ty, have found themselves insituations in which they are on the outside looking in. These people often have a feeling of being "invisible"and unidentified to the rest of society and thereforeundergo a need to search for their identity in order tobe recognised and have a place at the "social table". Inthis particular novel, our character which calls himself the "invisible man", is faced with the challenges ofbeing a young African American male from the south,living in the north, who encounters a number of bafflingexperiences while on the road to self-discovery. The"invisible man" reveals profound insight into every man'sstruggle to find his true self. As the story unfolds,the "invisible man" gradually reaches the destination ofhis soul-searching journey, in which his progress ismarked by four significant stages: self-ignorance,exposition, false freedom, and self-discovery.The first stage of development in our namelesscharacter is just like any other --self-ignorance. Beforean individual can pursue any type of development, onefirst has to go through this period of unawareness. Theinvisible man has lived with a guilty conscience eversince his grandfather left him this word of advice:"...undermine the white man by simply agreeing andcausing no trouble, so in that way, they will havenothing to hold against you and therefore, it will leadthem to destruction" (Ellison 20). The advice hauntedthe invisible man like a curse and caused him to beinsecure, uncomfortable, indecisive, and remorseful aboutsimple everyday living. This advice seemed to be theroot of his self-ignorance. He was now unable to thinkthoughts of his own without a feeling of betrayal towardhis grandfather or unsureness of whether he was pleasingor disgusting the white man. The invisible manproclaimed his self- obliviousness when confronted withMr. Norton and asked about his fate and also how he feelsabout his race. The invisible man could not respond tothe question of...
