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.