“I am an invisible man. No, I am not a specter 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 liquid - and might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible; understand, simply because people refuse to see me. The Invisible Man is the only novel written by Ralph Ellison during his lifetime. Invisible Man addresses many of the social and intellectual issues faced by African Americans, the relationship between black identities, as well as issues of individuality and personal identity. The protagonist is invisible because everyone stereotypes him as an unreal person. He eventually comes to embrace his state of invisibility. He realizes that there are a number of advantages that allow him to remain unnoticed and inconspicuous. The Invisible Man is an important piece of literature. The protagonist appears to be a man who knows himself, or at least has deeply considered who he is and what he is trying to do. As in Ellison's novel, he emerges from underground envisioning a "socially responsible role to play." Ellison's novel ends with the promise of a reemergence, but we never find out how the invisible man's new agency approaches public life. The Invisible Man is the unnamed narrator of Ralph Ellison's violent and passionate novel about black lives in 1940s America. . Defeated and embittered by a country that treats him as a non-being, he has retreated to an underground cell, where he smokes, drinks, listens to jazz and talks about his search for identity in white society: as an optimistic student in the deep south, in the north with the group of black activists of the Brotherhood and in the Harlem race riots. Told in a powerful, angry and ...... middle of a sheet of paper ...... a university student and ends with the young man realizing that his world has become one of "infinite possibilities" . Synopsis of "Works Cited". waterstones.com. Penguin Books Ltd, 07/10/1999. Network. March 30, 2011. http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/ralph+ellison/invisible+man/4276241/"Theme Analysis." www.novelguide.com. Guide to Novels, 1999 - 2011. Network. March 30, 2011. http://www.novelguide.com/InvisibleMan/themeanalysis.html"THE INVISIBLE MAN: PLOT SUMMARY/ANALYSIS." thebestnotes.com. TheBestNotes, 6/10/2008 . Network. March 30, 2011. http://thebestnotes.com/booknotes/Invisible_Man_Wells/The_Invisible_Man_Study_Guide04.html"Ralph Ellison." 2011. Biography.com. March 30, 2011, 3:47am http://www.biography.com/articles/Ralph-Ellison-9286702"The Invisible Man." en.wikipedia.org. Random House, Inc., 1952. Web. March 30, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Man