The paper gives a critical review of Ellison’s novel, focusing on the relationship between crowds and invisibility within it and the racial conflict.
The paper begins by exploring the nature of the invisibility referred to in the novel, and the application of this invisibility to the real world. Next, the paper discusses the various incidents of invisibility within a crowd, or instances of the protagonist going unrecognized in a crowd. These instances are analyzed individually and the racial conflict in the novel is explored. The paper traces the process that the protagonist undergoes to become `invisible` and concludes by considering how he deals with his `invisibility` once it is achieved.
`The main character in The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is invisible in a metaphorical sense, invisible both to himself and to others, and his invisibility is even greater in crowds than in smaller groups. Indeed, on one level he represents the invisibility of all modern human beings, especially those who live in cities, because they can be invisible even when standing in a crowd full of people who can see but who do not see. The Invisible Man in this novel is a black man who is invisible in white society because he is black, but is also invisible in black society because of the way he assumes various roles accepted by white society. The Invisible Man is invisible to himself because he has been sublimating his real personality beneath the roles he assumes and so has never existed as a real person with his own character. The nature of invisibility in crowds can be analyzed throughout this book and shows that invisibility does not mean not being seen but not being recognized, and the author presents the Invisible Man in a series of crowds, showing how he moves through them without being part of them, without being recognized.`