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The invisible man


            
             Ralph Ellison's novel The Invisible Man is a story of a young black man whose name we never learn. He is haunted by his grandfather's last words, "Son after am gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I gave up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome "em with grins, agree with "em to death and destruction, let "em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open." This is the way it was in the south where the young man lived, so he thought this how it was everywhere else in the world.
             The young man is to give a speech to the local men's club, which is also the speech he was going to give to his graduating class. After he gave his speech the men awarded him with a briefcase and a scholarship to a black college. He wasn't ready for what happened next. They gathered all the black men and used a stun gun to keep them in a small area and threw coins at them. This is the first time we see how cruel some of the white community was to blacks for entertainment.
             The young man goes off to college and determined to model himself after Dr. Bledsoe, the colleges dean and a successful black man who is respected in his community and field. Dr. Bledsoe gives him a side job being the driver to a man named Mr. Norton, a wealthy white man who donates a deal of money to the college. Mr. Norton asks the young man to take him to a black neighborhood. When they arrive Mr. Norton starts a conversation with a man named Joe Trueblood, a poor black man who reveals that he got his own daughter pregnant. Mr. Norton was so upset he wants to drink. The young man takes him to a local black bar. After they have a drink they return to the college. When Dr. Bledsoe finds out where the young man has taken Mr. Norton he is furious and kicks him out of the school.


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