Book Salon
Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison’s title character is invisible. Not because he is a ghost, void of flesh and bones, but because people do not really see him. In the novel, the nameless narrator recounts the events of his life, poignantly illuminating issues of race relations, individuality, and self-identity in pre-Civil Rights era 20th century America.

At the start of his account, the narrator lives in a small Southern town, where he is chosen as valedictorian of his class and receives the opportunity to attend an African American university. Through a series of misfortunes he is expelled from the school and sent to make a name for himself in the hustle and bustle of New York City. There he comes across poverty, racial violence, the Communist-inspired Brotherhood, and black nationalists—all as he struggles to confirm his own existence in a society that is all too often blind to reality and truth.

Invisible Man, Ellison’s first novel and the only one to be published while he was alive, was declared a masterpiece immediately after its release in 1952. It remains one of the most influential literary works of the 20th century and has been declared by many as the best American novel since World War II.