Introduction

The novel “Invisible Man” was written by Ralph Ellison in the late 1940s. It is the only novel that is written by the author in his lifetime. The efforts of the author are recognized as his novel received the National Book Award in the year 1953. The novel was also ranked on nineteenth number among the best 100 English Language novels in 20th century by Modern Library. Furthermore, Time magazine also placed the novel among its best 100 English Language novels from the period 1923 to 2005.

Discussion

As the novel “Invisible Man" is the only published novel by Ralph Ellison, he wrote it with great enthusiasm and highlighted the main issues of his time that were mainly related with the discriminatory acts. The author also made numerous documentaries focusing on the social issues of the American society. Released in 1940s, novel “The Invisible Man” is one of the influential works of American literature of the twentieth century. In novel, the author has shown a black man who bears an exemplary character. He lives in the downtown of New York where nobody talks or notices him. He respects the whites so that he can be respected in return but he never seen welcoming behavior from them. As the novel was written around 1940s, the discrimination among black and white was very obvious then (Porter, 2001, Pp 23).

The author has introduced the characters of narrator's grandparents who felt themselves equal of the white. Once when the narrator was given a chance to give speech in his high school club, the high school administration gathered all the black boys and made them wear boxing shorts so that they can be differentiated from the whites. The narrator seems this act as the humiliating one. To not be reducing or betraying the intentions of the ...