It is said that Ralph Ellison is the writer who seeks for artistic universality through his works more than any other African-American writer. Until Ellison, African-American writers` works tended to be devalued for a lot of reasons. For instance, their works were seen as simple outbursts of their persecution, distortion and repression in the reality of life. The critics sharply pinpointed the lack of artistry in their works. It was the very Ralph Ellison who caused a huge turning point for the evaluation of African-American writers, in that the writers were finally and appropriately seen as real literary men. The speaker in Ellison`s novel, Invisible Man, has constant trials and errors until he can build up his own identity in the invisible world of reality. In this work, the protagonist`s confrontation to invisibility in reality is developed by experiencing the blues tradition and spirit. The blues leads him to overcome his negative and limited reality. Ellison emphasizes that folk traditions, especially the blues, are art forms which help African-Americans survive and keep their courage and vision. Through the power of their traditions, they can transcend the agony of life by squeezing tragicomic lyricism from painful experiences. In the end, Ellison insists that self-discovery is the way to recover the human possibility refused by others, and that the firm recognition of freedom comes from affirming oneself as a human existence in reality. (Jeonju University)