Invisible Man

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Invisible Man is a detailed study of alienation and disillusionment. Retelling his search for identity and acceptance, the narrator brings a remorseless insight to bear on the conflicting impulses of accommodation and rebellion, and he shows how a racist society uses the needs and aspirations of the oppressed to divide and conquer1. In this novel and in the society it describes, success is failure and identity is a liability for the black man.

The most enigmatic and arguably most memorable line in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is the concluding question, framed less as an interrogation than ...