The Invisible Man by Ralph EllisonA twisted coming-of-age story, The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison follows a tormented, anonymous protagonist as he struggles to discover themselves in the context of the racist 1950s. Ellison uses the question of existence “outside” of history as a way to show that identity cannot exist in a vacuum, but must be shaped in response to others. To live outside of history is to be invisible, ignored by the writers of history: "For history records the patterns of life of men... who fought and who won and who lived to lie afterwards » (439). Invisibility is the central trait of the protagonist's identity, embodied by the idea of ​​living outside of the story. Ellison uses the idea of ​​living outside the framework of the story to illustrate the main character's process of self-awakening, to show that identity is contradictory, and to mimic the structural movement of the novel. Ellison's protagonist asks about the day Tod Clifton died. , “Where were the historians today? And how could they deposit it? (439). With these investigations, he begins to question his own identity and his position in relation to history. Once the Invisible Man accepts that he too exists outside of the story, he exits the novel in the prologue and epilogue, the point at which he recognizes, internalizes, and verbalizes his invisibility. The Invisible Man never considers that he might live outside of history because he generally identifies with white people who both live in history and are the recorders of history. While driving Mr. Norton, he proclaims, “I identified with the rich man reminiscing in the back seat…” (39). Unlike the "inevitable group of smiling, featureless white men and women... middle of paper... while in the main text he criticizes Clifton for "diving outside of history." The framing of the novel reveals the contradictory nature of identity as Ellison uses the prologue and epilogue to show that the main text could not exist alone. The protagonist's story must be told by a wiser version of himself, showing that each identity depends on the other. Finally, despite the Invisible Man's initial claim to a solid identity, the epilogue does not paint a portrait of a character who has completely solidified his identity. When the Invisible Man advises that "the mind which has designed a plan of life must never lose sight of the chaos against which that model was designed" (580), he warns that it is foolish to attempt to define concepts as fluid as identity in strict and inflexible terms, thus allowing for the identity contradictions present in the novel.