Without giving a name, the narrator introduces himself as a man, not a ghost, describing the nature of his invisibility: People refuse to see him. Although he considered his invisibility a disadvantage, he points out that it has become an asset. To illustrate, the narrator relates an incident in which he almost killed a white man in the street for insulting him until he realized the absurdity of a sleepwalker being killed by a phantom, existing only in the white man's nightmares. Besides, because he is invisible, the narrator is able to live rent-free and avail himself of free electricity.
Describing his underground home: the coal cellar of a whites-only building "in a section of the basement that was shut off and forgotten during the nineteenth century," the narrator avoids the picture of a dark hole or crypt, hastening to explain that his cellar is illuminated by 1,369 light bulbs.
