Exposition Presentation of Invisible man By Ralph Ellison

Key Characters

• The Narrator: Protagonist
• Tod Clifton: Subordinate Character
• Dr. Bledsoe: Antagonist
• Brother Jack: Subordinate Character
• Ras the Exhorter: Flat Character
• Jim Trueblood: Antagonist
• Mary: Flat Character

Genre

By: Isaiah

Gallegos

Work cited

• Bildungsroman: literary genre that focuses on physiological and moral growth
• African American Literature: The style of literature which explores the roles of african americans in the U.S

• Both these genres fall into the categories because on bildungsroman side it focusing on the narrators path to finding out how to grow and to persevere from the criticism of feeling invisible due to societies words and actions that make him feel that way

• on the African American literature side it is all about the segregation era and the racial divide during this time and Ellison was apart of those writers who wrote about african american social and political issues during this time period

Setting

"He's Invisible but

not by choice"

• Biography.com

https://www.biography.com/people/ralph-ellison-9286702

• Ellison, Ralph, " Invisible Man" New York: Random House, 1952

• The New Yorker

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/ralph-ellisons-invisible-man-as-a-parable-of-our-time

• The 1930's WW ll and Great depression settings
• New York (Harlem)
• " Then at the street intersection had the shock of seeing a black police man directing traffic and there were white drivers in the traffic who obeyed his signals as though it was the most natural thing in the world... This really was Harlem..." (Ellison 159).
• Took place in a African american college/Institute
• " It was a beautiful college... Honeysuckle and purple wisteria hung heavy from the trees and white magnolias mixed with their scent in the bee-humming air.

Exposition/ Plot Structure

Narrative Point of View

Ralph Ellison

• throughout the book it is basically only first person Narrative
• "I am an invisible man…I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me" (Ellison 3).
• His use of First person narrative affects the book completely cause you can automatically tell the character is in a state of an identity crisis.

• Flashbacks: When the Narrator is taken back in time to that current point in the story.
• " It goes a long way back, some twenty years ago" (Ellison 15).

• Invisible Man starts off with a Nameless man who feels as if he is not apart of anything or any type of people he feels as if he is just invisible to the entire society. He began with his flashbacks to when he was in high school and his White superintendent gave him a chance to make a speech but instead he was humiliated to be blind folded and fight 9 other of his friends. After committing these humiliating and gruesome acts he was able to give his speech he had felt even more miserable and invisible to others starting from there.

• Born In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Born on March 1, 1914
• Ralph's father died when he was 3 years old
• Moved to Harlem, New York in 1936
• Worked in the U.S. Merchant Marine as a cook
• Grew up in the south and witnessed Racism First hand.
• Published Invisible man 1952 and the South was fully segregated during this time

Exposition Presentation of Invisible man By Ralph Ellison