Invisible Man Tone Essay

Tone Essay In the novel "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, the author portrays distinguishable tones throughout the book with several literary devices. The main devices that Ellison most commonly utilizes are diction, imagery, details, language, and overall sentence structure or syntax. In the novel the main character or invisible man undergoes a series of dramatic events that affect the author's tone and the main character's overall outlook on his life and society. The author interweaves the devices mentioned to set a tone for the reader and purposely create a sense of feeling and emotion that the main character is experiencing at the time.
The novel is introduced with a prologue where the author acquaints us with the "invisible man" and why he is knowledgeable about his invisibility. His use of diction is simple and informal and his sentence structure provides the reader with short sentences that imply factual information about him. To invisible man; light is truth, people do not accept him as an individual for any matter, and he longs for his individual freedom but finds that the coward within himself stands in the way. The author's imagery of the character's invisibility is apparent throughout the prologue. He presents the reader with an image of a man in existence but a rejection of the very own society that he belongs to. "The invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a particular disposition of the eyes of those whom I come in contact." (pg. 3) Ellison backs up his use of imagery with vivid detail. He talks of society's "inner eyes." These eyes to him are the eyes that replace the physical ones and alter the authentic look on reality. Invisible man's outlook on society causes him to become detached. Because of the character's detachment, the tone of the prologue takes on an eerie effect that is created by a man who lives in his own existence and invisibility. The tone of the character also comes off as dreamy, for this very man longs