The Prologue and Ralph Ellison’s Existentialist Philosophical Concept About Black People Invisibility in Invisible Man

This paper aims to study the existentialist philosophical concept developed by Ralph Ellison in the prologue of his novel INVISIBLE MAN and which characterizes black people invisibility and existence since long time. It also analyzes how this philosophical concept sustains and permeates the overall relationships between white people and black people in the white American society and at large, in today’s blacks and whites relationships. Indeed when transcending the surface meaning of the prologue of the novel, one can realize with a thorough reading of the notion of invisibility that Ralph Ellison develops an existentialist philosophical concept about black people invisibility and existence which is quite different from the well known existentialist concept about human beings existence developed long time ago by the French philosopher René Descartes. In a metaphorical and symbolic language and with an ironic description of black Americans’ reality, he reveals the reasons why black people are invisible in the white American society and by the same way, he reveals the philosophical concept sustaining or linked to black people invisibility. Finally, one can observe how two existentialist philosophical concepts are opposed in scrutinizing closely the notion of invisibility developed in the prologue of INVISIBLE MAN.