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Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison

Start date: January 1, 2024

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What Members Thought

Mar 02, 2014 Chrissie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, hf, audible-us, usa, 2014-read, race, nyc

2 stars
I read this in high school and it is time for a reread.

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Unfortunately, I appreciated this more on the first read. When the book was published in 1952, what was therein revealed about racial bigotry was hot. Today it reads as just one of the many books focused on the racial divide. A secondary theme is identity, how we look at ourselves and how others look at us; this being the symbolical expression for the main protagonist's invisibility. He doesn't exist to tho 2 stars
I read this in high school and it is time for a reread.

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Unfortunately, I appreciated this more on the first read. When the book was published in 1952, what was therein revealed about racial bigotry was hot. Today it reads as just one of the many books focused on the racial divide. A secondary theme is identity, how we look at ourselves and how others look at us; this being the symbolical expression for the main protagonist's invisibility. He doesn't exist to those around him, and thus he was invisible.

The events played out in the novel feel dated. There are revival meetings, seduction by white women, riots that get out of hand where the Blacks burn their own housing. When the book was written this was all spanking new, but not anymore. During the years since this book was written these events have repeated themselves umpteen times.

I felt the main protagonist was terribly naive at the beginning. Then when he was accepted into the brotherhood, a group supposedly working toward liberation of the Blacks, he quickly understood so much, became so wise and all knowing. First he sounded like an 18 year old, and then too rapidly his speeches reflected the thoughts of a middle-aged person, only to revert to near insanity when he realizes how he has been duped. What I am saying is that the character portrayal is not convincing, neither of the central protagonist nor of others.

There are elements in the story that seem exaggerated - individuals with glass eyes that fall out. Over and over I asked why the author added that? Why the seduction by the white woman? The author in each instance wants to make a statement, but the event itself is not well worked into the story. It is there for a purpose, to get the author's "message" across. In this way the story itself becomes unbelievable. And here is the message: (view spoiler)

That the book is concerned with Marxism is clearly an exaggeration.

The narrator, Joe Morton, used too many "bells and whistles" for my taste. During violent/exciting sections the tempo and the volume builds to a crescendo and then crashes. There is one Black from Ethiopia; here I agree the African sound was well done. On the whole I wanted less melodrama in the narration. Morton employed a masculine laugh that drove me crazy, and different males had exactly that same laughter.

This piece of work is dated and has not much to say any more. Since the book was first published other authors have more eloquently expressed themselves on the topics covered.
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Mar 07, 2008 Becca rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. An unnamed man, while attending a college in Alabama, is encouraged to move to New York (Harlem) to find work, and...a lot of things happen that will surprise you. We get to witness our unnamed protagonist struggle externally and internally with his place in the world as an adult.

Ellison's writing is incredible. His diction, imagery, and symbolism are hard to match, if they can be matched. Many of the things he's doing in this work are done for the first time here, and his voice and reasoning ar ...more

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