Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison (1952)
“The most-tested novel on the AP Literature exam — a Black man's journey from the South to Harlem reveals that in America, the greatest act of power is making a person invisible.”
Character Analysis
He is never given a name — the choice is Ellison's most deliberate formal decision. To name him would be to fix him, to make his story particular in the way that would allow white readers to say 'this is a Black story.' By leaving him unnamed, Ellison makes him available to everyone who has been rendered invisible by power. His voice is the novel's instrument, and it learns to play itself over 581 pages.
Begins with formal, accommodationist Southern speech — the voice of a 'gifted Negro' trained to impress white benefactors. Evolves through Brotherhood rhetoric (abstract, ideological) to a final voice that is jazz-inflected, plural, fully his own.