Ralph Ellison Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison chose to cloak his entire writing of Invisible Man in allegories and symbolism, because of this it can be hard to truly pick apart and understand what he was saying in his writing. Often time is his writing Ellison refers to a common theme of sleep and invisibility. He does not mean literal blindness only the blindness white people in America had when it came to viewing black people. At the beginning of his writing Ellison states “I am an invisible man” (par 1). Throughout the entirety of Ellison’s writing he often times makes references to being invisible, although he is not literally talking about being invisible in the sense that most readers would think. Ellison is referring to the way that people overlook him and view him as less than human in a way that makes it seem as if he is invisible. To further enforce the point that Ellison is indeed a real human being, just one that is overlooked by the greater part of society, Ellison includes in his writing “I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber, and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind” (par 1). In doing this Ellison is telling the reader that this is not about being transparent but about him and how he is viewed by the white American society as a

He is explaining that he feels as if he is nothing “you often doubt if you really exist... a figure in a nightmare which the sleeper tries with all his strength to destroy” (Ellison par 3). Ellison is explaining to us that often times he feels as if he is nothing more than something that one would see in a nightmare. He also refers to the sleeper, who is American society, that is attempting to stamp out, or eliminate, him representing black society. When this is read, in this way, it hits the reader and makes them feel what Ellison is feeling on a daily basis. The reader receives a brief glimpse into the life of a black man in a racist