Numbers 19 and 20 on the list of "The 100 Greatest Novels of the 20th Century" are both from the middle of the century, and were both written by iconic, seminal African-American novelists. We'll look at Richard Wright's "Native Son" next time; today we'll talk about "The Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison.

    This is not to be confused with the 1897 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells, in which a scientist named Griffin figures a way to make himself invisible, and cannot then reverse the procedure. That was science fiction.

    Ellison's book is social fiction, though the condition seems equally irreversible. The unnamed protagonist here is not literally invisible, but rather uses invisibility as a metaphor for his insignificance to the larger society. As his grandfather recommended on his deathbed, the narrator learns to "overcome'em with yeses, undermine'em with grins, agree'em to death and destruction...." with "'em" (them) being the power structure composed of whites and the blacks who collaborate with them.

    This book, too, takes its place in the "great conversation," the flow of ideas running through the works of the Western literary and philosophical tradition. Here we see how Ellison has drawn from H. G. Wells to fashion a narrative apropos to his own time and circumstances. Ellison was named "Ralph Waldo Ellison" in homage to the New England writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, and was educated at the Tuskegee Institute founded by Booker T. Washington.

    Despite the novel's sharp criticism of the operation of that institution--which appears in thinly-disguised form as the school from which the narrator is expelled--Ellison's time at Tuskegee was not a total waste. Through English classes, and especially by reading in the college library, he was exposed to classics of the modern era, including "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky, Thomas Hardy's "Jude the Obscure," "The Waste Land" by T. S. Eliot and the works of James Joyce. All of these contributed to his later prowess as a writer.

    Vocabulary: Which word above means:

    1. having the status of something revered or idolized

    2. just before he died

    3. kicked out, ejected

    4. all societal institutions taken together

    5. foundational, influencing all future results

    6. harsh, merciless

    7. not able to be changed

    8. superior skill, and the resulting fame

    9. fitting, proper for the purpose

    10. lack of importance

    ANSWERS: 1. iconic 2. on his deathbed 3. expelled 4. power structure 5. seminal 6. sharp 7. irreversible 8. prowess 9. apropos 10. insignificance