“I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. 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. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination — indeed, everything and anything except me.”

In the “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, we can already can see the central struggle of the novel. The narrator begins the prologue by introducing himself as invisible.”I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me,” not that it is one of his superpowers, nor is it due to accident, but because people in society ignore him because of the color of his skin. With this the narrator explains to the reader that this invisibility duos as an advantage yet a disadvantage. Yes, he doesn’t have to deal with other people’s problems and ordeals yet he aches to be seen and treated with respect his peers. The narrator write this prologue without ever saying his name. In doing so, the narrator is using his invisible as an advantage, to freely speak his mind without having to risk the consequences. His identity is even hid to the reader that he is confessing all of his feelings too.

The narrator realizes that the reason he is invisible to white people is because he is black, therefore, he describes them as blind. Stereotypes play a huge role in the setting of the novel. This is during postwar America in which whites viewed blacks in a certain light, as untrustworthy, muggers, etc. The narrator does not like how there are multiple identities given to him due to the color of his skin. Instead of his individuality, his qualities, his personality, people see him as something entirely different. This is seemingly difficult for the narrator as it doesn’t allow him to put his best foot forward in situations. This makes the narrator struggle with how others perceive him as well as how he perceives himself. This explains racism as a whole in itself, as those that are affected can relate to how stereotypes are used to describe them as a person.