Summary:
In his novel Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison uses light as a symbol for truth. Through such examples as the Invisible Man's first job mixing black and white paint and his induction into the Brotherhood, Ellison contrasts between dark/light and black/white to show the Invisible Man's evolving understanding of the truth and of the need of others to be shown their true ways. In the end, having lived in complete darkness, the Invisible Man achieves an understanding of the world and becomes determined to live in the light.
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man tells of one man's realizations of the world. This man, the invisible man, comes to realize through experience what the world is really like. He realizes that there is illusion and there is reality, and reality is seen through light. The Invisible Man says, "Nothing, storm or flood, must get in the way of our need for light and ever more and brighter light. The truth is the light and light is the truth" (7). Ellison uses light as a symbol for this truth, or reality of the world, along with contrasts between dark/light and black/white to help show the invisible man's evolving understanding of the concept that the people of the world need to be shown their true ways. The invisible man becomes aware of the world's truth through.....
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