Ralph Ellison - Invisible Man III

"He needs to learn to control his anger."


"The logical fallacies are so numerous that they discount the entire meaning of the book."


"Uncle Tom's Cabin has largely the same message (though it is perhaps not as stylistically advanced), and has had a far greater impact on the Nation's awareness and treatment of blacks."


"I wanted to shake him! He was such a darned fool who never used his brain and continutally erupted into violent anger. What a waste of a life"


"If Ellison's motivation was to show the crushing effects of racism, then his character should have been less of a self-centered fool"


"How often can you blame others without looking at yourself?"


"I understand the plight, but the book seems sad rather than proactive."


"It is hard to believe that it took all those hardships for him to 'find' himself. Is anyone that naive. I hope not."


"A disturbing portrayal of the perception a black man has of white America. It has not earned a place on my list of favorite novels, but I am pleased that I persevered in my struggle to read this book, and even more in my struggle to write about it."


"I found myself early on with the impression of an unintelligent liar, telling me poor lies and expecting me to believe them because he has already fooled himself into believing them. That impression was confirmed again and again with each subsequent tale. Several times I actually called the book a liar out loud (in manners of speech), putting it down in disgust. The more I read, the more I felt burdened as I have in my life when forced to listen to similarly poor liars, telling me stupid fantasies in an attempt to either impress me or to avoid punishment. Perhaps Mr. Ellison was too clever for me and has actually written a tale told by a dense, pathological liar, to see whether his audience would figure it out."


"As an American historian, I probably should've read it a long time ago. I did not. I found it to be uninteresting"


"It made sense for the protagonist to feel invisible because of how much he was kicked around not only by white society but also by his fellow black 'Brothers.'"


"I bought this because it was required reading for my son's high school English class. He got a few chapters in and said Mom I don't think I should be reading this. I took the book and read about 30 pages before I put it down in disgust. I am not a prude by any stretch of the imagination. I am also not religious, so my criticism of this book does not stem from that either. I just think it's way too mature for a high school student. The story is told from the point of view of the 'invisible man' and one passage of the book describes in detail how he gazes upon the naked body of this girl, and how he wants to spit on her nipples and is consumed with desire to kill her. IMO it borders on pornographic. I don't understand how or why this book is considered 'literature' and I told my son he did not have to read it if it made him uncomfortable."


"There is no distinct conclusion."


"I thought this was about the invisible man. i kept wondering when he'd become invisible. disappointing."