Narrator's Journey to being free of the Brotherhood

          In Invisible Man, the narrator seems to be finally realizing that the Brotherhood is controlling him in much the same way that he has been controlled and kept running for most of his life. One of the points when it becomes clear to the narrator that he has been disillusioned with the Brotherhood is when he has an argument with Brother Jack and Tobit about holding a funeral for Clifton. According to Brother Jack, holding a funeral for a traitor like Clifton who was selling racist dolls should not be given a funeral like a hero. Of course, Clifton was shot while unarmed by a policeman, and so to the narrator this is clearly more important than the dolls Clifton was selling. Here is one of the quotes from the book “an unarmed man was killed. A brother, a leading member shot down by a policeman. We had lost our prestige in the community. I saw the chance to rally the people, so I acted. If that was incorrect, then I did wrong, so say it straight without this crap. It'll take more than sarcasm to deal with that crowd out there” (Wright 352). The narrator expresses his discontent with the fact that Brother Jack and the rest of the leaders of the Brotherhood are frustrated with him holding a funeral for Clifton. Later on, Jack says “All right, I'll answer. Under your leadership, a traitorous merchant of vile instruments of anti-Negro, anti-minority racist bigotry has received the funeral of a hero. Do you still ask what's wrong?" (Wright 352). This shows the narrator that clearly the Brotherhood doesn’t understand the nature of the crowd and the anger that is coursing through the Harlem community, and it also shows him that he doesn’t actually have any ability to make decisions without the consent of the committee. Earlier in the chapter, Jack scoffs at the idea that the narrator used his “personal responsibility” to make the decision to hold the funeral.
          After this episode and the scene where the narrator discovers the Rinehart disguise and all the different “lives” that Rinehart seems to live, he realizes that when he thought he was making a difference, he was really just a puppet of the Brotherhood. During his conversation with Brother Hambro, he realizes how out of touch the Brotherhood is with the actual situation. After discovering Rinehart, the narrator feels like there is a gulf between him and Hambro, as if he has finally escaped the disillusionment of the Brotherhood. As Hambro talks about how the Negro race needs to be slowed down for their own good, the narrator, while eventually seeming to accept what Hambro has to say internally disagrees and feels frustrated with the Brotherhood. After this meeting, he finally embraces and understands his invisibility and resolves to utilize his grandfather’s advice against the Brotherhood. This realization completes the narrator’s transformation, he escapes the disillusionment of the Brotherhood and begins to work on finding out what the Brotherhood’s real objectives are behind the facade that they set up during committee meetings.

Narrator's Speech and the Brotherhood

          The narrator’s entrance in the Brotherhood, while seen by the narrator as something that gives him freedom at this point, feels similar to the narrator being sent to college. He is recruited by Brother Jack to be part of the Brotherhood, but as soon as he joins, he is given a new identity and told where he is to live. It seems like his ability to define his identity for himself is taken away once again, as the narrator is once again told how he should act and the image he should strive to create in public. As he leaves Mary’s, he is carrying the remains of the bank that he smashed, because it reminded him of his old identity, but it kept being given back to him by people who claim to know who he is and what he is doing. It feels like the narrator cannot escape the identity no matter what he does. And while he wants to be as far away from Bledsoe as possible, taking a community leadership position by saying all the right things at the right time is very similar to what Bledsoe does; the narrator initially takes the job because he needs money.
          The speech scene is a particularly interesting scene because it takes place in a boxing arena, which itself is reminiscent of the battle royal in the opening chapter, but also because of the imagery about blindness. The narrator notices a picture of a champion boxer who lost his sight in a fight. This could be foreshadowing, as the narrator thinks that he is championing the people and the cause, but in reality has become blinded once more. The suspicion and caution he displayed after the letter from Bledsoe has disappeared once more, and he trusts the Brotherhood blindly. Also, when he goes to give his speech he is blinded by the lights, which contributes to him forgetting the ideals of the Brotherhood and just going on instinct. Yet, while this speech successfully gets the attention of the crowd, some members of the Brotherhood are frustrated by his inflammatory style, and he is sent to learn the ideals of the Brotherhood and learn to give speeches in a more scientific manner. This is just another set of ideals that are impressed upon the narrator, hardly different from the college. While the narrator fails to see it, studying these ideals just blinds him once again as he starts to treat every situation by the ideals of the Brotherhood than by his own ideals and opinions.

Eviction Scene

The eviction scene with the narrator is quite interesting, as despite the fact that he is feeling nostalgia for his life in the South, he reacts in a way that is completely different than he would have acted when he used to live in the South. He misses giving speeches and also thinks about his college. While feeling nostalgia, he also thinks about how his classmates would be stunned at seeing him with yams, which are symbols of Southern culture. He seems to look down on them for distancing themselves from things that they in fact enjoy. The speech is also really interesting in that what he says seems to be different than the subject of the speech in the first chapter and he gains the attention of everyone. His message seems to be that everyone shouldn't just stand and watch, and he manages to encourage the crowd.

This scene is part of a bigger picture like everything else in the book, and I think that is what makes this book interesting. Chapters in this book can almost be read as short stories, but the character telling them seems to change so much although the change is very gradual. He goes from being a totally subservient person in Chapter 1 where he would do whatever the whites told him to being the sarcastic, ironic, person who appears in the prologue, but throughout the book, he never changes drastically. He gradually becomes something different through episodes in his life. These key moments include reading Bledsoe's letter, fighting Brockway, and giving this speech at the eviction urging the blacks to fight back and not accept the circumstances after himself being so willing to accept whatever he was told to do back in the South.

Contrasting Dr. Bledsoe and Mr. Dalton

              In Native Son, Mr. Dalton seems like he is genuinely trying to help at first, however he is so out of touch with the realities of the situation that his aid is made to seem hollow. His donation of ping pong tables is something that, when put in perspective with Bigger’s story, is insignificant. Mr. Dalton lacks any true understanding of what Bigger Thomas and people like him go through on an everyday basis, and his donation and the fact that he acts as if he is doing Bigger a favor by giving him a job shows this. Also contributing to the picture of Mr. Dalton is the fact that while acting all helpful and claiming to be a philanthropist who supports black Americans, he still makes money by charging blacks heavy rent on Chicago’s South Side.
              I think that Mr. Dalton has many similarities to Bledsoe in Invisible Man. Both of them pose as helpers of the black race, but they do so in part to hide and/or protect motives that are primarily for personal gain. Mr. Dalton seems to think that being nice to the blacks on the surface ensures that they trust him and will continue to pay him. Bledsoe uses the pose of educator to secure himself a position of power in the white world, and distances himself from his race while acting as a leader of his race. He is selfish, and uses his power to remove anyone who he thinks is a threat to his perfect illusion of the college. He acts subservient to whites as a means to further his own power, thinking nothing of it other than a simple necessity.
              They are different in many ways as well. For example, Mr. Dalton is actually more similar to Mr. Norton in the literal sense as Mr. Norton is a northern white philanthropist like Dalton. However, Dalton seems to be a bit more informed about the situation of the blacks in the South Side of Chicago, while Mr. Norton seems to be genuinely trying to help, however ignorant he may be. Bledsoe on the other hand tries to trick Mr. Norton into seeing only what Bledsoe wants him to see and by extension what Mr. Norton is most likely hoping to see; a nice college for educating African Americans. He willingly hides parts of the reality of the situation or attempts to in order to cater to Mr. Norton, and get money from him. Also, he wants to have power, and he gets it through the trustees, so he tries to make sure they see only what he wants them to see. In this way, he seems to almost hinder the actual progress of the race, and he doesn't care, his only goal seems to be maintaining power.