Invisible Man by Ralph Emerson

  

                                                             INVISIBLE MAN

                               -RALPH EMERSON 

                

   A Brief Background of the Novelist

 

             Ralph Waldo Emerson was an American poet, Philosopher, novelist, and essayist during the 19^th century, born in May 25, 1803, in Boston, Massachusets.  He was the son of William (Haskins) Emerson, his father was a clergyman.  He attended the Boston Latin School and Harvard University where he graduated in 1821 and the Harvard School of Divinity.

            Emerson married Ellen Tucker in 1829 who later died of tuberculosis and he was grief-stricken.  Her death added to his own crisis of faith which caused him to resign from the clergy.  The 1840s were productive years for Emerson.  Some of his essays include:  “Self-Reliance,” Friendship” and “Experience” and later work was Conduct of Life. He died on April 27, 1882, in Concord.

 

Setting Background of the novel

 

         The title of the novel, Invisible Man is used in a figurative sense which means the white society’s inability to assert the identity of the black as a result of the 1930s racial relation.  Being a black man is a factor that has made the white not to notice the Blackman’s ability as a human being.

             Invisible Man is a story told through the perspective of the first-person narrator about a man struggling in a white culture.  The term invisible man truly idealizes not only the struggles of a black man in a white-dominated society, but also the actual unknown identity of the narrator.  The story begins during the narrator’s college days where he works hard and earns respect from the college administrations.  Dr. Bledsoe a Black administrator of the school becomes the narrator’s friend.  Dr. Bledsoe has achieved success in the white culture which becomes the goal that the narrator seeks to achieve.  The narrator’s hard work culminates in him being given an opportunity to take Mr. Norton, a white benefactor to the school, on a car ride around the school area.

              Also, the white society has made the black man, invisible due to his race, ethnicity, gender, and social class.  The black society was discriminated against because of these factors.  The spirit of this novel is defined by the will to overcome personal tragedy and social injustice.  The novel develops the battle the narrator faces when he discovers the truth about the Brotherhood organization.  He eventually realizes that they are using him for their own purposes and encouraged him to incite the blacks to a riotous level so that they will kill one another.  The narrator develops a feeling of hopelessness when it becomes apparent that he’s being betrayed by both white and black cultures.  The struggle of an invisible man is therefore about a man who struggles to find his place in a racist society. 

 

Plot account

 

             The narrator begins his story when he claims that he is an “invisible man”.  His invisibility is not a physical condition and he’s not literally invisible, but figuratively, because others have refused to see him.  As a result, he has been hiding from the world living underground, and stealing electricity from the Manipulated Light & Power Company.  He consumes 1,369, light bulbs simultaneously.  He has gone underground in order to write the story of his life and invisibility.

               As a young man in the early 1930s, he lived in the south.  He is invited to give a speech because he is a gifted public speaker.  This group of important white men rewards him with a briefcase containing a scholarship to a prestigious black college, but only to be humiliated when he’s forced to fight in a “battle royal” in which he’s matched with other young black men, all blindfolded in a boxing ring.  Bloodied and bruised, the white men also force the youths to scramble over an electrified rug in order to snatch fake gold coins.

             Three years later, the narrator becomes a student at the college.  He is asked to drive a wealthy white trustee of the college. Mr. Norton around the campus.  Norton often talks about his daughter.  The narrator then takes him to the Golden Day saloon and brothel that normally serves black men, to have a drink.  A fight breaks out among a group of mentally imbalanced black veterans at the bar, and Norton passes out during the chaos.  He’s attended to by one of the black veterans and accuses both Norton and the narrator of their blindness about race relations.

     At the college, the narrator listens to Reverend Homer’s long impassioned sermon and the narrator is criticized by the college president, Dr. Bledsoe, who has learned of the narrator’s misadventures with Norton at the old slave quarters and Golden Day.  Bledsoe rebukes him because she should have shown the white man an idealized version of black life.  She then expels the narrator and gives him seven letters of recommendation addressed to the college’s white trustee in new yoke city, sending him there to search for a job.  The search is met with failure, until Mr. Emerson’s son opens the letter and informs the narrator that he has been betrayed, as the letters from Bledsoe actually portray the narrator gets a low-paying job at the Liberty Paints plant. He also serves as an assistant to Lucius Brockway,  but Brockway suspects him of joining union activities and turns on him.  Both of them fight and one of the unattended tanks explodes and the narrator is knocked in an unconscious manner.

