The 1950’s brought about much change and prosperity, but was also a time of great conflict. With the end of World War II, the United States experienced a sense of safety in knowing that they had a strong military force and felt as if the worst was over. Then the scare of communism started, striking people with fear and paranoia. In which everyone worried that the spread of such a government would threaten democracy everywhere. Nevertheless, we weren’t just dealing with the risk of communism, but also with the introduction of The Civil Rights Movement. With this movement came a great amount of tension throughout American society. African Americans were fighting for equality, causing conflict between whites and blacks and ultimately led to segregation throughout the U.S. In Ralph Ellison and Flannery O’Connor’s work, we get to have a better understanding of what it was like in this era. The facts are known, but with these pieces of literature we get insight into how people were treated and what they experienced through the characters own eyes. The similarities between the first chapter of The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Flannery O’Connor, are striking in that each piece of literature a main character places judgment on someone just by sight alone. Although, we are told to not judge a book by it’s cover, it seems as though the characters in both stories have difficulty ignoring outward appearance. In The Invisible Man, Ellison