Lynch is a teacher and freelance writer in northern New Mexico. In the following essay, she explores themes of self-invention and identity found in Ellison's essays.Lynch is a teacher and freelance writer in northern New Mexico. In the following essay, she explores themes of self-invention and identity found in Ellison's essays.

In his introduction to Shadow and Act, Ellison makes the point that writing is "the agency of my efforts to answer the question: Who am I, what am I, how did I come to be?" When deciding upon a career, he describes wondering "what was the most desirable agency for defining myself." He goes on to describe the essays in the collection as "witness of that which I have known and that which I have tried and am still trying to confront." Ellison is preoccupied with identity—American identity, in particular. As he indicates in...