             When the narrator is taken to the hospital, he’s discovered to have suffered loss of memory and ability to speak.  After he recovers and leaves the hospital, he collapses on the street, and some black community members take him to the home of Mary a kind woman who agrees to take him in for free in Harlem.  One fateful day, the narrator witnesses the eviction of an elderly black couple, he gives an impassioned and convincing speech against the eviction.  Brother Jack feels motivated and impressed about the speech and he offers the narrator a position as a spoke man for the Brotherhood, a political organization that allegedly works to help the socially oppressed people.  He initially rejects the offer, but later accepts the job in order to pay Mary back for her hospitality. But the brotherhood demands that the narrator take a new name, break with his past and move to a new apartment.  Before he is later inducted into the Brotherhood. 

 delivers             The Brotherhood then sends him back to Harlem and the narrator discovers that Clifton and other black members have left the group; for the feel that the Brotherhood has betrayed their interests. The narrator finds Clifton on the street selling dancing “Jambo” dolls, Clifton who does not have permission to sell his wares on the street is accosted by the white policeman and a scuffle ensure and they shot him dead.  The narrator uses his own initiative to hold a funeral for Clifton and gives a speech in which he portrays his dead friend as a hero. Incurring public sentiments, the Brotherhood becomes angry with him for staging Clifton’s funeral without their permission and Jack harshly criticizes him.  The Brotherhood sends the narrator back to Brother Hambro to learn about the Brotherhood organization’s new strategies in Harlem.

             Finally, the narrator leaves, feeling furious and anxious to gain revenge on Jack and the Brotherhood.  He arrives in Harlem to find the Brotherhood in ever-increased agitation over race relations. Ras confronts him, deploring the Brotherhood’s failure to draw on the momentum generated by Clifton’s funeral.  Ras sends his men to beat up the narrator, and the narrator is forced to disguise himself in dark glasses and a hat in his glasses.  Many people on the streets mistake him for someone named, Rinehart who seems to be a pimp.  At last, the narrator goes to Brother Hambros’s apartment. where Hambro tells him that the Brotherhood has chosen not to emphasize Harlem and the black movement.  He cynically declares that people are merely tools and that the larger interest of the Brotherhood is more important than any individual.  He remembers the advice given to him by his grandfather, and the narrator determines to undermine the Brotherhood seeming to go along with them completely.  He decides to flatter and seduce a woman close to one of the party leaders in order to obtain secret information about the group. 

Contrarily, the woman, Sybil whom he chooses, knows nothing about the Brotherhood, and she attempts to use the narrator to fulfill her long fantasy of being raped by a black man.  While still with Sybil, the narrator is summoned through a phone call to Harlem quietly.  He arrives in Harlem to find the neighborhood in the midst of a full-fledged riot, caused by Ras.  The narrator involves in setting fire to a tenement building while trying to escape from the scene of the crime, he encounters Ras, dressed as an African chieftain.  Ras calls for the narrator to be Lynched.   The narrator runs away, only to encounter two policemen, who suspect that his briefcase contains loots from the riots.  When they try to attract him.  The narrator falls down a manhole and he’s mocked after drawing the cover stayed underground ever since; the end of his story is also the beginning.  He says that he has finally realized that he must honor his own individual complexity and remain true to his own identity without sacrificing his responsibility to the community.  The epilogue is the narrator’s resolution to re-emerge into the world of social responsibility; he finally feels ready to emerge from the underground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER SUMMARIES

Prologue

 

             Prologue generally consists of an opening speech or introduction to a literary work.  This narrative begins with a nameless man.  He introduces himself as a man, not a ghost, by describing the nature of his invisibility; people refuse to see him.  Although he sees his invisibility as a disadvantage. He points out that it has become an asset.  He is invisible by virtue of how others react to him.  They do not accept his reality and thus live as though they do not see him.  He gives a direct example that he is on a free rent and free electricity,  “I live rent-free in a building rented strictly by white”  (11).  He also gives an instance of how he killed a white man whom he bumped into the street.  He continues to attack the white man as long as the man refused to apologize and kept insulting him.  The narrator realizes that the man does not see him as an individual and the narrator walked ‘away laughing at the thought that the man was almost killed by a “figment of his imagination”.

            The narrator takes his revenge on society in a silent, unsuspecting way such as stealing electricity from a power company by wiring his room full of light bulbs.  He resolves to cover even the floor of his underground hole with bulbs, out of spite and a desire to hold and control as many lights as possible.

            The narrator is also a music lover and music is another source through which he gains power in his lair.  By listening to Louis Armstrong, he hopes to feel his body vibrate and to become aware of a new sense of time.  He explains that when he smokes a reefer (marijuana) one day, the music takes on a new meaning and he sees into the spates between times. His dreamlike state finds him asking a woman of his illusion what freedom is and her some telling him that he must learn it from himself.  He, therefore, blames society for his irresponsibility and admits to his own cowardice.  “I was the irresponsible one, for I should have used my life to protect the high interest of society.  Someday that kind of foolishness will cause his tragic trouble” (14)

 

