Montoure 1

Emilie Montoure
Mrs. Lundbergh
Honors Advanced Composition
13 May 2021
Invisible Man
Pg. 42 Returning to the Text

Q. In a paragraph less than 250 words, write an example of a time that you can relate to how
Ralph Ellison feels in this excerpt.
a. I felt invisible my freshman year of high school. All it took was one older guy to use his
power and spread rumors and lies about me around the school and to my friends. The
people who I thought truly cared about me and were my closest friends easily turned on
me, even though they knew me better than anyone else. I couldn’t believe how easily they
trusted the lies and completely forgot about me. I became so enraged that I spent an entire
year trying to convince everyone that I wasn’t a horrible person, and that I did nothing
wrong, but it only made me feel worse. No one listened to me, so I felt more invisible the
more I tried fighting. I eventually gave up. When I stopped fighting and started focusing
on myself and my own happiness is when things started getting better. I threw myself into
my different choirs and invested so much time focusing on my music career. Along the
way I slowly made friends who didn’t care about the rumors; some didn’t even know
 Montoure 2

about them. This whole experience taught me that fighting and trying to change how
people feel about a situation, will only make you feel worse; it’s not worth your energy.
You have to hold your head high and know your worth. The more positive energy you
radiate, the more positivity you receive, which is exactly why you can’t live life resenting
everyone for acting in a way you don't like.