Reading Level

TOEIC Reading Level: 265-340

TOEFL Jr. Reading Level: 270-285

Summary

The narrator begins with the claim that he is an "invisible man". His invisibility, he says, is not a physical condition--he is not literally invisible--but is rather the result of the refusal of others to see him. He says, because of his invisibility, he has been hiding from the world, living underground, and stealing electricity from the Monopolated Light & Power Company. He burns 1,369 light bulbs simultaneously and listens to Louis Armstrong's "(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue” on a phonograph. He tells the reader that he has gone underground in order to write the story of his life and invisibility.