Invisible man

Some of it is considered autobiographical.. Writers usually write what they know and incorporate some part of their life experience into their narrative. Ellison decided to write a novel about black identity, heroism, and history through the use of the folklore, spirituals, blues, comedians, archetypes, and personal experiences he had gathered over the years. One day in 1945, Ellison sat at his typewriter in Vermont, thinking of an ironic joke he had heard from a black face comedian about his family becoming so progressively dark in complexion that the new baby's mother could not even see her. In this vein, he suddenly wrote, "I am an invisible man". He nearly rejected the idea but was intrigued and decided to give it a try. Ellison then spent seven years working on the novel, The Invisible Man.