Chapter 1:  The narrator’ experiences during the speech presentation

              The narrator who speaks in the voice of a man in his 40s remembers his youth as the novel opens.  He remembers when he has not yet discovered his identity or realized that he was an invisible man.  The narrator relates an anecdote concerning his grandfather, who on his death bed shocks his family, revealing himself a spy and a traitor to his race.  The narrator also recalls being invited to give his high school graduation speech at a gathering of the town’s leading white citizens.  Upon his arrival, he discovers that he’s to provide entertainment for a roomful of drunken white  men as a contestant alongside a night of his classmates in a blindfolded match called a ” battle royal” before giving his speech.  The entertainment includes an erotic dance by naked blonde woman, with a tattoo on her stomach, which he and his classmates are forced to watch.  After enduring these humiliating experiences, the narrator is finally permitted to give his speech and receive his prize; Calfskin briefcase that contains scholarship to the local college for Negroes (blacks)

             The narrator then dreams that he’s in the mists of his grandfather that night, who refuses to laugh at the clowns.  His grandfather orders him to open the briefcase and read the message contained in an official envelope, the narrator finds that each envelope contains yet, another envelope.  In the envelope, instead of scholarship, he finds an engraved document, with the message “To Whom It May Concern, keep This Nigger-Boy Running”.

             This chapter forms the integral parts of the novel and it is divided into six (6) episodes, They include:

I.          The grandfather’s deathbed scene

II.        The narrator arrival at the hotel

III.       The naked blonde’s erotic dance

IV.       The battle royal

V.        The narrator’s speech

VI.       The narrator’s dream

 

 

I.  The grandfather’s deathbed scene: The grandfather represent ancestor or

     ghost of slavery and the need to get rid of the past.

II. The naked blonde’s erotic dance:  This represents America’s distorted or

     rotten value system.  The American dream of freedom and liberty has been

     replaced by the restless pursuit of money, sex and power.

III.The narrator’s arrival at the hotel:  This introduces betrayal and broken

     promises as he’s forced to abide by arbitrary rules devised by others.

IV.  The battle royal:  It is a brutal ritual of passage that pushed the naïve narrator  into a violent, chaotic world where the rules that govern society do not apply. His participation shows that life is a struggle to survival.  It also symbolizes the social and political struggle depicted throughout the novel.

V. The narrator’s speech:  It is the symbol of motivation, urging blacks to be

     Patient and accept social responsibility in order to rise above what society

     thinks about the black race.

VI.The narrator’s dream:  This also symbolizes the myth of the American

      Dream, holding that they are willing to work hard and pursue their goals.  This

      the narrator argues that his experience has taught him that this is not for black

      Americans.

 

 

Chapter Two:  The Narrator becomes Chauffeur in School

 

             This chapter begins with a description of the college.  The narrator is a student at the black college to which he receives a scholarship.  The narrator is given the honor of driving one trustee, Mr. Norton, around the school. Norton asks him to just drive since he is early for his next event.  The narrator pulls off onto an unknown road, while Norton speaks about his interest in the school and the students.  He tells the narrator that he is Norton’s fate and he feels as strongly as he does because of losing his beautiful daughter a year ago when they are touring the world.

Not paying attention to where they are going, the narrator soon drives past a poor region of shacks and log cabins.  As he drives by Jim Trueblood’s log cabin, Mr. Norton orders him to stop the car so that he can talk to Trueblood.  Trueblood was recently shunned by the college for the alleged incest he committed with his daughter Matty Lou.  Trueblood explains that he had a strange dream and woke up to find himself having sex with his daughter.  He also mentions how the white community has seen surprising support after the incest.  Mr. Norton also rewards him momentarily because it is without pretense.  His very name’s suggestive as he is true to his blood, his nature.

 

CHAPTER 3:  NORTON GETS DRUNK AND BECOMES UNCONSCIOUS

 

             The narrator brings Mr. Norton to the Golden Day Bar, because going into town would take too long.  Along the way, the narrator drives past the veterans on their way to the bar as well.  he convinces the patrons to let him in by convincing them that Norton is an army general, thinking the bar is not a reputable one.  The narrator leaves Mr. Norton in the car and goes into the bar to get a drink for him.  Hally, the bartender would not allow him inside, the narrator returns to find Norton unconscious, and afraid he’s dying.  Hally pushes everyone aside and pours whiskey into his throat to revive him.

     Mr. Norton becomes drunk again and still fails into an unconscious state.  He does not know what to do this time.  He’s taken upstairs to be examined by a vet, who claims to be a doctor.  Norton and the narrator finally exit to Golden Day and drive back to the campus.

