Developing self-knowledge is a gradual, lifelong process. Each situation that an individual faces helps him or her to define a personal identity. Over the course of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the nameless protagonist develops through several stages from a confident yet naïve student, to a degraded factory worker, to a member of a fraternal organization, and finally to a self-assured individual. Throughout his development, he looks to others to answer questions about his …showed first 75 words of 1252 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1252 total…self-discovery, rather than offering a single definition of himself, the invisible man paints a portrait of many selves. Work Cited Aull, Felice. “Literature and Medicine Database.” April 7, 2000. Http://endeavor.med.edu/lit-mel/db/webdocks/webscripts/ellison Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage Books, 1980. Nevion@aol.com. “Moving Day in Harlem.” July 27, 1998. http://www.amazon.com. Weinberg, Helen. “The Kafkan Mode in Contemporary Fiction.” Contemporary Literary Criticism vol. II. Dedria Bryfonskied. Chicago: Bale Research Company, 1979.