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Title: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison ISBN: 0-679-73276-4 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 March, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.23 (228 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: a self-reflective book in a way
Comment: In Invisible Man Ralph Ellison narrates a story through the eyes of a southern black man who is forgotten and abused by people in the worlds around him, conveying to the reader his belief in the necessity of self-realization and self-reliance through the narrator's insights at the same time. Ellison develops his own personal convictions within the unnamed protagonist, giving his character depth of understanding imparted by the experiences he encounters. This anonymous narrator learns not only of racial prejudice during his childhood in the South but also of social ignorance in the North even among other blacks. Upon first arriving north in New York City, the narrator feels as if he has left behind prejudice social classes and unfair bias, but slowly he begins to realize that in New York or any other place there is no such thing as egalitarian rights and communal respect because of the self-serving minds of other people. In many characters such as Mr. Norton, Dr. Bledsoe and Brother Jack, Ellison embodies this attitude of ignorance and personal ambition. In the book Mr. Norton plays a minor role as a university benefactor who only wishes to see the narrator succeed in order to add to his own legacy. Dr. Bledsoe is the head of the narrator's old college who fears allowing the narrator to stay at the university may bring ill repute to his university. He only desires to see the narrator fail and even attempts to catalyze this hope by giving him letters denouncing the narrator's qualifications which he claims to be letters of recommendation. Shortly after arriving in New York, the narrator meets Brother Jack, who is the head of a civil rights movement. At the end of the book the narrator learns that Brother Jack has been using him as a speaker to incite citizens for his own alterior motives. Ellison states through the narrator that his invisibility arises from the negligence of others who are striving toward their goal, too busy to think about him on their way. In the end of the book the narrator fully grasps and learns that his insignificance in others' eyes is insignificant itself, that his peace and contentment must come from within himself. Ellison shows ubiquity and timelessness in his philosophy on man and his intrinsic nature, intricately developing Invisible Man to reflect aspects of his own take on life.
Rating: 5
Summary: Silent Racism
Comment: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is the most powerful description of the modern African-American experience on record. It follows the life of a nameless protangonist as he journeys from a poor rural southern college to the streetes of Harlem. Thorughout out the book he is constantly unsure of himself and unable to find some place to belong.
Each time he feels he has discovered someone who is truly color blind he finds that they are just out to use him for their own advantage. He is kicked out of his college when he shows a white benefactor, at his insistence, what life is like for poor rural blacks. When he goes north to New York, he is denied employment because of the "recommendations" his former college mentor is writing for him. He engages in Communist party rallies and human dog fights. Mostly he feels the isolation which comes from being alone in a crowd.
As he makes his way through life he really does become an invisible man. Obviously not in the literal sense but in the way that someone who is constantly ignored or put on the fringes of society becomes an invisible man. He becomes invisible because of the quiet racism that pervades so much of Northern society in his day and which has continued down to the present.
Rating: 4
Summary: I choose to see him
Comment: He is an invisible man, not that he is physically invisible, but because people refuse to see him as he is, or so the story starts.
The story is about a youthful, unnamed black man, who starts off naive and full of idealism. Throughout the book, he faces different ordeals, transforms himself several times, and makes many discoveries about the society in which he lives, each time growing as an individual and trying to find his identity.
The reason I liked this book so much because the way in which it was written makes you care about something you otherwise might not, let alone know about, how blacks weren't even paid attention to in the United States in the period before the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. They weren't so much oppressed or hated, but rather ignored altogether, which, when you think about it, is much worse. It shows just a taste of how much blacks have been wronged, by whites as well as blacks. It also helped my on my path to finding who I was, even though I am not black myself.
The only thing I really disliked about this book was the slow pacing. In my opinion, the story could have been told in less detail and in less time, while still having the same effectiveness.
This is a book that deals with racism and blacks in society, so know what you're getting into when you read it. Ellison uses a lot of Southern or uneducated diction, which can be confusing at times if you've never heard it spoken before. He also uses a lot of symbols, which I thought were well used and added greatly to the book. This great American novel, though quite lengthy at 500+ pages, is worth the read, even if you're like me and not really into that sort of stuff.
I read this novel for an English class, so it was a close reading and I had to go back a lot, reread, and identify many things, things I wouldn't have noticed with just a casual reading. Everytime I went back and read something over, the book made more sense and I liked it more.
Even though Ellison addresses many of the racial problems in America, and possibly inspired things to be done about them, many problems still exist today. Perhaps more people need to read it and be opened to another view of things.
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Title: The Invisible Man (Cliffs Notes) by Durthy A. Washington ISBN: 0764586564 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 01 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0060931418 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 December, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald ISBN: 0684801523 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Beloved by Toni Morrison ISBN: 0452280621 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin ISBN: 0440330076 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 10 November, 1985 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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