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In Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man, the narrator’s search to find an identity for himself is harsh journey of internal and external struggles through which several incongruous identities are forced upon him. This experience teaches the narrator that the act of placing a title on someone is linked to issues of power and control. He only finds betrayal, and never a true identity when he attempts to live his life under someone else’…

…ultimately to being the "invisible man" which he eventually realizes that he has always been. "Life is to be lived by realizing one's individual humanity, by using one's capacities, and by acting according to one's beliefs" (Schor 101). Throughout his life, the narrator takes on several different identities and none, he thinks, adequately represents his true self, until he realizes what he has become, in which he sees that he accepts his invisibility and his self.