 

CHAPTER 3: BLEDSOE BLAMES THE NARRATOR OVER NORTON’S ACTION

 

             While driving back, the narrator is filled with fear over how Dr. Bledsoe will react to the events which occurred on the drive.  Visions or the memories of Tatlock and Trueblood flash through his mind along with the Norton that the campus and the ideas of the founder are only the identities he has.  Bledsoe is shocked to learn that the narrator took Norton back to the poor quarters.  He apologizes for the narrator’s actions but refuses to listen to Norton’s and the narrator’s protest.  The narrator is told to go to his dorm and stay in the chapel.  Norton promises to explain as the narrator goes back to his room to mull over the day.

 

CHAPTER 5:  REVEREND BARBEE’S SPEECH AND STORY

 

              Reverend Homer A.  Barbee speaks at the chapel service.  He is African- American.  He tells the story of the founder, who was born into slavery and poverty but possessed a precious intelligence.  The founder was almost killed as a child when a cousin splashed him with Iye rendering him impotent.  After nine days in a coma, he woke up as if resurrected.  He taught himself how to read and later escaped slavery.  He went north and pursued further education.  After many years, he returned to the south and founded the college to which he devoted the rest of his life’s work.  The narrator catches a glimpse of Barbee’s sightless eyes and realizes that Barbee is blind.

 

CHAPTER 6: BLEDSOE REPRIMANDS THE NARRATOR

 

            The narrator feels different and separated from other students after leaving the chapel.  He regretfully makes his way into Bledsoe’s office and the narrator is criticized for always responding to Norton’s every need.  He also mocks the narrator over the incident with Trueblood and he yells at the narrator in anger for his foolishness.  He expects the narrator to lie to Norton instead of taking him to the slum- a brothel.  He then cries out, calling the narrator a nigger, a word that angers him most.

            Becoming more desperate, the narrator attempts to defend himself because the situation was beyond his control.  Bledsoe is, therefore, determined to expel the narrator, who also claims that he will fight his way back and stay with Norton. Impressed by the narrator’s courage, Bledsoe agrees to give the narrator letters to important friends in New York he can find a job and then pay his way back in the full if all goes well, and the narrator must leave within two days.  After careful thoughts all day, the narrator is warned not to open the letters, as the employers will be angry if they tamper with them.

 

CHAPTER 7: THE NARRATOR IS SENT TO NEW YORK

 

             The narrator is annoyed because he meets the vet doctor again on the very same bus at the beginning of his trip.  He tries to forget the memories attached to the disastrous day he drove Mr. Norton.  He also learns that the vet doctor has been transferred to Washington.  The vet begins to preach to the narrator blaming the white establishment before he exits at the first bus stop.  The narrator heads straight to Harlem upon arriving in New York, was more secure in himself and his prospects.  He is shocked as he’s pushed up against a white woman who does not appear to notice. Also greeted with a larger quantity of black people in Harlem than he expects.  Lastly, he encounters a man named, Ras, yelling to a crowd.  The narrator cannot understand why the police do nothing to quell the riot on the ground, instead, the police show him to Men’s House where he finds a room.

 

CHAPTER 8:  THE NARRATOR IS UNABLE TO DELIVER THE LETTER.

 

            The narrator sits in his new apartment musing over his life back home.  He feels important when thinking about his letters, and he decides to plan out his strategy for the next morning.  He is determined to visit the officials with the contacts in the letters.  Firstly, he makes his way to Mr. Bates’ office but does not want to go in too early in case the employer does not like to see Negroes early in the morning.  When he finally enters, he finds a lone secretary who is much more amiable than he expects.  She takes the letter from him and disappears into another room.  She returns to report that Mr.  Bates is busy but will contact him.  Disappointed, the narrator repeats the episode with several other secretaries during his first day there, not having better success.  He holds onto the letter for Mr. Emerson because he learns he’s out of town.  The narrator’s several efforts to deliver those letters to his employers prove abortive, and he begins to suspect.  Mr. Norton and Bledsoe may be part of a scheme concerning him and the employers.

 

CHAPTER 9: THE NARRATOR IS FOOLED BY BLEDSOE

 

              At Emerson’s office, the narrator is impressed with the nature of the luxury in the office.  A man walks in and takes the letter into the office.  A few days later, he invites him into an office and asks him questions.  The narrator is at ease when asked if he would consider attending another college and if he had opened the letter.  The narrator becomes angry and demands to meet with Emerson.  The man then reveals that Emerson is his father and shows him a letter from Bledsoe which states that the narrator will never be enrolled at the college again and asks the employers to assist Bledsoe in keeping the narrator from trying to return.  The reason given to the contacts is that the narrator has gone astray, and poses a danger to the delicate situation of the college.  Emerson’s son then mentions a job opening at Liberty Paints and wishes him luck.

Meanwhile, the narrator feels betrayed and compares himself to a robin picked clean.  Deciding to go back to the college and kill Bledsoe for playing him like a fool, he resolves to get any job immediately to find his revenge.  He is told to report to the liberty paint the next morning.

