Invisible Man

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What impact does a protagonist’s name have on a character in a story? What challenges do you imagine might arise while reading a story with an unnamed character?

Teaching Suggestion: Encourage students to think about “invisibility” as a concept; you might consider describing some famous works of literature and posing the question, “How might ___ be different if the protagonist was unnamed?” to have students explore how character names may influence other elements of a story. It might be helpful to assign some journal prompts on these topics to acclimate to the concept of not knowing a protagonist’s name.

• The Guardian compiled a list of classic novels with nameless protagonists.
• Electric Literature lists out contemporary novels with protagonists who don’t have a name.

2. What do you know about the Jim Crow era? What are Jim Crow laws?

Teaching Suggestion: Talking about Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era can help students to understand the historical context in which Invisible Man is set. If students have minimal background knowledge on the topic, you may want to consider using outside resources such as these or activities to spur some research into this question.