Rethinking American Racism: Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ellison was confronted with brutal criticism from many African American nationalists who were participating in the civil rights movement and other vigorous African American political activities in Harlem because of his conspicuous apolitical stance. Despite many controversies, it is obvious that Ellison was determined to write a literary work expressing social and political disillusionment of American society. The purpose of this paper is to analyze how Ellison's philosophy on racial discrimination and social oppression shown in Invisible Man is in conformity with respect to American democracy and individualism, despite many unjustified repudiations postulated by many African American nationalists.