Invisible

The Invisible Man Blog
By John Nay

This is just a short blog I wanted to do on the concept of stories with in stories. Currently I am reading the novel the invisible man by Ralph Ellison. I have just finished the introduction and I am cracking away at the first chapter. So far it has been a beautiful well-illustrated story about this concept of an invisible man. Anyway in the introduction to this book he talks about a black prisoner of war in WWII and this symbolic idea of being invisible. Being an invisible man has to do with a self-identity struggle that we see in many stories we read. The story of the P.O.W is that he is the highest-ranking American officer struggling with the inherit racism that is all around him. His life is essentially a story within a story that cloaks this man with invisibility. It seems that stories with in stories have a tendency to do this to a person or even a character. I think this concept of an invisible man is really interesting because of the fact that it does relate to the eternities. It relates to almost every story within a story. It makes you wonder weather you really care to know about a person or would you just rather look through as if they are not even there.