Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

What did I do to be so black and blue? by Louis Armstrong - referenced in the book

Ralph Ellison

The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison took me a very long time to read. Not only because life got in the way but I'm afraid to say I didn't much like the Invisible Man very much. Eager to please, violent, arrogant, and misguided are all-natural qualities of the man who cannot or more rather is refused to be seen.

Throughout this story, I found the narrator frustratingly uppity and insistently naive, as he finds himself contorted to the vices of his surroundings due to his inhumane invisibility. Yet, like a chameleon, or a slimy fish in a murky pond - he takes to his surroundings quite aptly even when they shape and contort him to find or perhaps lose a part of himself in the process.

Yes, invisible or not, he is not left unscathed by the fiery furnaces of life - from a southern campus to the hustling and bustling streets of Harlem - as he earns experience and insights into not only those around him but how he himself is viewed in the world, more of him disappears ... and in those moments that is perhaps where he is found. When he confesses to himself his own lack, where his faults are buried deep within him, those moments when he can see his own invisible chains burning through his vivid flesh, searing his very soul to torment - our narrator sweats a bead of virtue that even the most hard-hearted reader against him might find likable.. a gem/crumb in the crevice of his see-through character.

I think one of the best parts of the book other than the ability to see the unseen man's self-reflection is the characters he comes across. These characters all have what perhaps the main protagonist lacks - character - or more rather, they play their part well and there are many performers and that is the crux of this tale. A cruel joke for an invisible man, as they use his unfound secret to unlock the endless opportunity an unseen form can possess? For is not Shakespeare's famous phrase about all the world being a "stage" truer when you really don't exist.

And another thing ... perhaps like most personalities in life I dislike this invisible felon because I can see some familiarity with him in myself. A fiery and indignant nature that shimmers beneath a contrite facade of calm submission. He feels he knows so much when in fact he knows so little and his assumptions get him in trouble which is a trait I can definitely relate too. Yet, thankfully that is where I and the main protagonists' similarities (hopefully) end. I can't say that I am thankful to have read this book or that I enjoyed it but it did stir enough passion in me to continually close it and figuratively hurl it across the room in distaste. When I eventually came to the end I was surprised and a tad disappointed feeling cheated by the end that was not the end.

Yet, with all these perhaps negative things I've said I'm glad I stuck through it, as there are some grand concepts about identity and the importance of seeing things how they really are - even if such wisdom is told through a scattered and cluttered mind which I guess can only be expected when you've been bitterly unseen.

Concepts: Race, identity, equality, sameness, difference, growing up, black manhood, America, etc.

Summed up thoughts: Don't get me wrong, I think Ellison is a great writer but, this subject matter is heavy and if you're looking for rainbows after the continual storms you'll be left waiting ...

Fav part: The first paragraph in the prologue - if there's a paragraph that ever hooked me it was this one!