Ralph Ellison · 1952 · exile

Ralph Ellison's 1952 novel. An unnamed young Black man is expelled from his Southern college and travels north to Harlem, carrying letters of recommendation that betray him. Through a paint factory, a hospital, and the fervor of a political brotherhood, he is used and cast aside by everyone - until, disillusioned by riot and betrayal, he retreats underground, invisible, to reckon with a country that refuses to see him.

1. 1
   The South

   The Black college in the Deep South where the ambitious narrator is expelled after a disastrous day chauffeuring a white trustee, and sent north with sealed letters he believes will help him.

2. 2
   Harlem

   New York, where the narrator finds work, is drawn into the political Brotherhood, and rises as an orator - only to be manipulated, betrayed and swept up in a devastating race riot.

3. 3
   Underground

   The forgotten cellar where the disillusioned narrator finally withdraws from a world that will not see him - invisible, hibernating, and telling his story to make sense of it all.