In Invisible Man, what is the narrator's perception of himself at the beginning of the novel compared to at the end?Using this idea to write a...

Ellison's Invisible Man is told in
retrospect.  As the narrator declares, "the end is in the beginning."  In order to
determine his perception of himself at the end of the novel, it is necessary to read the
Prologue.  In the Prologue, we learn that the Invisible Man has withdrawn completely
from society, that he literally lives in a hole in the ground.  He declares that before
he was ignorant, living in darkness, but now he sees that he is indeed invisible to
society.  No one really sees him for who he truly is.  He has no identity; he is not
part of a group, he will not be defined by anyone else.  The end of the novel picks up
again with the Invisible Man contemplating his "hibernation" and realizing that is is
time to emerge.

readability="7">

I've overstayed my hibernation, since there's a
possibility that even an invisible man has a socially responsible role to
play.

He is going to make
himself heard.  Even an invisible man has a voice, he
realizes.

The novel itself concerns the Invisible Man's
journey to find his identity.  As he moves from place to place and connects with various
groups, he learns that he cannot be defined by his membership within a group.  In other
words, he learns what he is not, and he learns that others do not see him as he
is.

In the Battle Royal, for instance, he is seen as a poor
black boy whose only purpose is to amuse the white establishment through painful
humiliation.  He has no better success at the state college for Negroes where he
received a scholarship, his employment at the Liberty Paint factory, or his active role
for the Brotherhood.  He finds that in almost every instance, he is only being
manipulated or used, like a dancing Sambo puppet on a string.  At each place, in each
group, the Invisible has an epiphany that enables him to move on and search for another
place to belong.  He fails in his search and at the end of the novel,  he declares that
he is fully aware of his situation:

readability="9">

No, I couldn't return to Mary's, or to the
campus, or to the Brotherhood, or
home.

He must live apart.  No
more will he sacrifice who he truly is in order to satisfy others, no more will he
"conform to a pattern,"  he is now a "disembodied voice" speaking only for himself, and
in speaking only for himself, he is perhaps speaking for all of
mankind.