Invisible Man (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ralph Ellison
- First Published: 1952
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: Late 1930’s and early 1940’s
- Setting: The South and New York City
- Principal Characters: The Narrator, Grandfather, Mr. Norton, Dr. A. Herbert Bledsoe, Brother Jack, Tod Clifton, Rinehart, Ras, the Destroyer
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Social realism
- Subjects: African Americans, Values, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., Self-discovery, United States or Americans, Communism or communists, Politics, Racism, South or Southerners, New York City, Social issues, Education or educators, 1940’s, Alienation, 1930’s, Emotions, College life, Amputation, amputees, or prosthetics, Riots, Truthfulness and falsehood
- Locales: Harlem, NY, South (U.S.)
The Story:
The narrator and protagonist in the novel was nameless. An innocent teenager, he was born and grew up in the South of the United States. He was used to the social patterns of the region. With maturity, the narrator gradually recognized the chaotic understructure of “orderly” society. The demarcation line between the “two” societies was blurred in his mind for the first time when he heard his grandfather’s deathbed instruction to his father. Although the old man had seemed to be “obedient” and “obsequious” all his life, he told his son and...
[The entire page is 2445 words long]
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