 

CHAPTER10: THE NARRATOR IS FIRED FROM LIBERTY PAINT

 

            The narrator’s entrance to the paint plant is uneventful as he must cross a bridge in the fog, implying that, he is unable to see out around him.  The narrator is sent to Mr. Kimbro who will serve as his boss.  This man dishes out instructions and also asks the workers not to ask questions.  The narrator’s first job is with the pure white paint the company is known for.  When the narrator mixes the wrong ingredient into the paint because he is afraid to ask Kimbro questions, the paint turns a dull grey underneath the white.  Kimbro notices the difference and he’s fired from the job and he’s sent to another Boss, Mr.Brockway, who has a position in the basement as a sort of engineer.  Brockway bombards the narrator with numerous questions about his past before he gives him a job. The narrator and Brockway get along enough for a while and their relationship ends when he runs into what he thinks is a union the meeting, where men who call one another brother stare at him suspiciously and ask the question whether they can trust him.  

Finally, they allow him to get to his locker, but could not return to his office early enough.  He explains to Brockway who explodes in anger at his participation in a union.  Brockway physically attacks him, refusing to listen to his explanation. The narrator becomes enraged and fights off Mr. Brockway, knocking his teeth out.  As a result of inattention to the gauges in the room, the pressure goes over the allotted mark, the narrator tries to pull the value back under control all to no avail.  The tank bursts and the narrator is knocked unconscious.

 

CHAPTER 11: THE NARRATOR EXPERIENCE ANOTHER SACK

 

             The narrator wakes up in the hospital to see the doctors examining him, and they will keep him under close observation for a few days.  The doctors take another x-ray as the narrator is still unable to disclose his name. His mind is completely blank.  The doctors argue over the better treatment; for one feels that surgery is the best, while others support his own machine which reforms lobotomies without surgery.  Finally, the doctors and a nurse release him from the tubes and machines and usher him into the director’s office without allowing him to ask questions.  Having been cured, the narrator is told that he can no longer work at the plant but will receive ample compensation.  Still feeling the effect of what Mr.  Norton and Bledsoe did to him, he begins to laugh but the director does not understand that.  The narrator leaves the paint plant completely out of his mind.

 

CHAPTER 12:  THE NARRATOR LEAVES WITH MARY RAMBO

 

             The narrator stumbles back toward the Men’s House and he fall on the street where he’s helped by a strong woman called Mary Rambo.  She implores him not to return to Men’s House until he is fully recovered because she feels that he needs a woman to take care of him.  She feeds him and inquires about his health.  She also urges the narrator to do something purposeful for the race and also admonishes him to watch out for corruption, and offers him a place to stay if ever he needs it.

           

 When he returns to the house feeling inferior, he realizes that he can no longer reside there.  The narrator later considers Mary’s offer.  This time, the narrator has lost his sense of meaning and direction, spent most of the time in his room thinking.  He bristles with irritation at her constant expectation that he will take up some leadership role in the black community.  The narrator begins to feel the desire for activism; within himself, he feels a “spot of black anger”.  His urge to deliver speeches returns during winter.

 

CHAPTER 13:  THE NARRATOR’S TALENT IS RECOGNIZED BY OTHERS

 

              Unable to endure his own thoughts and worries, the narrator rushes out into the street for a walk.  The narrator finds a man selling yams from a court. The moment the narrator bites into one, he feels homesick and he returns to buy two more yams.  Immediately, the narrator becomes involved in a dispute when he sees the eviction of an old black couple.  To avoid violence, the narrator gives an impromptu speech, which has a great impact on the crowd.  When many police arrive, and a riot looks imminent, the narrator escapes with the help of a white girl.

Soon afterward, a man approaches the narrator and suggests that they talk. 

Although quite suspicious the narrator meets with Brother Jack.

 

CHAPTER 14:  THE NARRATOR JOINS THE BROTHERHOOD

 

             Back to Mary’s apartment, the narrator keeps thinking of the job offer he turned down and how much money he owes Mary. The more he thinks about it, the greater his temptation to accept the job for the payback.  The narrator goes to a payphone and calls the number Brother Jack had given him.  He meets Brother Jack and several other men who pick him up in a car and takes him to a push party where everyone is well-dressed.

             Jack and the men offer to make the narrator the next Booker T. Washington, and the narrator can’t resist the opportunity to be prominent and well-known.  He agrees to join the Brotherhood and before then, the men decide to change his name and relocate him.  They give him enough money to repay Mary and to buy himself a few clothes.  he gets back to Mary’s apartment late that night and decides to leave early in the morning and just left the money on the table to avoid any emotional goodbye.

