Invisible Man is the story of a young black man in New York City. He's abused by blacks, treated unfairly by whites and finally gets what seems to be a good piece of good luck. The brotherhood singles him out because they think he has potential. Author Doris Waman says she can't fully relate but it makes her try.
In his memoir of his time in Auschwitz, Primo Levi describes Jewish prisoners bathing in freezing water without soap--not because they thought it would make them cleaner, but because it helped them hold on to their dignity. For poet and author Dwayne Betts, Levi's description of his fellow inmates' suffering, much like the novelist Ralph Ellison's portrayal of early twentieth-century black life in America, is much more than bearing witness to the darkest impulses of mankind. Rather, Betts tells EconTalk host Russ Roberts, both authors' writing turns experiences of inhumanity into lessons on what it means to be a human being.