How Does Ralph Ellison Create Identity In Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison was born on March 1, 1913 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As an African American novelist, his most renowned work is Invisible Man. Ellison started writing this novel expressing his anger toward politicians betraying most African Americans. Ellison incorporated many of his life experiences, including his life at Tuskegee Institute & New York, and how he was treated as a black man in the 1940s-1950s. His purpose for writing Invisible Man was to deliver a commentary about the harsh social norms from an African American’s perspective. The common theme touched upon in this novel is identity. At the time, discrimination ran rampant in the United States and ambitions for the country’s African Americans were crushed by other people sabotaging their lives or

The narrator of the novel isn’t given a name. The audience only knows that he’s an African American man without an identity. “I am an invisible man… simply because people refuse to see me.” (Ellison, 3). This realization told in the prologue was from a point of view where he went through a bunch of events that shaped his perception. The novel consists on the narrator reflecting on the events of his past to help him find and understand his identity. He states that he uses his invisibility to live in an illuminated “hole” (basement) that drains power from a power company. He’s alone and secluded, but this has a deeper meaning. The narrator is secluded, but he isn’t in the dark at all. His vision is clear with his “1,369 lights” (Ellison, 6). The vision the narrator was also talking about was his perception of who he is in society. He is aware that he is alone and people are going to view him the way they want to. With the acceptance and knowledge of that, it made the narrator stronger and capable of achieving anything. The narrator then proceeds to explain past experiences, influential or degrading, to get him to that current