 

CHAPTER 15:  THE NARRATOR LEAVES MARY’S APARTMENT

 

             The narrator wakes early in the morning to the sound of people throughout the building banging on the steam pipes. The noise wakes Mary as well, and he is forced to give her the money face to face.  He tells her that he got it by playing the numbers, but does not reveal to her that he’s moving out.  When he leaves, he tries to dispose of the bank wrapped in newspaper, but a woman yells at him to come back and get it. Later, the narrator puts the newspaper-wrapped bank back in the briefcase and keeps walking.  He goes to buy a new suit and calls Brother Jack for his instructions.  Brother Jack gives him directions to his new apartment in the middle of a white, Irish neighborhood, and at his new apartment, he spends the day reading the community literature left there for him in preparation for a rally that night.

 

CHAPTER 16:  THE INVISIBLE MAN’S SPEECH APPEALS TO EMOTION

 

             At the rally that night, the narrator is the last to speak and though he’s timid, he is inspired by the energy of the crowd.  Words flow out of his mouth and the crowd loves him. He gets them riled up, but when he and the other speakers leave the arena, he learns that most of the other speakers disapproved of his speech because it appealed to emotion than intellect. They explain to him that intellectual is their style.  Brother Jack disagrees with them, but he makes plans to have Brother Hambro trained the narrator for the next few months.  The narrator is proud of his speech and the crowd’s reaction to it but he begins to question something he said in his own speech about becoming more human.  He agrees to study with Hambro so that he can pursue his own ideas when he’s done with his communist training.

 

CHAPTER 17:  THE NARRATOR TO BE TRAINED BY BROTHER HAMBRO

 

             Four months after his first speech, Brother Jack finally calls the narrator back to action, This time, the narrator is beginning to get his life back and the narrator admits it when he says “I had seen very little of Brother Jack after beginning my studies with brother Hambro “My life had been too tightly organized (330).  At midnight, Brother Jack calls him and they go to a bar in Harlem where the narrator or will now become the new spokesman in the Harlem where the narrator or will now become the new spokesman in the Harlem district.  At the new office the next day, the narrator is introduced to his associate, and among them is Brother Clifton, a handsome and charismatic young man.  The first plan of action is to gab political position or get the city leaders to back the communist group in Harlem on the issue of evictions. The communist group also decides to hold rallies on Harlem Street the way that Ras the Exporter, a Black Nationalist does.

             At the rally, Ras’ gang of thugs picks a fight with the Brothers.  As Ras and Clifton fight.  Ras pulls a knife but can’t stab Clifton; instead he begs Clifton and the narrator to join the Nationalist group.  He wants them to separate from the enslaving white man who is just using them.  Clifton and the narrator refuse to listen to his crazy ranting and they leave.  As time passes, the narrator’s new name and his position with the Brotherhood make him well know.  He is a leader of Harlem and he’s glad for his place in the Brotherhood.

 

CHAPTER 18:  ACCUSATION IS LEVELED AGAINST THE NARRATOR

 

              The narrator receives an anonymous note warning him to slow down or the very people who supported him would be the ones to cut him down.  “This is advice from a friend who has been watching, you closely. Do not go too fast.  Keep working for the people but remember that you are one of us and do not forget if you get too big they will cut you down.  You are from the south and you know that this is a white man’s world”  (345).  The note reveals his true identity, but the narrator ignores it.  A few weeks later, the narrator goes to a meeting where one of the black Brothers accuses him of using the Brotherhood to make himself important and attempting to become a tyrant by controlling the Harlem district.

             However, the narrator is shocked and disappointed when the Brotherhood decides to investigate the ludicrous allegations.  They ask him also to work on the issue of women’s rights in a different part of the city or just step down from his position altogether. The narrator then chooses to leave Harlem until the investigation clears him of the accusations leveled against him.

 

CHAPTER 19: THE NARRATOR IS SEDUCED BY A WHITE WOMAN

 

             After the lecture on woman’s rights, a white woman invites the narrator back to her home to discuss the Brotherhood ideology over coffee.  She seduces him, and her husband comes home in the middle of the night.  As the narrator lies in bed with a sleeping married woman, her husband opens the door to her darkened bedroom and walks in to tell her to wake him early in the morning.  He never acknowledges seeing the narrator there, and the narrator isn’t certain that the man saw him, but rather than waiting around to find out, the narrator leaves.  He spends the next few days waiting for a call from the Brotherhood to reprimand him for sleeping with one of the wives of a brother, but when the call comes in the middle of the night, it’s not about his affair.  Brother Clifton is missing and Ras the Extort er is taking over Harlem, so the narrator is then sent back to the district.

