In Ralph Ellison's novel The Invisible Man, the unknown narrator states: "All my life I have been looking for something and everywhere I turned, someone was trying to tell me what it was...I was looking for myself and asking everyone but myself the question that I, and only I, could answer...my expectations to come to a realization with which all the world seems to be born: that I am no one other than myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man! (13). Throughout the novel, the search for identity becomes a major aspect of the narrator's journey to identify who he is in this world. The speaker considers himself an “invisible man” but he defines his condition as invisible because of his race (Kelly). Identity and race become an integral part of the novel. The obsession with identity ties the narrator to the society in which he lives, where race defines the characters in the novel. Society has distinguished the characters in Ellison's novel between Africans and Caucasians and the narrator's journey requires him to abandon the identity into which he thought he should be reborn in order to acquire a new one. Ellison's depiction of the power struggle between Africans and Caucasians reveals that identity is constructed not only by the narrator himself, but also by the people who attempt to influence him. The modernized idea of ​​being "whitewashed" is evident in the narrator and therefore establishes that identity can be reaffirmed through rebirth, changing one's name, or changing one's appearance to acquire a new personality despite one's race . The novel becomes a biological search for self due to the experience of black Americans (Lillard 833). Through this experience, the unknown narrator proves that identity is a necessary part of one's life but that race is middle of paper......tedEllison, Ralph. The invisible man. New York: Random House Inc, 1952. Ebook. Hanlon, Christopher. "Eloquence and the 'invisible man'." Academic literature. 32.4 (2005): 74-98. Internet. March 2, 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/25115308.>Kelly, John. ENGLISH 2308E: Notes on American literature. London, Ontario: Western University. Fall 2014. Course notes. Lillard, Stewart. "Ellison's Ambitious Reach in 'Invisible Man'." English magazine. 58.6 (1969): 883-839. Internet. March 2, 2015. Lee, Kun Jong. “Ellison’s Invisible Man: Emersonism Revised.” PMLA: Modern Languages ​​Association. 107.2 (1992): 331-344. Internet. March 2, 2015. Stark, John. “The Invisible Man: Ellison’s Black Odyssey.” » Forum of American Negro Literature. 7.2 (1973): 60-63. Internet. March 2. 2015. .