Invisible Man

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is an extraordinary and intense fiction book. The author tells a story of a young black man who had to endure some hardships in life during the early 1900's. This young man, who's name is never revealed, narrates his story an in the beginning explains how he is invisible. He says that he isn't physically invisible, but he is invisible to others. One of his first encounters was when he was awarded a scholarship to one of the most prestigious black colleges in the South after being humiliated by forcing him to fight blind folded with other young black men. He goes to the college and is expelled after taking one of the college trustees to the colored man with the worst reputation and to a bar of mentally ill colored men. He goes to New York and unfortunately he is faced many more obstacles and is unable to find a job. Finally luck starts to shine in his life when he becomes the spokesman of the Brotherhood, a political part that helps the socially oppressed, after giving a speech when he witnessed an eviction. At the end he states that he has realized that he must honor himself as an individual and stay true to his identity.

A theme that predominated throughout the whole narration is perseverance. The narrator's life was difficult because of the times he was living in where blacks and whites were segregated. Even though his life was hard, not let it discourage him in his pursuit of becoming someone better in life. When he was expelled from the college and went to New York to get a job he found out that he Dr. Bledsoe, the college director, betrayed him into getting him a job. He did not make this obstacle stop him and went to "Liberty Paints" and was "interviewed by a little droopy-eyed man named Mr. MacDuffy [...]" (127). He figured that if Mr. Bledsoe wasn't going to help him he was going to open his way through life, but this wasn't going to stop him. When he was introduced in the "Brotherhood" he didn't know how they wanted his speeches or how the organization worked. Although he didn't anything about the organization, he still delivered his speeches with confidence. When he was given a new challenge he said, '" I'll be ready"' (233). No matter what obstacle was thrown at him he always found a way to overcome it and more importantly he didn't let anything put him down.

"'Is that a log cabin?' 'That one and the other two like it were built during slavery times."' (24)

This quote may seem simple, but it is actually a turning point which changed his future completely. The comment the narrator made to the trustee made him gain more interest in the cabin. Mr. Norton was already amazed when he saw a "log" cabin, but became even more amazed when he knew they were built during slavery times. He thought they did not exist and this awoke the curiosity of wanting to know more about the cabin. This led Mr. Norton to know about the terrible action Trueblood made of getting his daughter pregnant. Mr. Norton became ill of the shock and the narrator took him to bar of mentally ill black veterans. Once Mr. Norton got his whiskey a fight broke out which made the trustee worse. By the time they got to the school the trustee had mist his talk, was scratched and bruised. At the sight of this the director expelled the narrator from the college. That one little comment created all of these events and they all led up to to his expulsion.

'"Well,

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