 

CHAPTER 20:  THE NARRATOR IS BOTHERED ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING TO HIM

 

            The narrator returns to Harlem to discover that things are now being done differently. The people of Harlem no longer trust the Brotherhood, because they feel that it has stopped working for them.  Many of the narrator’s co-workers in the district are gone and to further worsen the isolation, he’s not called to participate in the Brotherhood strategy meeting.   He takes a walk because he is so bothered by what’s happening in the Brotherhood and Harlem, and as he walks, he sees Clifton walking as a street merchant selling dancing paper, Sambo dolls.  Shocked and hurt to see a promising Brother now defiling the race by selling such a degrading product, the narrator sees Clifton run away when the police head in his direction.  A few minutes later, he sees the cop pushing Clifton in front of him as they walk down the sidewalk. Clifton hints at the cop and the cop shoots him. The narrator stands on the curb and watches Clifton die. When the narrator makes his way back to the district, he looks around him and sees the people of Harlem.  He looks at them and their living conditions and realizes that none of his speeches ever improves their lives.  He sees that all the people around him are just unknown individuals whom history will ignore when they are gone “All our work had been very little, no great change had been made.  And it was all my fault.  I’d been so fascinated by the motion that I’d forgotten to measure what it was bringing forth”, (410)  the narrator opines.

 

CHAPTER 21:  THE NARRATOR ORGANIZES A FUNERAL PROCESSION FOR CLIFTON

 

     The narrator organizes a public funeral service for Clifton without the permission of the Brotherhood because no one will return his call or contact him.   Hundreds of people show up for the funeral procession to the cemetery.  When the young man stands to speak at the funeral, he knows that the people are waiting for him to get stirred up, but he cannot make the eulogy a political statement.  The narrator gives a brief background of the life and times of Clifton. “His name was Tod Clifton and were full of illusions. He was shot for a simple mistake of judgment and bled and his blood dried and shortly the crowd trampled the stains.  It was a normal mistake of which many are guilty. He thought he was a man and that men were not meant to be pushed around… Now he’s part of history and he has received his true freedom.  Didn’t they scribble his name on a standardized pad?  His race… colored, Religion, unknown, probably born Baptist.  Next of kin.  Cause of death resisting arresting officer” (422).  Such is the short bitter life of Brother Tod Clifton.  The narrator admonishes the sympathizers to cheer up. So in the name of Brother Clifton, beware of the triggers go home, keep cool, stay away from the sun.  “Forget him, when he was a life he was our hope, but why worry over a hop that’s dead… His name was Tod Clifton, he believes in the Brotherhood, he aroused our hopes and he died” (424) the narrator submits.

 

CHAPTER 22:  MEMBERS OF THE BROTHERHOOD LAMBAST (BLAME) THE NARRATOR FOR HONORING TOD CLIFTON’S DEATH

 

             The narrator returns to the district office after Tod Clifton’s funeral to find the leading committee of the Brotherhood waiting for him.  They are angry that the narrator gave Clifton a hero’s funeral because they consider him a traitor for selling the Sambo dolls.  The narrator tries to explain that the focus is on the fact that Clifton was gunned down for a slight offense.  He tells the committee members that the people of Harlem are ready to act and waiting for the Brotherhood to lead them despite the fact that the Brotherhood let them down before their orders before he acted because it shows lack of discipline of which the Brotherhood disapproves of.  Brother Tobbit, a white member of the Brotherhood verbally lashes out at the narrator for claiming to know the minds of the people of Harlem. 

Tobbit insists that he is more in touch with the black community than the narrator because his own wife is black.  The two men argue and as their argument escalates, Brother Jack gets so angry that his glass eye shoots out of his head and scares the narrator.  Brother Jack explains how he lost his eye for the cause, for the Brotherhood, and he tries to intimidate the narrator into seeing that discipline is sacrifice.  When the narrator is properly subdued, the committee members leave after giving him orders to see Brother Hambro for new instructions Brother Jack tells the narrator that he knows how he feels, but the narrator doesn’t believe him.  The young man thinks that Brother Jack’s good eye is just as blind and his glass eye.  The narrator suddenly ..ants to extract himself from the Brotherhood, but he knows that if he does, then he returns to being a nobody; an invisible man.

 

CHAPTER 23:  THE NARRATOR DISGUISES HIMSELF

 

             The narrator decides to see Hambro that night, but on the way to visit with his communist instructor, Ras, the Extort er is rallying to call the people together to act out against the senseless death of Tod Clifton.  Ras calls out the narrator in front of the crowd and ask what the Brotherhood is going to do about Clifton’s death.  The narrator avoids the question and leaves as quickly as he can, but Ras’henchmen follows him.  In front of a movie theater, the men start beating the narrator, but the doorman of the theater stops them. The narrator then buys dark glasses and a hat to disguise himself from Ras’ goons.  New set-up people begin to mistake him for a certain man, named, Rineheart.  Intrigued by several encounters with people who mistake him for this man, he sets out to discover Rineheart’s identity and learns that he is a bookie, a gambler, and a preacher.  He is a con artist; he fools the people of Harlem.

            The narrator sees Hambro and learns that the Brotherhood is sacrificing the people of Harlem’s needs in order to pursue the greater good of the organization.  The young man is surprised and disappointed, but he begins to want to revenge against those who want to sacrifice him and the people who trusted him.  He sees that his grandfather and Dr. Bledsoe were right.

