Search results
A summary of Chapter 1 in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Learn exactly what happened in this chapter, scene, or section of Invisible Man and what it means. Perfect for acing essays, tests, and quizzes, as well as for writing lesson plans.
Need help with Chapter 1 in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man? Check out our revolutionary side-by-side summary and analysis.
- The grandfather's deathbed scene. Although it may appear merely incidental, this episode is an integral part of the novel because the grandfather, representing the ancestor or ghost of slavery, has a major impact on the narrator's life.
- The narrator's arrival at the hotel. This episode introduces betrayal, broken promises, and game-playing themes. Although as a young high school graduate he naïvely assumed he had some choice in whether to participate in the battle royal, looking back on the incident, he realizes that he had no choice.
- The naked blonde's erotic dance. Overall, this scene represents America's distorted value system. The American dream of freedom, liberty, and equality (symbolized by the flag tattoo) has been replaced by the relentless pursuit of money, sex, and power (symbolized by the car advertising tokens).
- The battle royal. The battle royal is a brutal rite of passage that thrusts the naïve narrator into a violent, chaotic world where the rules that govern a society do not apply (there are "no rounds [and] no bells at three-minute intervals").
Chapter 1 Summary: The first chapter provides quite a contrast to the novel's Prologue as the narrator takes the reader back to his experiences as a naive high school student. The chapter focuses on a gathering of the town's most influential white citizens held the day after the narrator's graduation.
Chapter 1. Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe provides an in-depth summary and analysis of Chapter 1 of Ralph Ellison's novel Invisible Man. Invisible Man | Chapter 1 | Summary. Share. Summary. The narrator's realization that everyone was trying to define him goes back as far as he can remember.
