Ellison, Ralph. The Invisible Man. New York: Random House
Inc, 1952. Print.
“Summary and Analysis.” Bloom’s Guides: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Ed. Portia Weiskel. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2008. 22-23. Print. “Themes.” Novels For Students Volume 2. Ed. Diane Telgan. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 160-161. Print.

“Style.” Novels For Students Volume 2. Ed. Diane Telgan. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 161-162. Print.
Dykema-VanderArk, Anthony M. Novels For Students Volume 2. Ed. Diane Telgan. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 165-167. Print.
Lillard, Stewart. Novels For Students Volume 2. Ed. Diane Telgan. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 168-170. Print.

Schafer, William J. Novels For Students Volume 2. Ed. Diane Telgan. Detroit: Gale, 1997. 170-172. Print.
Guillemin, Anna. “Thematic and Structural Analysis.” Bloom’s Notes: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996. 9-20. Print.
Bellow, Saul. “The Universality of Invisible Man.” Bloom’s Notes: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996. 24. Print.
Baumbach, Jonathan. “Gothic Elements in Invisible Man.” Bloom’s Notes: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1996. 30-33. Print. Tanner, Tony. “Powerlessness of the Invisible Man.” Bloom’s Notes:

Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York:
Chelsea House Publishers, 1996. 36-39. Print.
McClinton-Temple, Jennifer. Encyclopedia of Themes in Literature, 3- Volume Set. New York: Facts On File-Infobase Publishing,
2010. 1251. Infobase eBooks. Web. 13 December. 2011.
http://ebooks.infobasepublishing.com/View.aspx?IS
BN=9781438132686&InstID=2000. Web.
“The heat and electricity are pirated from Monopolated Light &Power, which, because of the speaker’s ‘invisibility’ cannot detect the source of the power drain… This invisibility clearly symbolizes the racism indigenous to America in the first half of the century.” “While the novel has to do with questions of race and prejudice, most critics agree that these ideas are subsumed under the broader questions of who we are, and the responsibility between identity and personal responsibility.” “In Invisible Man, an unwanted protagonist sets out on a journey of self-discovery that takes from the rural south to Harlem.” “Learning who he is means realizing that he is invisible to the white world, but by the end of his journey the hero has the moral fiber to live with such contradictions.” “Mr. Bledsoe, the college president, tells the hero, “You’re nobody, son. You don’t exist---can’t you see that?” “Although he may be uncertain of his identity, the invisible man has never quite lost the sense that he is an individual.” “One of the superficial arguments he uses for leaving Mary Rambo without saying goodbye to her is that people like her “usually think in terms of ‘we’ while I have always tended to think in terms of ‘me’---and that has caused some friction, even with my own family.” “At the funeral for Brother Tod Clifton, whose murder is one of several epiphanies, or moments of illumination, in the novel, the invisible man looks out over the people present and sees ‘not a crowd but the set faces of individual men and women.”’ “When he cannot get Dr. Bledsoe to see that what has happened to Dr. Norton is not his fault, the hero believes that by taking ‘responsibility’ for the mishap he will be able to get on with his career. But what he means by taking responsibility is smoothing things over, and he cannot take the result.” “When Brother Jack asks him by what authority he organized the rally for the people following Brother Tod Clifton’s funeral, the invisible man tells him it was on his ‘personal responsibility’ and offers a coolly reasoned defense.” “At the end of the novel, when he is about to leave his hole, he talks about the ‘possibility of action’ and explains that even an ‘invisible man has a socially responsible role to play,’ echoing with mild irony the phrase he once used without thinking.” “Whether inflicted by others, as in the ‘battle royal,’ where the young men are forcibly blindfolded, or as evidence of confusion, as when the invisible man describes stumbling ‘in a game of blindman’s buff,’ the idea of blindness is used to multiple effects.” “The Reverend Homer A. Barbee is literally blind, Brother Jack has a glass eye, white people cannot see the invisible man, and the hero cannot see himself.” “A variation on the theme is the idea of looking but not seeing, of not trying to see, which comes back to the theme of responsibility.” “Various characters impress on the invisible man the importance of not accepting things the way they are. “For God’s sake,” the vet from The Golden Day tells him, “learn to look beneath the surface. Come out of the fog, young man.” “In the adventure that the invisible man proceeds to relate in the first person (‘I’), his voice changes over time from that of a naïve young man, to someone who is clearly more responsible though still confused, to a person willing to deal with the world whatever the risks.” “The many stylistic elements used in Invisible Man are part of what make it such a literary tour de force.” “Invisible Man can be classed as a bildungsroman.”

“Ellison drew on his knowledge of African American folklore he acquired in his days with...

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