invisible man
by ralph ellison
★★★★★
dates read: 6/20/22 - 7/19/22 ! this review has spoilers !
"First published in 1952 and immediately hailed as a masterpiece, Invisible Man is one of those rare novels that have changed the shape of American literature. For not only does Ralph Ellison's nightmare journey across the racial divide tell unparalleled truths about the nature of bigotry and its effects on the minds of both victims and perpetrators, it gives us an entirely new model of what a novel can be.
As he journeys from the Deep South to the streets and basements of Harlem, from a horrifying "battle royal" where black men are reduced to fighting animals, to a Communist rally where they are elevated to the status of trophies, Ralph Ellison's nameless protagonist ushers readers into a parallel universe that throws our own into harsh and even hilarious relief. Suspenseful and sardonic, narrated in a voice that takes in the symphonic range of the American language, black and white, Invisible Man is one of the most audacious and dazzling novels of our century."
as a non-black person of color, i think that invisible man is one of the most profound pieces of literature i've read on what it is like to be a black american in the united states.
i originally only read the first chapter of invisible man for class, but after reading the famous battle royal scene, i decided to read the whole thing over the summer. i firmly believe that invisible man should be required reading within all schools districts, all over the country, regardless of red or blue.
ralph ellison does an excellent job of telling his story through a black unknown, first person, narrator. he is able to illustrate the inner turmoil of being a black american during the decades of jim crow in both the southern and northern states of america. there is the dichotomy of submission and dissent as a means of survival. while the two geographic areas are popularly known to be on polarizing ends, we find through the narrator's first hand account, that they aren't so different from one another in their shared anti-black ideologies and sentiments. one is just a little further below the surface than the other.
“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, simply because people refuse to see me.”
the first time i read the battle royal chapter, my jaw dropped. the whole entire scene was a more literal and violent metaphor for the systemic racism and belittlement of black americans by their white counterparts. the desperation from the children who fought, was palpable. it's a brutal way to start off the book, but it is meant to leave the reader uncomfortable. if not, there's something wrong. it's a difficult read, but important.
another concept that i found interesting was the prevalence of confirmation. trueblood's crimes are dismissed because he fits the racial stereotypes of black men as violent, sexual predators. the white policemen couldn't fault him for what they deemed was apart of his nature as a black man in the south. however, something similar occurs in the north, where sybil asks the narrator to rape her, despite already consenting to having sex with him. the narrator starts to take on the form of the black savage for her own pleasure.
with that being said, the brotherhood that the narrator joins, turns out to be hiding under a progressive facade. despite being advocates for the integration of black men in american society, they turned out to be not so different from their southern, anti-black, americans. in both the north and the south, they don't see the narrator as a real person, but invisible, as the title insinuates. he is continuously left disappointed, even by the people who are supposedly advocates for black integration.
while on the outside it feels as if the narrator has experienced every single worse case scenario given his circumstances, those feelings have real world implications. the united states has an ugly history of treating black people as if their skin color, their experiences, their community, are of the lowest tier. therefore, they are the worst case scenario of being an american citizen. throughout the book you constantly see the narrator take opportunities that he believes will help elevate his position, unlock the potential inside him that has remained dormant, but it doesn't. so he buries himself underground.
however, at the end of the novel he finally re-enters society, because everyone has a story and therefore a part to play in the world. even the nameless and invisible.