Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man pursues a colored man’s probe into the racial dynamics of America, an exploration that becomes characterized as an unfinished struggle with manipulation and exploitation. Amidst the bustling disarray of Harlem in the early 1900s, Ellison’s protagonist, the invisible man, scours his role as a social activist and recurrently finds himself being deceived due to his race. Faced with this dilemma, he must navigate between heeding his quiet grandfather’s enigmatic advice or accepting the position of subservience to his puppeteers. Within this central strife of Invisible Man, Ellison utilizes electricity as a galvanizing force, serving as a transformative technological device that illuminates falsehoods, deception, and racialized disparities. Acting as an unseen medium of information and power, electricity empowers the protagonist’s position as a “hidden organ,” enabling him to gradually confront and discreetly disrupt the prevailing narrative of white superiority in America (234). The narrator’s manipulation of electricity evolves chronologically throughout the story from settings including the Battle Royale and the Liberty Paints hospital, thereby accentuating the importance of technology in addressing contemporary social issues and shedding light on technological divides.  
Although electricity will serve an uplifting role later in the story, the metaphorical current initially assumes an untamed, independent form, threatening to engulf both the narrator and his persona, thereby mirroring his similar struggle with white superiority. Emerging as a locally extolled speaker, the narrator, at least in his nascent stage, naively ascribes importance to himself, envisioning a future “as a potential Booker T. Washington” (18). Furthermore, he takes everything at face value, refraining from questioning the motives or morals of those around him and even sanguinely anticipating his speech at the gathering to be “a triumph for our whole community” (17). Yet, beneath the facade of promises, the narrator is condemned to a life of evasion, filled with dehumanization and lies. For example, in the Battle Royale scene, the guileless narrator scrambles on the rug, sifting between metal coins and electric shocks and searching for coherence, still hopeful of the truth and the good side in people. Amidst his stagger, the shocks, embodying both literal jolts and metaphorical assaults, humiliate him and his supposed value, echoing the degradation inflicted by the whites who have and will continue to manipulate him. Despite the lack of clarity in the situation, the narrator, tethered to hopeful thoughts, shows depth and resilience as he “discovers that he could contain the electricity — a contradiction, but it works” (27).  Although unsure of the path to undermine his oppressors, he acknowledges the potentiality and advantages inherent in his supposed invisibility, thereby showing how personal growth and self-enlightenment can be linked to electricity. Nevertheless, the narrator is still, at this moment, subdued under the control of electricity and whites, further hinted at by Ellison through subtle analogies of the narrator to a robot. This comparison becomes overt in the words of the veteran at Golden Day, who labels him as a “mechanical man” (94). Thus, with the “eyes blind like those of robots,” the narrator, at least in the eyes of his oppressors and those around him, is no longer a person with thoughts or meaningful actions but becomes lessened to a mere machine of their control (36). His initial directive commands him towards Harlem, where his profound powerlessness manifests in his job search, a hunt predestined to cast him into poverty and a scarcity of opportunity. While in Harlem, electricity still maintains an autonomous, and, to most colored people, unapproachable force. To elaborate, electricity is embodied in many white-dominated fields and luxurious items, such as the Liberty Paints “huge electric sign” boldly proclaiming “KEEP AMERICA PURE,” thereby warning the narrator and other colored people to stay away from electricity and highlighting the existence of a racialized digital divide (196). Later, following the narrator’s accident in the Liberty Paints Factory, the narrator finds himself relocated to the factory hospital. Here, his cure, administered in the form of a lobotomy, is said to generate a discrete personality, formulating a new identity. As the pulse of electricity is pictured “smashing through [his] body,” he feels as though “something had been disconnected,” insinuating a sort of ‘rewiring’ of his brain. (237). At this moment, a complete transformation reverberates through the narrator, deterring the white haze from his eyes and altering his self-perception, thereby illuminating his authentic purpose. This mental metamorphosis is the reason that whites repel colored people from engaging with electricity because they realize that, if controlled correctly, electricity has the potential to liberate colored people from subjugation, just as it does for the narrator. Instead of "avoiding the shock," he strategically adapts, deftly harnessing and controlling the coursing current of electricity as he "rolls with the agitated tide, out into the blackness," where he becomes tangibly bionic and even “the cord” of the machine becomes “a part of [him]” (238, 244). Following this moment, the narrator acquires a profound realization of the personal significance of his invisibility, thus dispelling the illusion of control that he believed whites held over him. With this new perspective, he leverages his ability for subversion and self-determined agency, thereby evolving from his naive state to one of power. 
Embracive of the transformative power of electricity, the narrator adopts an inconspicuously aggressive strategy, set on dismantling the Brotherhood and constructing a furtive network of usurpation to do so. These changes become abruptly clear as he looks to the doctors in the factory hospital, wondering to himself if he “should struggle against them,” thereby revealing the emergence of anger and violence, which now ascend to the precipice of his consciousness (244). Within the narrator is a newfound sense of urgency, a yearning to subvert traditional stereotypes and power dynamics, such as when the doctor asks him about Brer Rabbit and he reverts the question, thinking to himself, “He was your mother’s back-door man” (242). Furthermore, as he leaves the hospital, he feels as though “he was catching up with himself and had put into words feelings which he had hitherto suppressed,” showing how the electric transformation has decisively unmasked his true identity (249). Accordingly, subsequent scenes depict the narrator swathed in radiant light, connoting not only illumination but a profound state of enlightenment, as affirmed by his sentiment that "the truth is the light and light is the truth" (7). One instance occurs when he gives his first speech for the Brotherhood, where “the light was so strong that he could no longer see the audience” (341). The light has enabled a self-centered view where he no longer covets the explicit guidance of others. Progressing through the narrative, as the narrator unveils the genuine motives of the Brotherhood, he reflects upon his incipient bionic role, affirming, “They wanted a machine? Very well, I’d become a supersensitive confirmer of their misconceptions” (509). As demonstrated in his remark, the narrator increasingly espouses and assumes the guise of a man without organs in order to embody the role of the "hidden organ" (234). To accomplish this, the narrator, unbeknownst to the Brotherhood, fills out membership cards, making them believe the Harlem community is still loyal to the organization, despite their underlying discontent and readiness for a riot. Thus, by siphoning their power, the narrator redistributes the electric current back into the hands of himself and the citizens, thereby intervening in the covert workings of social systems of dominance. Towards the end of the story, like “a spy in the enemy’s country,” the narrator reclines in his secret chamber adorned with lights, emblematic of how “the power [has been] drained off” from large companies and surged into the narrator’s possession (16, 5). This redirection of power bestows upon the narrator a heightened level of self-awareness and intensified affinity for electricity, where light, as a form of electricity, becomes the affirming force that “confirms his reality, gives birth to his form” (6). Ultimately, through electricity, the narrator ascends from an instrument of the Brotherhood to a real social activist, challenging dominant, racist organizations.          
Conclusively, Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man intricately weaves a narrative that transcends the personal struggles of its protagonist, offering a profound commentary on racial dynamics, manipulation, and the transformative power of technology. Ellison's strategic use of electricity as a transformative force uplifts the protagonist's journey from naive aspirations to confrontations with harsh realities, ultimately evolving him into a self-aware social activist. Furthermore, Ellison connotes the importance of embracing our personal ‘invisibilities’ and utilizing these characteristics for good and for change. Beyond the narrative, the novel resonates with contemporary significance, addressing issues of technological exclusion based on race, the use of technology for political agendas, and the potential of technology in addressing broader societal issues. Therefore, Invisible Man challenges readers to critically assess prevailing narratives and recognize the complex interplay between identity, power, and technology in the pursuit of social justice.