Top 30 Modern Classics - XXV

Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison

Invisible Man,by Ralph Ellison, was published in 1952. The story is about an African American man whose color makes him invisible.

The narrator says that he is invisible, not due to any special attributes, but because others refuse to see him.

The narrator was a gifted speaker and he is invited to speak to a group of important white men. He is rewarded, by the white men, with a scholarship to a top black college after being humiliated in various ways.

Three years later, the narrator is a student at the college. He is asked to drive a wealthy white trustee of the college, Mr. Norton, around the campus. During their tour Norton needs a drink, and the narrator takes him to the Golden Day, a saloon and brothel that normally serves black men. A fight breaks out among a group of mentally imbalanced black veterans at the bar, and Norton passes out during the chaos. 

Back at the college, the narrator is rebuked by the college president on the issue of taking Mr Norton to Golden Day instead of showing Mr Norton civilized face of black life.  He expels the narrator, giving him seven letters of recommendation and sends him to New York city in search of a job.

The narrator travels to Harlem and searches fruitlessly for work till someone helps him to get a low paying job in a paint factory. The narrator gets into a fight with his supervisor, during which one of the process tanks explodes, and the narrator is knocked unconscious. He loses his memory and speech temporarily.

After the narrator recovers his memory and leaves the hospital, he collapses on the street. Some black community members take him to the home of Mary, a kind woman who lets him live with her for free in Harlem. One day, the narrator witnesses the eviction of an elderly black couple from their Harlem apartment. Standing before the crowd of people gathered before the apartment, he gives an impassioned speech against the eviction. Brother Jack overhears his speech and offers him a position as a spokesman for the Brotherhood, a political organization that, reputedly, works to help the socially oppressed. The narrator takes the job and is placed in charge of advancing the group’s goals in Harlem.

After being trained in rhetoric by a white member of the group named Brother Hambro, the narrator goes to his assigned branch in Harlem, where he meets an intelligent black youth leader, Tod Clifton, and the black nationalist leader, Ras. Ras opposes the interracial Brotherhood and believes that black Americans should fight for their rights over and against all whites.

The narrator delivers speeches and becomes a high-profile figure in the Brotherhood, and he enjoys his work. This causes jealousy among some other people and he is accused of satisfying his personal needs rather than working for Brotherhood's interest. While a committee of the Brotherhood investigates the charges, the narrator is moved to another assignment. 

After a short time, the Brotherhood sends the narrator back to Harlem, where he discovers that many black men have left the Brotherhood feeling that it had betrayed their trust. The narrator finds Clifton on the street selling dancing dolls. Clifton is shot dead on the streets by some white policemen after a scuffle. The narrator organizes a funeral for Clifton and galvanizes community sentiment in Clifton's favor. The Brotherhhod is displeased with the narrator's initiative and sends him to Brother Hambro to learn about the organization’s strategies in Harlem.

The narrator decides to seek revenge on the Brotherhood. He arrives in Harlem to find the neighborhood in agitation over race relations. Ras sends his men to beat up the narrator, and the narrator is forced to disguise himself for escaping. At last, the narrator goes to Brother Hambro’s apartment, where Hambro tells him that people are merely tools and the larger interests of the Brotherhood are more important than any individual. To undermine the Brotherhood's intentions, the narrator decides to gain proximity and seduce a woman close to one of the party leaders to get secret information about the group.

But the woman he chooses, Sybil, knows nothing about the Brotherhood.  While still with Sybil in his apartment, the narrator receives a call asking him to come to Harlem quickly. On arriving in Harlem he finds the place in the midst of a full-fledged riot incited by Ras. In the chaos, while trying to run away from that place, the narrator falls down a manhole and the men nearby, cover the manhole with its cap. 

The narrator says that he has stayed underground ever since. But he finally feels ready to emerge from underground.

Invisible Man won US National Book Award for fiction in 1953. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked this book nineteenth on its list of 100 best novels of the 20th century. Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.

Namaste

Prabir