“Being invisible and without substance, a disembodied voice, as it were, what else could I do?  What else but try to tell you what was really happening when your eyes were looking through?  And it is this which frightens me: who knows but that. On the lower frequencies, I speak for you?”  The concluding words of Ralph Ellison’s novel, Invisible Man, reveals a powerful message.  What is humanity missing that an invisible man can claim to disclose?  How can we not see what this hibernating transparency can illuminate for us?  The Invisible Man opens the eyes of the world to the true nature of mankind.  This nature is one of invisibility, blindness, and futility.  It is the nature that sets each man running at his birth, and the nature that keeps him running until he collapses, exhausted, at his death.  This truth which the Invisible Man articulates seems inescapable, yet through his identification of the vicious cycle he becomes liberated from its fetters.  The seeds of this revelation, however, are not solely sown in the conclusion of the novel and are present, though the reader is somewhat unaware, from the very beginning of the novel.
 In this hypertext project I intend to reveal that the prologue of the Invisible Man serves not only as an introduction to the text, but also contains, in itself, all the wisdom of the epilogue.  The attitudes and answers with which the Invisible Man concludes his test are present and identifiable in the foundational chapter.  It is, however, written in such a way that the reader only perceives this complete knowledge at the conclusion of the text.  It is essential to point this out and analyze the Invisible Man’s inaugural speech, the prologue, because it answers just as many questions as it raises.
    This particular passage of text contains many of the prevalent themes of the novel.  It introduces the concept of history as a boomerang, which is the concept that sets the Invisible Man running in circles.  This interpretation of history is present in the structure of Ellison’s novel, not only in the epilogue resonating in the prologue, but also in the circular structure of the individual chapters.  The links that I establish are chosen because they illustrate this circular notion of history in a multiplicity and a variety of ways.  They illustrate how this phenomenon arises, how it is perpetuated, and the results it produces.
    The boomerang of history is seen in this passage in many of the themes that dominate and sometimes plague the life of the Invisible Man.  This passage also initiates the dichotomy of light and dark, which colors almost every image and situation in the invisible man finds himself in.  Related to the concept of history are the notion of illusion and truth, and how easily they are manipulated.  Other important themes that help clarify historical circularity arise in this passage such as the discovery that scientific rational is not the ultimate answer in all situations.  The reader also sees the structural importance of Jazz music.  Just as Louis Armstrong makes music poetry, the Invisible Man creates prose music.  This passage also illustrates what is the most important aspect of the epilogue, the concept of descent, which helps remove him from the futile cycle, but also more importantly, eventually leads to his resurrection.  This sentiment echoes in the closing remarks of the prologue and is revealed through an allusion to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.”  The Invisible Man is the enlightened one attempting to wretch humanity free from the chains of ignorance, to divert man’s eyes form the shadows, and to embrace the light of truth.
 
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