Identity:
A major theme in this novel is clearly identity. The protagonist struggles with this concept of finding himself throughout the story, but being a black man is kind of a hindrance to his own journey of finding himself. In Invisible Man, he realizes that he is truly invisible and that he is perceived as invisible by others because he is a black man living in a white man's world and because of the circumstances that were in place for black people at the time period. He is not necessarily held back by society, but he decides to place himself in that position were he is invisible to himself and to his black society, rather than being strong and defensive towards his culture, which is the theme of invisibility and whether or not the protagonist is truly invisible, or he decides to be. He is told by others who he should be or what he should do and is confused when it comes to making a decision on his own to self-define himself.
Betrayal:
Another major theme in Invisible Man which goes with the theme of identity and invisibility is betrayal. There is this concept of betrayal to his society and betrayal to himself. Similar to identity, since he is not able to find himself and struggles with it, he ends up betraying himself by pushing away from his people throughout the novel. He also betrays his people by wanting to be like the white people and choosing Mr. Norton over his own kind. There is a lot of betrayal occurring in this novel.
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