, who was a fascinating and complex character. There is a rich vein of humour in the book, but there is a brutal realism as well. The opening of the book is one of its great strengths as Ellison sets the stall for the whole novel. The narrator's initial hopes are gradually dashed and disillusionment very slowly sets in. He sees the suffering of those around him and the practical effects of racism and discovers he has a voiceand can move people. What to do with that voice? This is where the Brotherhood comes in.
The Brotherhood is a left-wing/Marxist organisation commited to radical change in society and Ellison is reflecting his own experiences with the left. The narrator is given a job with the Brotherhood, to assist with their efforts in Harlem. The Brotherhodd have sections which deal with different aspects of their work and the committee dictates policy and practice. The narrator is taken out of poverty and given a new flat, but is bound by policies which he does not always understand. At one point the narrator is taken away from Harlem to work on the issue of women's rights because the committee disapproves of some of his actions. The incendiary climax can clearly be seen coming, but is no less shocking and poignant; the futility of it all is striking. The real villains are the Brotherhood. The racists are, well, racist and behave as you would expect. However the Brotherhood are about equality and change in society and ought to know better, but they turn out to be just as racist and lacking in compassion as the rest.
I remember being involved in debates in my youth concerning left wing politics. Whether it was race, gender, sexuality, the environment; everything was secondary to the primacy of how Marx said things should happen in terms of revolution and change; economic issues were always primary. Others issues when it came down to it were irrelevant, a great mistake as Ellison powerfully shows. The Brotherhood use the race issue when it suits them and discard it when it does not without a thought for the people involved.
I'd like to say that things are completely different to when this was written; in many ways times have changed, but there are still indicators that old attitudes may be dormant rather than gone. When times are difficult people still vote for those who play on fears and prjudice (the last few days in the UK have shown that); outsiders are still stereotyped. That is what makes this book and Ellison's message so important.
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