Personal Commentary
In Invisible Man, I personally liked the way the narrator expresses his internal conflict when it came to fighting for his equality. For example, in the beginning of the novel he expresses how he could lash out on a white man and prove what the white population thinks about African Americans. He then reflects about his speech he had prepared, and how his actions would have counter argued his speech about humility and removing the prejudiced mindset of the white man. The parts I liked the least were his easy assimilation into the way the Brotherhood wanted him to be. The Brotherhood desired an African American in order to get their message across on social equalities, and along the way the narrator was lost in the true message he had intended on executing to the world.
If there was one thing I could change about the book, it would be the inclusion of details of his life I the South prior to moving to the North. Ellison provided the reader with a small amount of detail about the narrator before he moved to Harlem, but the additional knowledge of who he was while in the South would have highlighted his change in character throughout the novel. As a reader, the contrast of the two different characters would have made it clear why the narrator was so easily influenced by what was said to him. The narrator could have been seen before and after his shift in racial tension.
I would recommend this book to someone else because it tells the story of the minority from a minority; a point of view from the outside looking in. This allows the reader to feel the genuine struggle and emotions put into the novel. It is not an outsider looking in and assuming what a minority faces based on speculation, but an actual individual considered a part of the minority population telling life through their eyes.
If there was one thing I could change about the book, it would be the inclusion of details of his life I the South prior to moving to the North. Ellison provided the reader with a small amount of detail about the narrator before he moved to Harlem, but the additional knowledge of who he was while in the South would have highlighted his change in character throughout the novel. As a reader, the contrast of the two different characters would have made it clear why the narrator was so easily influenced by what was said to him. The narrator could have been seen before and after his shift in racial tension.
I would recommend this book to someone else because it tells the story of the minority from a minority; a point of view from the outside looking in. This allows the reader to feel the genuine struggle and emotions put into the novel. It is not an outsider looking in and assuming what a minority faces based on speculation, but an actual individual considered a part of the minority population telling life through their eyes.