Ralph Ellison book summaries

“I am an invisible man.”

The opening line of the prologue, where the narrator introduces his condition of social invisibility.

“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”

The narrator explains the cause of his invisibility in the prologue.

“It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself.”

The narrator reflects on his journey to self-understanding in the epilogue.

“I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.”

The narrator realizes that he has been seeking his identity from others, in the epilogue.

“The end is in the beginning and lies far ahead.”

The narrator's reflection on the cyclical nature of his experiences, in the prologue.

“I yam what I am!”

The narrator's defiant response to a man who mistakes him for someone else, in the chapter where he buys yams from a street vendor.