Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” is an excellent novel. Ellison shocked many with his talent and skill. He dealt with the whole inner problem of the Negro as a person, instead of dealing with a racial discriminated group. Ellison went beyond mere protest to insure that he would be taken seriously by whites as an intellectual writer. Ellison said, “I wasn’t, and am not, concerned with injustice but with art.” Because of this, there were a lot of critical responses to his work. William Barrrett was one of the many people that responded to Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man.”

At the beginning of the story, the hero’s grandfather, who is on his deathbed, tells him that their life is a war and tells him to keep up the good fight. Later on, the hero and nine other Negro boys are at a ballroom with the leading citizens of a small southern town. The boys watched a naked white woman, with a tattoo of the American flag, dance. Then, the Negro boys are blindfolded and placed in a boxing ring to fight each other. After the fight is over, the Negro boys scramble for their money, which is lying on an electrified rug.

Then the hero, with a mouth full of blood, gives his val

Ellison used exaggeration and symbolism in his novel. He used the symbol of the American flag, on the naked woman, to show the satire upon American corruption of sexuality. He illustrated how perverted and corrupt the white men were when the woman was dancing. The men started chasing her, and she too was overtaken by fear. Both the Negro boys and the nude woman were victims.

Ellison wrote about many grotesque and violent situations. For example, the Negro boys, who were filled with fear, were forced to fight each other for entertainment for the leading white citizens. Then the hero gives his speech while swallowing blood from the injuries during the fight. This makes the story very gruesome and a terrible nightmare. William Barrett said, “ The book has an uncanny power from this combination of nightmare and realism” (Black 24).

edictorian’s address. The white citizens laugh at him and make him repeat himself several times during his speech. However, he receives a briefcase with a scholarship to a Negro college. That night, the hero has a nightmare. He dreams that his grandfather tells him to open his briefcase. When he opened it, he found a letter that said, “Keep this Nigger boy running.”

Also, the letter the

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