Ralph Ellison's first paragraph of Invisible Man
begins with the sentence, "I am an invisible man" which he clarifies with the final
sentence of that paragraph,
When they approach me, they see only my surroundings,
themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except
me.
Ellison's narrator is "invisible"
because he could be any black man since he is perceived not as an individual, but as a
stereotype. He is the stereotypical "Negro animal," considered subhuman, that reacts according to
his desires and physical urges. Placed in a ring, he will fight the other males, especially with
a woman there. He desires a white woman like no other, he will fight others in his way, for he is
unthinking. The cigar-smoking white men do not look at faces, they simply enjoy the animalism of
the "fenced" situation they have created in which they exploit the young men for their own
prurient delights.
As the novel progresses, the narrator learns that
no matter what he tries to become, no matter what group promises him that he can truly be a man,
he yet remains invisible. In the final chapter, the narrator decries the falsity of society and
communism:
I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain,
hurt to the point of invisibility.
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