THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE: This text is in some ways a response to the work of Harlem Renaissance writer Richard Wright, specifically the text "Native Son" which, though groundbreaking, situated its main character in a white frame of reality and stereotypes, thus eliminating the act of self determination. Ellison's narrator, speaking in the first person rather than third, wills his existence into being. He does not attempt to raise himself to a white standard of existence.
