Tod Clifton

E945048

Tod Clifton is a charismatic yet tragic young Black activist in Ralph Ellison’s novel "Invisible Man," whose disillusionment and death powerfully expose the novel’s themes of racial injustice and lost idealism.

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Label Occurrences
Tod Clifton canonical 1

Statements (45)

Predicate Object
instanceOf African American character
fictional character
literary character
novel character
appearsIn Invisible Man NERFINISHED
appearsInGenre Bildungsroman
social commentary novel
associatedTheme betrayal by political organizations
invisibility of Black lives
associatedWith Brotherhood NERFINISHED
causeOfDeath police shooting
characterTrait charismatic
idealistic
tragic
creator Ralph Ellison NERFINISHED
death shot by a white policeman
deathSignificance reveals hypocrisy of Brotherhood
sparks protest funeral
firstAppearance Invisible Man NERFINISHED
gender male
languageOfWork English
literaryMovement African American literature
literaryPeriod 20th-century American literature
mannerOfDeath violent death
medium novel
narrativeFunction catalyst for narrator’s disillusionment
exposes racial injustice
illustrates lost idealism
nationality American
occupation activist
politicalAffiliation Brotherhood NERFINISHED
race Black
relationshipToNarrator admired by the narrator
colleague in the Brotherhood
roleInWork political activist
supporting character
setting Harlem NERFINISHED
symbolism commodification of Black bodies
lost Black radical idealism
victim of systemic racism
theme disillusionment
exploitation
identity
racial injustice
workPublicationYear 1952

Referenced by (1)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Invisible Man notableCharacter Tod Clifton