Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

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The gripping book Invisible Man, authored by Ralph Ellison, made me feel very uncomfortable in my readings. Throughout the entire book, there is a theme of extreme racism, of the dominant whites against the inferior blacks. Not that the theme of this book was created solely towards racism, but it is the subject I chose to expand on. The adverse and racist statements have language in this book, which is not how I think or feel, and I think the majority of people would feel the same way, as I did in my reading. Had this book been written by a white person, it appears it would have a negative effect on any reader. This book was published in 1952, at a time when racism and discrimination were more prevalent in that day and age. It was a time during the civil rights era. It was written prior to the days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and his “I Have a Dream speech,” which was delivered in August of 1963. The racism mainly concentrates of how white people treated African-Americans, in particular the main character, the narrator. “If Ellison’s Invisible Man speaks to many readers of color, it is not only because the novel so eloquently records the feelings of rage and invisibility that are a consequence of living within a racist culture. It is also because this work gives voice to a particular intuition about the psychic motivations of white men: that they derive a specifically erotic gratification from their racist practices” (Kim 309).
The author, Ralph Ellison was an African-American born on March 1, 1914 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He died April 16, 1994 in New York. He wrote the book in order to show his dissatisfaction towards the communist party and the way they betrayed the African-Americans. This book “received the National Book...

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...Brown-Iannuzzi, Jazmin L., Kelly M. Hoffman, B. Keith Payne, Sophie Trawalter. The Invisible Man: Interpersonal Goals Moderate Inattentional Blindness to African Americans. Journal Of Experimental Psychology. General 143.1 (February 2014): 33-37 Academic Search Complete Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Second Vintage International Ed. New York: Vintage Books. 1995. Print.
Kim, Daniel Y. "Invisible Desires: Homoerotic Racism and Its Homophobic Critique in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man." Duke University Press 30.3 (Spring 1997): 309-328. JSTOR Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Lane, James B. "Underground to Manhood Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man." Negro American Literature Forum 7.2 (Summer 1973): 64-72. JSTOR Web. 16 Feb. 2014.

Stark, John. “Invisible Man: Ellison’s Black Odyssey.” Negro American Literature Forum 7.2 (Summer, 1973) 60-63 JSTOR Web 17 Feb 2014.

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