Invisible Man

I finshed Invisible Man by Ralph Elison recently. What an incredible book, and one that I wish I had read earlier in my life. The story and the theme remain relevant, even 50 years after it was first published and some 70 years after the setting of the story. For anyone unfamiliar with the book, it chronicles the unnamed Black narrator's search for his own idenity in a world of where people are determined to impose on him their own ideas about his identity, ignoring or failing to see him for who he really is, dishonoring his individuality.

The theme is relevant beyond race. Who doesn't struggle with identity in general? Who doesn't strugge with the identity others want to hang on us? It is something I continue to struggle with, even as I approach the half-centrury mark age-wise.

People, particularly men, see what they want to see about me, presumably what they see of all black women, blind to my individuality. I think that African-Americans may feel the invisibility more palpatably, however, because there are so many stereotypes to which we are subject. As a successful Black woman, invariably I face the issue from whites as to whether I'm the token Black, successful because I'm the affirmative action hire or because I've earned it. From too many other Blacks, there's sometimes the suspicion that I've sold out or I'm "too white" whatever that means. I could go on.

Elison manages to capture the angst of life and identity in a world where it's so easy for all us to pigeonhole people quickly and proceed as though the initial charactization has to be correct. This isn't really a male or female issue or a black or white problem, but one of which so many of us are guilty of--ignoring the uniqueness of each living person.

In this well-crafted story, Ellison created a character with whom I could identify while also forcing me confront my own shortcomings in how I view other people. I'm on a mission to encourage others who have not read this book to do so, sooner rather than later.