Analysis Of Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison

“I am a man of substance, of flesh and blood, fiber and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind” (Ellison 3). The setting of Invisible Man creates a foundation for the tone to build from Prologue to Epilogue. In the Prologue, the narrater is alone in his home, and thinking back to a time on a street corner when a man ran into him and a conversation he had with one woman. These settings develop the tone, creating foreshadow throughout the novel. In his home, the invisible man explains his love and desire for light. His home is full of light, as it confirms his reality (Ellison 6). Because he is a black man, he feels as though he is invisible because people turn their view from him as though he did not exist. Throughout the book,
the feeling of being overlooked follows him. And although he is acknowledged by a few people when he arrives in New York, he still gets the feeling of being no one. On the street corner one night, the invisible man is bumped into by another man, assumably white. The man then calls him an insulting name, and the narrator becomes aggressive towards the man. His attitude to the man foreshadows the dislike that steadily grows to white men for their treatment towards his race.