Plot Summary | Invisible Man

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The narrator, an unnamed black man, begins by describing his living conditions; an underground room wired with hundreds of electric lights, operated by power stolen from the city’s electric grid. He reflects on the various ways in which he has experienced social invisibility during his life, and begins to tell his story, returning to his teenage years.

The narrator lives in a small southern town and upon graduating from high school, wins a scholarship to an all-black college. However, to receive it, he must first takes part in a brutal, humiliating Battle Royal for the entertainment of the town’s rich white dignitaries.

One afternoon during his junior year at the college, the narrator drives Mr. Norton, a visiting rich white trustee, out among the old slave quarters beyond the campus. By chance, he stops at the cabin of Jim Trueblood, who has caused a scandal by impregnating both his wife and his daughter in his sleep.

Trueblood’s account horrifies Mr. Norton so badly that he asks the narrator to find him a drink. The narrator drives him to a bar near a mental hospital. The mental patients revolt against both of them and eventually