The narrator learns that the black man is invisible and the only thing that he’s wanted or needed for is “Yassah”

 

CHAPTER 24: THE NARRATOR LAUNCHES A CLEAN-UP CAMPAIGN

 

             The following day, watching the Harlem community falling apart the narrator initiates his plan, thereby informing the Brotherhood members whatever he thinks they want to hear.  That afternoon, he tests the effectiveness of his tactics by announcing that his group has launched a clean-up campaign in Harlem to get the people’s minds of Brother Clifton’s death.  He turns in a fake list of new members amazed at how easily the Brotherhood accepts lies.  Giving up on his plan to obtain information about the Brotherhood, the narrator woos Sybil, the wife of a Brotherhood member, instead.  But while he thinks he is asking Sybil to meet his needs, she uses him to fulfill her sexual fantasy, being raped by a black man.  The narrator attempts to have an affair with Sybil.  George’s sexually frustrated wife, illustrated an uneasy, relationship between black men and white women. Sybil, the forbidden fruit represents the taboo of the white female symbolized by several of the white in the novel.  Following their abortive attempt to have an affair, the narrator puts Sybil in a cab and takes a bus back to Harlem.

             A riot erupts in Harlem.  The narrator encounters a group of looters who give conflicting stories about what caused the initial outbreak.  One mentions a young man everyone is mad about, obviously referring to Clifton.

 

CHAPTER 25: THE NARRATOR TAKES REFUGE IN UNDERGROUND

 

             When the narrator makes it to Harlem, he has heard gunshots, shouts, and breaking glass all around him.  A bullet grazes his head as police chase men who are running down the street with a safe.  A man later identified as Scofield stops to help the narrator and discovers that the bullet only “knocked” his head.  The narrators’ briefcase, apparently misplaced in the melee, is returned to him.  Seeing that one of the men carrying the safe has been killed, the startled narrator realizes his wound could have been fatal. Scofield urges the narrator to go with him and they meet up with Scofield’s friend.  Dupre, Scofield suggests that the narrator has loot in his briefcase, but the narrator replies,  “not mub” correcting his misconception.  Ras has called his followers to Iynach the narrator as a traitor to the black people and to hang him among the mannequins.  But Ras yearns for the narrator’s death, and the narrator runs away.  He escapes only to encounter two police officers in the street, who asks to see the content of his briefcase.  He runs and falls through an open manhole into a lump of coal back in place, trapping him underground.

            The narrator then burns the items in his briefcase one after the other in order to provide himself lightly.  These include his High school Diploma and Clifton’s doll.  He finds the slip of paper on which Jack has written his new Brotherhood name and also comes across the anonymous threatening letter. As the paper burns to ashes, he realizes that the handwriting on both is identical.  He sleeps and dreams of Jack.  Emerson, Bledsoe, Norton and Ras.  The men mock him, castigate him, and declare that they have stripped him of his illusion.  He wakes with their cries of anguish and fury ringing in his ear.  He decides to stay underground and affirms, “And now I realized that I couldn’t return to Mary’s or to any part of my old life.  I could approach it only from the outside, and I had been as invisible to Mary as I had been to the Brotherhood. No, I  couldn’t return to Mary’s or to the campus, or to the Brotherhood, or home.  I could only move ahead or stay here, underground.  I would take up residence underground. The end was the beginning” (527).

 

EPILOGUE

 

            This is the concluding part of the novel which reveals the narrator’s stay in underground.  He has attempted to look through himself, and he understands that he has spent his life justifying and vindicating the desires of others.  He is truly invisible as no one ever wanted to know what he calls himself.  “I have also been called one thing and then answer while no one really wished to hear what I called myself.  So after years of Lying to adopt the opinions of others.  I finally rebelled.  I am an invisible man” (529) the narrator reveals.  His thoughts usually return to his grandfather, questioning those last words but unable to grasp a satisfactory meaning.  He knows now what he really wants but cannot act on his will.  His soul is sick, he blames no one, He is merely looking for the next step, feeling that he has come to understand his place in a world bent on attempting conformity.

             The narrator also reveals how he had seen Mr. Norton in the subway and could not recognize the narrator.  Norton escaped onto another train, leaving the narrator depressed.  He muses on his purpose in writing this all down and explains that he has learned something.  He has been hurt horribly but refuses to lose his life, so he approaches it with hate and love.  He hopes to become a little bit of a human as his grandfather. He has beaten everything except his mind and resolves to end his hibernation and accept his social role “I’m shaking off the old skin and I’ll leave it here in the hole. I’m coming out, no less invisible without it, but coming out nevertheless… who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?”  (536) the narrator ends the narrative with rhetorical question.