Enlightenment and the Apocalypse

For most of invisible man, I assumed that the Invisible Man would eventually be enlightened. Following Plato's Allegory, this meant he would come out of the cave, see the light, and then return to share his knowledge. However, the ending is full of violence. Additionally, the invisible man goes into the cave, not out of it. He literally goes in a manhole; he goes into the dark. Still, based on the prologue and epilogue, an enlightening clearly takes place.

I came to a possible explanation for this as I was researching the apocalyptic imagery prevalent throughout the ending. The word apocalypse comes from the greek word apocalupsis. The literal translation from Greek is "to uncover." The Oxford dictionary also describes it at an "unveiling." This is significant because the statue at Invisible Man's closet was veiled. The narrator also wasn't sure if the veil was being lifted or not. Thus, this veil is the cave from Plato's Allegory. The veil is related to the heavy smoke and haze and dreams mentioned repeatedly throughout the novel. The darkness is when the Invisible Man can finally see. Thus, his enlightenment is a result of the darkness. Plus, it isn’t until he is in the darkness that he sees real light. The supposedly brightest places of society aren’t even bright enough.

Still, I was very surprised by the apocalyptic imagery. The apocalypse is supposed to create a Heaven on Earth, but that doesn’t happen. The world is still full of blind or sleeping people. This led me to wonder whether the apocalypse was then a personal one? Or maybe the enlightenment of just the Invisible Man is the apocalypse. One theory that I had, that nobody else really agreed with, was that the Invisible Man, who is given no identity, is meant to represent humanity. Thus, the apocalypse hasn’t happened yet, but the novel is a version of how it could happen. Honestly, I’m just trying to figure out what all of it means. The black horseman, who should represent Ras as he comes in on a black horse, is famine. However, Ras isn’t bringing famine. Unless the riots turn into a full-scale debilitating war, nobody really should die of starvation. So, is Ras the black horse? Is the apocalypse actually happening? Or is Ellison just referring to the apocalypse to emphasize the severity of the event?