Invisible Man, written by Ralph Waldo Ellison and first published in 1952, is a book about oppression and prejudice and their effects on the minds of both the victims and the perpetrators. It is a book about what happens to a person’s individuality in the face of prejudice. The nameless narrator, or invisible man, is a black American.
The narrator’s story starts in the late 1920s or early 1930s in the south. On the day of his graduation from high school, he gives a speech about humility being the secret of progress, which is thought to be so good that he is asked to present it again, this time to the town’s leading white men. The men present him with a scholarship to a prestigious black college, but not before completely humiliating him and treating him (and other young black men present) like an animal. In this circumstance he is shown that even though he is given the opportunity for a good education, he is to remember that it was given to him by white men, and that he is expected to “stay in his place” as a black man. It doesn’t matter how smart he is or what he thinks or how he feels. His individuality doesn’t matter–the only thing that these men see is the color of his skin. Over the course of his young adult life–from college and then on to his life in Harlem–the narrator faces against different experiences that eventually prove to him that the people around him don’t really see him as an individual, they see what they want to see (mainly his skin color) and use him for their own purposes as a replacement for union workers (which leads him to be falsely accused as an anti-union fink), as someone on whom to perform medical experiments, and as a political pawn. In fact, using the word “someone” is inappropriate, when he isn’t necessarily treated as a human being at all. To be human is to be an individual, and when one’s individuality is taken away or ignored, so is their humanity. This is the main way in which oppression is carried out without the conscience of the oppressor getting in the way–if a person’s individuality and humanity are stripped away through prejudice and stereotyping, it is easier for the oppressor to see the oppressed as simple objects to be treated and used accordingly. And the narrator bends and shifts to fit into these roles, all the while thinking that he’s doing it for his own benefit. That is, until the epiphany of his invisibleness hits. Although Ellison’s book focuses on the black experience in America, bigotry and its effects are a general experience. People are stereotyped on the basis of gender, religion, race, heritage, and disability, and this can have very negative effects on everyone involved. In Invisible Man, Ellison uses different styles–satire, comedy, tragedy–to show us the potential effects, and he does it very well. This book is amazing and I would recommend it to anyone in search of a good read.