Brotherhood in Invisible Man Essay

Commentary: 513-581

The narrator reaches a pivotal point in his life when he realizes the true goals of the brotherhood. He will no longer let himself be a pawn in their grand scheme, blind to their intentions. The narrator feels that he has betrayed his people by allowing himself to be swindled for so long and in a way, his grandfathers words have indeed come back to haunt him. By following his grandfathers instructions and attempting to deceive the brotherhood for his own gains, he has fallen right into their trap and played a part in their grand scheme to destroy New York Citys black community. The narrator returns to Harlem after his encounter with the wife of a member of the brotherhood who he thought that he could use to gain information about the brotherhoods plans, but all she wants him to do is to play the aggressive and savage black man in her sick rape fantasy. When the narrator returns to Harlem, one gets the impression that the burro is burning to the ground when the narrator runs into Ras the Destroyer inside a burning, looted building. There are a bunch of lynched mannequins dangling from the ceiling and Ras wants to hang the narrator as well for his treachery, and though his anger with the narrator is justified, he would still only be forwarding the brotherhoods scheme of black on black annihilation.

After narrowly escaping Ras by spearing him in the face, the narrator falls down into a manhole and the cops simply cover the top, leaving him trapped underground. The only way for him to get light is for him to burn all the contents of his briefcase one by one, including the paper with his brotherhood name on it, his diploma, and Cliftonss sambo doll. This part seems to be symbolic for him burning up the stereotypes and the burdens of his past, allowing the narrator to free himself and become closer to achieving his identity.

Similarly to the dilemma that Baldwin faced concerning writing about racial issues, Ellison wonders why he has bothered write his story down . He feels that he has failed because the story has not accomplished what he originally intended it to in venting his anger and frustration, but it has rather helped to quell it. While underground the narrator reflects that the end was in the beginning. This is alluding to the fact that both the beginning and end of the novel end with the narrator underground in a sense. The narrator learns that he may be invisible, but he is not blind and that our human fate is one and yet many alluding to integrationist ideals which profess that like it or not we all must come together and learn to live in peace because, like it or not, we depend on each other.