Book Summary: Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison

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Dr. Brittany Hancock History 1302 April 12, 2016 This essay will be addressing the book Invisible man written by Ralph Ellison. In Invisible Man the protagonist would describe how it is to feel invisible to the world just based on your skin color. This unnamed protagonist would describe his past on how once he was an excellent student to leaving in the basement of an apartment complex restricted to only whites. As the story progresses the protagonist explains many challenges he had to go through to end up living in a hole. Ralph Waldo Ellison was born on March 1st 1914 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He was named after journalist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ellison’s father died in a work related accident when he was just three years old. His …show more content…

How they would be treated less than animals. They would be ignored when people saw them outside. Invisible Man showed that blacks were more than “invisible” people. The author explained the situation the unnamed protagonist had to go from being a black in that time period, Ellison would talk about the struggle of this protagonist such as him being an excellent student to having been made a fool out of getting kicked out of school and many other stuff. This book challenges the difference between races on how everyone was treated differently based on their race. Whites didn't care about the black, as a matter in fact they would use them as entertainment. “A hot, violent force tore through my body, shaking me like a wet rat. The rug was electrified. The hair bristled up on my head as I shook myself free. My muscles jumped, my nerves jangled, writhed. But I saw that this was not stopping the other boys. Laughing in fear and embarrassment, some were holding back and scooping up the coins knocked off by the painful contortions of the others. The men roared above us as we struggled” (Ellison 22). This was before he was finally able to say his speech after fighting and being …show more content…

Hancock. As the reader, the understanding was clear. The protagonist was telling the story from point A to point B in a way that amuses the reader. It had a clear understanding of the difficulties the unnamed protagonist had to go through from being an excellent student to having many obstacles in life that in the end he ended up living in the basement of an all whites apartment complex feeling invisible, as described in the beginning of the story. This book is great because it is presented to any type of reader in the most understandable way. This book is a must read, even if you are not into the history, it’s an excellent story overall and would highly recommend it to

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