Ralph Ellisons Invisible Man

"Who the hell am I" (Ellison 386)? This question puzzled the invisible man, the unidentified, anonymous narrator of Ralph Ellison's acclaimed novel, Invisible Man. Throughout the story, the narrator embarks on a mental and physical journey to seek what the narrator believes is "true identity," a belief quite mistaken, for he, although unaware of it, had already been inhabited by true identities all along. Ellison, in Invisible Man, uses the main characters invisibility and conflict with …

…the identified, it belongs only to the beholder and not the identified. Without other people around, a person will not have an identity and there will be no need for one. That is the whole reasoning behind identity. The reflection of the world upon the main character builds a false identity with in, while he does not realize his true identity until his invisibility refuses to allow him to reflect the world. By Charles Anderson