In Ralph Ellison's novel The Invisible Man, the unknown narrator states “All my life I've been looking for something and everywhere I turn someone is trying to tell me what it is ... I was searching for myself and asking everyone but myself the question that I, and only I, could answer... my expectations of reaching a realization that everyone else seems to be born with: that I am nothing but myself. But first I had to discover that I am an invisible man!” (13). throughout the novel, the search for identity becomes an important aspect in the narrator's journey to identify who he is in this world. The speaker considers himself an “invisible man” but defines his status as invisible because of his race (Kelly). Identity and race become an integral part of the novel. The obsession with identity connects 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 forces him to abandon the identity in which he thought he had to 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 they attempt to influence. The modernized idea of ​​being "whitewashed" is evident in the narrator and thus establishes that identity can be reaffirmed through rebirth, renaming, or changing one's appearance to acquire a new persona despite race. The novel becomes a biological search for the self due through the experience of the American Negro (Lillard 833). Through this experience the unknown narrator demonstrates that identity is a necessary part of his life but that race c...... center of card ......tedEllison, Ralph. The invisible man. New York: Random House Inc, 1952. Ebook.Hanlon, Christopher. "Eloquence and the "invisible man". "University literature. 32.4 (2005): 74-98. Network. March 2, 2015. Kelly, John. ENGLISH 2308E: Notes on American Literature. London, ON: University of Western. Fall 2014. Lecture Notes.Lillard, Stewart. "Ellison's Ambitious Scope in 'The Invisible Man'." English newspaper. 58.6 (1969): 883-839. Network. March 2, 2015. .Lee, Kun Jong. “Ellison's Invisible Man: Emersonism Revisited.” PMLA: Modern Language Association. 107.2 (1992): 331-344. Network. March 2, 2015. Stark, John. “The Invisible Man: Ellison's Black Odyssey.” Forum on Negro-American literature. 7.2 (1973): 60-63. Network. March 2. 2015. .