Invisible Man

I thought Invisible Man was really, really well done. I have no idea how often it is included in high school curricula these days, but it seems like an ideal selection: accessible enough to follow, yet universal enough to support endless discussion.

The story unfolds through a relatively small number of long, distinct episodes, each of which almost feels like a self-contained short story worthy of its own close analysis of style and symbolism. Each episode carries significant meaning on its own, but together they trace the narrator’s gradual disillusionment with the world as he goes from adolescence to adulthood, and from innocence to complicity to eventual growth.

The narrator’s naivety makes him the perfect guide through the complicated world of Jim Crow-era race relations. He begins hopeful, sincerely believing that if he follows the rules, works hard, and pleases the right people, he can build a meaningful life. Although he initially seems almost like a blank slate, he somehow still has a strong, distinctive voice.

I loved how Ellison approached race without reducing the novel to a simple conflict between virtuous Black characters and racist white ones. White supremacy is obviously the central force shaping the narrator’s life, but he is misunderstood, manipulated, and exploited by black and white people alike.

Nearly every major character seems to represent a worldview that I could still recognize today: the blatant racist; the white do-gooder who claims to care about minorities and the less fortunate while refusing to understand them; the black leaders who believe advancement requires submission to white expectations, even at the expense of other black Americans; and the revolutionaries who want to destroy the entire system that has oppressed them. Then there are people like the narrator, who become lost trying to navigate it all.

What makes the book feel so timeless to me, though, is that it is about far more than race relations. The narrator is invisible because others see only whatever stereotype, symbol, or political purpose they want him to represent. That predicament can be understood by anyone who has ever felt perceived as a series of stereotypes rather than as an individual. One of my favorite reads so far this year, I think.

Book author: Ralph Ellison